πI'm Mac, CEO of WebWave, a growth hacker and basketball player. Ask me anything! ππππ₯
Maciej Czajkowski
83 replies
Hey, PH community!
I'm Mac, a full-time CEO :). In my free time, you can catch me playing basketball and sailing. I used to travel the world, but since Iβve got two small kids itβs much harder now to pack all stuff into a small backpack ;)
Before I founded WebWave, I was a software developer and created websites for clients as a side hustle. I was ace with code, but lacked the imagination and creativity to design great websites. It helped me to realize engineers only slow the process. So I started creating a tool for designers so that they could make websites in a friendly and familiar environment.
Since then, we have bootstrapped WebWave to over 500,000 users and 30 employees and now got #1 Product of a week on Product Hunt!
Our superpower is that WebWave looks and feels more like a graphic design tool, Figma, Canva, or Photoshop, rather than other website builders.
More here:
https://www.producthunt.com/posts/webwave
And now, let's chat about all the things around bootstrapping and managing the company, the SASS market, developer experience, UX and UI, web design, productivity, community building, and beyond.
I am here to answer any and all of your questions in the next 48 hours. So fire away!
Replies
Michele Pomposo@michelepomposo
Tiledesk
@mac_czaj amazing journey so far! how did you get to product-market fit?
Share
WebWave
@michelepomposo First, we had a great product designer with lots and lots of experience in designing websites for clients. He was the brain behind how the product works. After we created MVP, we just sat together with a client and watched how they used it. And we improved all the things that they had problems with. It took us a long time, nearly 2 years to improve the product enough so that we really got some traction. So my advice here, is watch what your customers do and how they use your product, and iterate. And be patient. Remember, that building a product is not a task for 3 months. It takes years, so be ready both mentally and financially for such a long time.
Tiledesk
WebWave
@michelepomposo Could you please elaborate on the acronym ICP?
Tiledesk
WebWave
@michelepomposo In our core markets our ICP is small business, who wants to create their own business website to display their offerings, their experience, build their credibility online. One important thing is that this small business owner needs to have a pretty clear understanding of how he wants his website to look like, and does not settle just to pick a template a make minor changes.
In global markets we're targeting more graphic designers, freelancers, and small agencies, who create websites for themselves or their clients. This is not the same customer, but their needs are very close one to each other.
I have no idea how to develop a software. But I'd love to run a software business. Any tips?
WebWave
@hyzhenry Sure, it's even better this way. A lot of developers start their own tech companies because they can do the initial work themselves. But after a year of r two it turns out, that a good developer, who wanted to start a company has no time anymore to write code, and all his valuable skills are wasted. Instead he has to do marketing, talk with clients, make sure that you will not run out of money. He's doing all the things he has no idea about. And this is really hard transition for developers, trust me. I'm one of them. If you can afford to hire a developer to do that work for you, you'll be much better off in the long run. Take care of the business side of your company, and let developers do their work.
Hi Maciej,
I noticed WebWave's growth in the last months. My background is in bootstrapped SaaS startups, so I applaud your rise, I know how difficult the path is.
My question is regarding your product positioning. You mentioned you started when there was no alternatives, now there are a ton of competitors out there. How are you differenting WebWave?
WebWave
@andrej_persolja That's true. There is a lot of competition out there at the moment. But available website builders are either simple tools, that lets you pick a template and change a photo or two, or tools that are basically built for developers to make coding a little easier (like Webflow, or Elementor). But if you're a small entrepreneur, and you've got an idea of how your website should look like, neither of this is for you, because you will not be able to easily recreate your design with those tools. That's why professional graphic designers use Figma to create mockups, because they can move objects around, iterate very quickly with lots and lots of ideas, work with layers etc. It's just a natural way of working for a creative person. After they're done, they recreate those mockups as websites using other tools.
And here comes WebWave. It's Figma, or Canva, or Photoshop, but after you're done creating your mockup, you can just click one button and your website is online. You can move objects around anywhere on the canvas, and there's no invisible table you have to fit it. You can work in a friendly and easy environment of a graphic design program, and you can launch your website live with just one click instead of launching other tool are doing the same work again.
WebWave
@andrej_persolja WebWave is best for people, who want to create a website with just the graphics design they wanted. Those are creatives indeed, but also people who just want to stand out, or have an idea of how they would like their website to look like. People, who do not settle for just picking a template and changing it a little. With WebWave you can create a website from scratch, and if you start with a template, you can customize it as much as you need and want.
Ideally, if they have any experience with graphic design tools like Figma or Canva, then getting to know WebWave and understanding how it works is much easier.
Hi Mac, quick question, how do you get as many users as possible for your beta app? And at the same time, what's the best way to market the app?
Thanks.
WebWave
@yashank_goswami1 We started locally in Poland. It took us a couple of years to reach product market fit. Because we were very low on cash, we had to do side projects, like software development for 3rd party companies, just to keep us afloat. But we finally reached break even. So we scaled to Romania. When we reached break even there we're now going global. And here we've started with AppSumo campaign. And now we're here on product hunt. We're also doing a lot of seo.
Can we create complex menus in Webwave? For example, something like this example site has? (https://www.webfx.com/)
WebWave
@vivekghildiyal short answer is yes
And long answer is you are able to create a simple menu with native menu element. And if you'd like to create complex elements, that are displayed after clicking an object on a website, that are using the entire screen size etc, you can use more advanced features like interactions, and dynamic positioning. You need to be creative here, but it is possible. Here's some videos on how those advanced features work: https://youtu.be/rI4JL1zSAyY and https://youtu.be/RQAA-GB0bVw
WebWave
@vivekghildiyal Sure. Let me know what you think and if you find them helpful. And if there's something you think we should improve in those videos, or in WebWave itself, let me know.
Are you ChatGPT? π
How did you find your first 100 users?
WebWave
@brennen_barney It was like 8 years ago when we launched public, so I don't think that advices from that period are still relevant. But I can tell you how we've found our first 100 users from a global market, which is what we're doing right now. I used Quora and other social media a lot to ask questions, present this tool to various people and get feedback. Because I think, that your goal in the beginning should not be getting users, but getting feedback. After you get positive feedback only then it's time to ask for money.
WebWave
@nok_moe What comes over and over again in many conversations with our customers is the product itself, and that it's just different to what competition is offering. And the second factor is customer support. This is something very hard to build and maintain, but it's super important, especially in the beginning. Customer support not only helps our customers create effects, that they want at the moment. They are also responsible for gathering feedback and transferring that feedback to our product development team, so that we know what is expected. So maintain great contact with customers, and talking to them in many different ways, is in my mind most important.
did you gotomarket with a product led growth strategy? if so, how long did it take to start producing results?
WebWave
@highgroundio When we first went to market, it was some 8 years ago on our domestic Polish market. I had literally no idea about what marketing is, but I had lots of lack, because the timing was perfect, and it did start to sell a little, giving us confidence and some breathing space. But it took us some 4 more years to really take off and break even.
Videodeck
Huge congrats on the launch, Mac! I'm curious, what are your goals with WebWave for the next 5 years and what are you planning to do to achieve them?
WebWave
@heleana In 5 years time, I'd love the web design industry to be run solely by graphic designers and marketeers, who are able to create websites without any interruptions from tech people at all. This will make the process much easier, less expensive, and websites created this way will be much more user-friendly, more affordable and better overall. Tech people and developers will be able to focus on writing code for all the applications and software that is taking over more and more repetitive tasks.
And the way, that we achieved our goals so far, and will continue to do so in the future, is by making millions of small steps. We do not look for any silver bullets. We haven't ever tried to win lottery tickets. Instead, we're just improving our tool bit by bit, and every week we're launching new features. And those small steps accumulate over time, and WebWave looks totally different right now, than a year ago for instance.
What plans do you have with Webwave in terms of third-party integrations? How about for freelancers and agencies?
WebWave
@webxdesigner You can integrate a lot of plugins to your website created with WebWave by just adding a 3rd party html, css, js code to your website. This gives you lots of integration possibilities.
One thing that's not possible right now is integrating you online store with some shipping companies, or invoicing, or dropshipping. We're working at the very moment to improve our ecommerce so that it is much more versatile.
What do you mean about freelances and agencies?
WebWave
@webxdesigner If you're asking about new features created solely for agencies, we are planning to redesign the whole webmaster panel with this kind of users in mind. We should be starting our design work around this feature by the end of next month, I think.
But we are constantly introducing other features. They are not tailored only for Agencies, but for everyone else as well. Every week something new is published, and agencies can make use of it.
Do you have a process to constant stay inspired and keep limiting beliefs at bay?
WebWave
@alwaysbelearnin This is a hard one. Thank you very much :)
I have always liked games, both board and computer ones. But I've always preferred strategic games, like Settlers or Sim City to shootouts. And running a company is just like playing a super complicated strategy game. A one with tones of rules. So I think, that if I was not running a company right now I'd be still playing those games, just because I like it.
And I think this is why I haven't ever had any problems with motivation. I don't even think about it this way. I just wake up and get to work, because that's something I like doing.
And my advice here is to figure out, what you like doing, and try doing that. That's not always possible, and more often than not means you should not be running your own company. This is a marathon, where not much can be faked. And don't feel bad about not being able to motivate yourself into doing something you don't like. I wouldn't be able to wake up every morning and work as a doctor, or a lawyer. Those are great jobs and I respect people, who are able to do that. But If I had to do that, that'd just be a 9 to 5 job for me, where all the time I think what interesting things I'd be able to do after I'm done here. And you cannot be a 9 to 5 entrepreneur.
Do you intend on creating a marketplace/community of third party contributors in Webwave such as theme builders, plugin developers etc?
WebWave
@alwaysbelearnin Yes, we are going to do that globally. We are from Poland, and we do have this community of 3rd party contributors here up and running very well. People are affiliating for WebWave, creating templates that are sold withing the app, and are applying to become WebWave experts. And of course, people are using WebWave to create websites for their customers. This is a full time job for some already here. And once we're well established globally, we will be rolling that out globally as well.
Would you like to become one of our 3rd party contributors?
FAM - Social Finance
Hey Mac, congratulations! What did you find to be the best channel for acquiring your first users?
WebWave
@fam_socialfinance Definitely it's social media and various communities. This is not really scalable, because it requires lots and lots of manual labor, but it gives you contact with customers, and you can get feedback and optimize your offering and your marketing strategy accordingly. Only once you've got enough positive feedback, and people are really starting voting with their wallets buying your product, you can move to PPC and scale.
Landings
How do you usually come up with new growth hacks? Or do you usually use well established playbooks?
WebWave
@nilans I think that if something is in a playbook, it's not a growth hack anymore :)
Growth hacks are one of a kind tricks, that gives you one time advantage, and get you a lot of attention. Ideas come all the time. The important thing is to write them down for later assessment. Because If I don't write them down immediately, they just go away. That's why I go to all meetings with a notebook and a pen, and after that meeting I go through my notes.
And I do not expect a single silver bullet growth hack to shoot us to the moon. I'm a fan of making a million small steps instead. So every small thing, every word changed on your website or every single new user counts for me.
For anyone interested today we launched WebWave AI, our new breakthrough feature!
Maciej,
I am hoping that in future you will find a backpack large enough :D
WebWave
@janusz_mirowski right now I'm rather filling my car full of all the baby carriage, bicycles, toy excavators and puzzles. I usually need to rent an additional roof rack :)
WebWave
@janusz_mirowski Yeah, one of those I've looked at in my early 20s with disgust. Right now my perspective has radically changed ;)
Hi Mac,
I like using the product but have noticed other products are integrating with figma easily.
Do you have any future plans to integrate with the figma eco sytem, or the ability to offer similar functions with wire frame/ moc up?
WebWave
@mattyt123 Our ultimate goal is to replace Figma in web design. We plan to make WebWave a tool, where you start from scratch, create all your wire frames / moc ups etc. just like you were working with Figma, and then instead of exporting your design to 3rd party tool you just click one button and your website is online ready to receive customers :)
Tips on MArketing and community building π
WebWave
@carmela_padasas First, be sure what you're selling and who your target group is. Second, polish your website and your story. Third, use social media to get some attention, and first feedback. Use that feedback to upgrade your story. Talk a lot with people from your target group, and if they don't want to talk to you yet, talk to people who have experience, and have built products before. They will help you fix some obvious mistakes in your product. And after you've got your story and your product right, and you think you know what you want to sell to people, go to AppSumo and verify if your ideas are right. The community there is really demanding, and unlike here on ProductHunt, they are voting with their money, and not with Upvotes. So they do think twice before buying something. After a successful Appsumo launch try here on Product Hunt.
WebWave
@mycelebs_elle Thank you very much. But we're still far away from the success we're planning for :)
1) You can create PWA with WebWave. It's available out of the box, and you just need to create a website for mobile devices, and people will be able to add it as an app to their mobile device.
2) I think luck is the secret ingredient in all businesses :)