EP 78: Vlad Magdalin (Co-Founder and CEO, Webflow): Finding Gratitude Amidst Business Chaos

Vlad Madgalin is the co-founder and CEO of Webflow, a platform with 3.5 million users that helps people develop websites and web applications. He shares Webflow’s journey as an integral player in the no-code movement, as well as why he's grateful for the opportunity to start this company in the United States.

Vlad tells many sincere stories including immigrating from Russia at age 9, starting Webflow four times before succeeding, going through a rollercoaster experience with YCombinator, and much more. 

Show Notes:

Inventing on Principle Talk: https://youtu.be/PUv66718DII?si=FQgWF4018HGpin7a

https://youtu.be/PUv66718DII?si=FQgWF4018HGpin7a

(0:00) Intro

(1:56) Essentialism

(6:01) No one is a natural great manager

(15:01) The Freedman Doctrine

(22:42) Distinction between behavior and core values

(26:23) Two sides to any coin

(32:31) Choosing who to do business with

(38:31) Working remote

(44:57) Early days of Webflow

(57:07) Looking for silver bullets but finding lead bullets

(1:05:57) The YC interview and walking out of Oblivion

(1:10:01) Joining YC

(1:14:57) From Skype calls to brand ambassadors

(1:24:02) Product roadmap and development

(1:27:24) Graduation vs churn

(1:37:10) Taking your time raising money

(1:24:17) Big product market fit

(1:44:59) Pros and cons of venture capital

(1:52:10) Not a zero sum

(1:57:01) B2C versus B2B

(2:04:22) Immigrating from Russia

(2:11:24) Influence of Pixar

(2:15:07) Favorite interview question

Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky

Produced: Rashad Assir

Executive Producer: Josh Machiz

Music: Griff Lawson

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About the Show

Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.

Executive Producer: Rashad Assir

Producer: Leah Clapper

Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky

Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA

🎙 Listen to the show

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-logan-bartlett-show/id1606770839

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb4br3LlyVrdqOYYb?si=3076e6c1b5c94d63&nd=1

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9zb0hJZkhWbg

🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1

Follow on Socials

📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow

🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow

🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow

About the Show

Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.