Today is my 30th birthday. What a great opportunity to share a huge change in my life. I left my job as a platform engineer at Webflow! Let me tell you about what it was like to work there and what comes next.
1. Working at Webflow
If you haven't heard of Webflow, it's a fast-growing, well-funded, San Francisco-based company that lets you build websites with the power of code — without writing any. Agencies and marketers like using Webflow to make sophisticated marketing sites quickly.
Working there for the last couple of years was awesome. I got to collaborate with some of the most capable, honest and kind people I've ever met.
It all started with a friend's referral. Fun fact, that same friend also referred me to my last job. Hey Joe, can I buy you a beer sometime? (I wonder how else you would say "Thanks for my career!") Eight months later, I was at the interview, when the hiring manager asked me:
What's the worst song ever?
I froze. This is the most technically challenging interview question I've ever been asked. I'm still looking for the answer...
1.1 Culture
Some time later, I started working there and met the platform team. A group of ~10 wonderful people from all over the world. There, I learned my first Finnish word: "torille". Short from "torilla tavataan" , it means "to the market square". Whenever Finland is mentioned when they win a game, the Finns will gather at the square to celebrate. Our Finnish colleagues got mentioned a lot in the company chat because they would knock every feature you throw at them out of the park. Scary good engineers. They're also hilariously deadpan honest. I live in the UK, which is the total opposite, I'm used to things being said in a roundabout way. It was such a culture shock, but it felt great to know that there's no hidden meaning to decipher in a conversation. I remember a colleague describing their directness with an analogy, something along the lines of "you get steak and maybe a little bit of mayo, if you're lucky".
For the other side of the team, the culture was more centered on kindness. I liked both the direct and kind angles. It made for funny interaction opportunities you wouldn't get without such a diverse team. My favorite thing about the US culture is that almost nothing is too weird as long as it's respectful. It allowed people to be authentic.
The last (and first) time I saw them IRL was when we met on a team retreat in Toronto, Canada. This was the first time I set foot in North America. It felt surreal, like being in Grand Theft Auto, but everyone is nice. My highlights from Toronto:
- Giving a colleague's brand new M1 laptop a rinse by accidentally spilling a glass of water. It went into a restart loop and wouldn't work after 😅.
- Singing emo anthems with my team in a karaoke bar.
- Meeting Jon Q - the most organized person I know. He's on the design system team. We're big game development fans, I love when we geek out about Extra Credits and game design.
To everyone at Webflow: I'm grateful for the privilege to learn from you. There is a special place set aside for you in my heart, where I will cherish the moments we've shared.
1.2 Technology
Here are some of the things we worked on:
- A custom programming language that underpins the rendering and editing of elements and components. (We had a book club on compiler development! If that's something you're into: craftinginterpreters.com, nearley parser toolkit)
- The universal bindings system that powers the CMS and Ecommerce.
- Libraries.
The Webflow Designer (the tool you use to edit your site) is not like a CRUD app. You don't just make forms, read inputs and display data. Working on it feels like you write code that will write other code in the future. If you make a mistake, it gets persisted. To undo it, you have to write a migration to undo the corrupt state, like you would for a database.
You have to think about the result of your code, and the result of the result of your code. A "higher order function as a product", if you will.
Writing products like this requires an understanding of meta-programming and a lot of testing. It also has a significant educational overhead. Not everyone understands compilers and abstract syntax trees. If you want to work at Webflow, you need to know about them. This technology can be a competitive advantage, but it can also cause friction if you want to move quickly. You can't just hire your way out of a problem. New employees often need to be specially trained. Oh, and you also need to invest in tooling, because now you have a custom piece of technology that doesn't have supporting tools (such as a debugger). That acts as a multiplier on the productivity of every developer.
Webflow is like a game engine for websites.
If you want to imagine its future, look at Epic’s Unreal Engine. It's like a black hole - beyond its event horizon is an ever expanding collection of integrated tools, masquerading as a website editor.
2. What's next
An idea was taking up space in my mind. Every time I asked myself the question: "Would you regret not trying?", my answer was: "I would."
It's time for me to embark on an adventure. I'm leaving Webflow to become a founding engineer!
Introducing Yupty - find the live music you're missing. A platform where fans discover live music, artists find opportunities and venues host their events.
I have the privilege to collaborate on it with Doug Jagger. He's a professional musician who plays live shows every week, and knows the live music industry inside-out. With his experience in the music industry and mine from the technology sphere, we set out to bring new opportunities and efficiencies in the live music market. We’re also doing a 4-day work week!
We are self-funded and not looking for investment at the moment.
Why are you doing this?
To help fans create the memories of a lifetime, venues to manage the complexity of hosting live shows, and artists to find the opportunities they deserve.
In other words, because I love live music.
For now, I'll leave you with a photo of Doug and I at his studio. 
3. Summary
I'm becoming a full-time founding engineer at Yupty - find the live music you're missing.
Webflow was awesome to work at and Webflowers are really cool people.
What is the worst song ever? I finally have my answer: Imagine Dragons - Radioactive*.
*My girlfriend Sisi says this is bullshit, but I stand by my opinion.