Interview with Chris & Ryan Campell & Kevin Hale of Wufoo
|
|
“Wufoo”:http://www.wufoo.com is an Internet application that helps anybody build amazing online forms. When you design a form with Wufoo, it automatically builds the database, backend and scripts needed to make collecting and understanding your data easy, fast and fun. Because we host everything, all you need is a browser, an Internet connection and a few minutes to build a form and start using it right away.
Chris Campbell is obsessed with customer evangelism, word of mouth, and marketing in general. He also handles a lot of the back end PHP programming. Kevin Hale is responsible for safe guarding the user experience of Wufoo’s application and designing every pixel of Wufoo’s interface. And as much as Kevin likes keeping things clean and reliable, he loves adding features. Ryan Campbell handles a most of the database, JavaScript, and programming dirty work. Ryan’s dislikes include large insects, large food portions and large jelly beans. |
How did you approach Y Combinator for seed funding?
We had actually planned on starting a web application before YCombinator came into the picture, and we were going to fund it from our pdf magazine, Treehouse. We didn’t really give YCombinator any serious thought until Kevin attended Paul Graham’s Startup School and saw what an awesome opportunity it would be. After we decided YCombinator was worth perusing, we sent in an application just like everybody else in hopes of an interview. After we were lucky enough to score an interview, we flew up to Boston, told them about our ideas, and we were accepted later that night. If anybody reading this is considering applying to YCombinator, I can’t stress the importance of a demo, or at least some previous experience that shows you’re driven and competent.
What helps you continue to come up with innovative ideas to expand the functionality of Wufoo?
Many of the features that we’ve implemented stem from our previous form building experiences. Prior to creating Infinity Box Inc. and Wufoo, the three of us all held web development jobs where creating tedious forms was the norm. We knew the basic features that our clients and co-workers consistently looked for, so we started off with those core features. Now that our core product is stabilizing, and the basic features are in there, we’re looking at which features have been highly requested by our customers over the past six months.
That being said, some of the current and future features also come from good ol’ brainstorming and daydreaming. Kevin, in particular spends a lot of time (sometimes too much) researching ground breaking technology and new ideas. The web is moving entirely too fast, and it’s important to continually innovate rather than only relying on what has already been done.
How have you created the buzz around the product? Did you contact journalists directly or just let the site speak for itself?
Prior to releasing even an alpha version of Wufoo, we told the world about what we were up to by showing a demo of Wufoo’s form building interface. The demo didn’t really do anything besides demonstrate what could be accomplished with a great designer and javascript programmer. The demo landed on the front pagees of “Digg”:http://digg.com and “Del.icio.us”:http://del.icio.us, and we had thousands of people wanting to know more about Wufoo before there even was a Wufoo.
The demo in itself kept some nice buzz going up until our launch, when we did contact some writers in order to let them know who we were and that Wufoo was launching soon. That being said, we never blatantly asked for reviews to be written since we believe word of mouth needs to be genuine, and that you need to rethink your idea if your product isn’t worth talking about. We’re also very lucky to know people like Paul Graham and the members of the 9rules network who helped us in spreading the word during the initial launch.
Bonus: When I worked as a web designer, I had a dream in code…that’s when I decided to quit that job. Do you guys ever have dreams like that? And does it inspire you to continue your work or does it freak you out?
We’ve all had dreams about code, but Ryan has actually had a dream where he was a form and people kept trying to fill him out. The code dreams are pretty normal (although not relaxing in any way) since you sometimes dream about what you’re thinking about before falling asleep. But the form dream is just weird, and we continually question Ryan’s sanity.
Copyright © 2007 by Sonia Aggarwal