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Wix.com: the secrets of external funding and easy interactive online presence
So far, Wix.com has received $8.5 million external funding for its user friendly online service, which allows non-technical people to build interactive Flash animations. In this interview, we talk to Allon Bloch, Co-CEO of Wix. Mr. Bloch joined the Wix in February 2008 and is responsible for providing the strategic direction and driving overall business growth. Prior to joining Wix, Mr. Bloch was a General Partner at JVP, a $700 million venture firm, where he led all media investments. He also previously served as a consultant at McKinsey & Company.
Q1: When did you start working on Wix.com, and how many people work in the company now?
Wix is an Israeli- and NYC-based company that started two years ago. We have approximately 30 employees in both Tel Aviv and Manhattan. The founders of the company had a vision to create an online application that allows anyone to easily create any kind of Flash web site and content -- that is template free -- without the need to know code.
Q2: How would you explain the benefits of your service to an audience of small business owners and people planning to start their own business?
About 40% of our users are small businesses. I think what attracts small business owners to Wix is the fact that they can have a web presence that matches that of their larger competitors. And they can do it much much cheaper.
Wix is also the first Flash website platform that allows search engines to easily crawl through, facilitating the same Search Engine Optimization that can be achieved with HTML sites. SEO is a huge benefit for small businesses.
Finally, it's not only about making the site – it's about maintaining it as well. With Wix, when you want to make a change to your site you don't need to call a designer or a coder, you simply go into your Wix site, make any changes (e.g., add a new employee background, promote an upcoming business event) press enter and re-publish your site with the changes.
Q3: Does Wix.com require knowledge of design, programming and web technology?
Absolutely not. The beauty of Wix is that you do not need to be a programmer or know code to build a stunning web site – that is not based on staid templates. We also designed the application be very intuitive, and early reviews from users and the media have proven that our application is easy, and fun, to use.
Q4: Another thing that will be interesting to our readers is your success in securing external funding. What did that involve? What is most important thing -- the idea, its execution, the business plan, day-to-day perseverance, or is something else?
It's difficult to answer this question, as there is no silver bullet for this. I was previously a VC and invested many tens of millions in nascent businesses, and there wasn't a single reason to funding the business, it's the whole package.
To get funding in today’s chaotic marketplace, you need a solid business plan, a path to profitability, and most important, a distinct offering that users want. For example, we have been in open beta since late June, and we already have hundreds of thousands of active users. On average, we have 1,500 new web sites and 600 new widgets created daily. These great stats underscore a larger trend in DIY web design.
Of course we just launched the premium, and we haven't proven out our model, but we were lucky in that we had investors that believed that we can build a real business around this offering.
Q5: What are your plans for growth?
We plan to continue to invest in the product while driving our marketing activities in areas where we build revenues streams. We've launched our premium offering that allows small businesses to build a Wix site, connect it to their own domain and have it advertising free (Wix hosts the site). So this is a big part of our strategy. We also plan to create a marketplace for designers so that users can buy specific digital content like clip art or templates if they'd like.
Q5: Finally, what are your recommendations to people who wish to create an interactive online presence for themselves and grow their business?
Creating a web site is pretty much a must today. You need a web presence, but you want to make it look attractive and professional, and you want to get the site high on the relevant Google search ranking so that you can drive traffic to the site. I don't have on specific recommendation, except to think of the whole package of the site you're launching and how to make it appealing to current and perspective customers.
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