"I started freelancing while I was trying to get my first startup off the ground to pay for servers and living expenses. At the time, the only thing I knew how to do was graphic design." Vlad Magdalin's journey from freelancer to founder of a $4B company.

The Freelance Foundation

Vlad started advertising himself as a graphic designer and found some clients. Many were connections from the print shop where he used to work. He slowly worked his way up to clients who wanted websites.

"I picked up a book on Dreamweaver to learn how to build websites. One thing led to another and I started building more complex projects. Unfortunately, I didn't get paid much — most of my clients were hardline negotiators and I took whatever price they named."

The Dentist Who Changed Everything

"I got lucky to land a dentist who was the first one to tell me I wasn't valuing my work. That's when I began a real freelance career." That dentist introduced Vlad to other dentists, and freelance work became his life.

The biggest challenge was the feast-or-famine cycle. Either too many clients at once, or no work at all. This inconsistency led Vlad to get a full-time job while continuing to work with his brother Sergie on side projects.

Building Webflow

The company started as "Webflow LLC" - initially just a legal entity to protect assets. As Vlad and Sergie worked together on client projects, a pattern emerged: Vlad would set up WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal, while Sergie did the creative design work.

"Translating design into code became really tedious. We asked ourselves how we could allow Sergie to use his creativity and automate the implementation work I was doing."

The solution became obvious: build a tool that could benefit all designers facing this same problem. They quit their jobs, secured funding (after many rejections), and built Webflow.

The Cheat Code

"Our experience as freelancers and building websites was paramount to understanding what was important to build into the product. It was almost like a cheat code — we didn't need to do a lot of customer validation because we were the customers we were building for."

Today, Webflow powers millions of websites and is valued at over $4 billion.