Building a website can be really frustrating, can’t it? When I built my first site from scratch, I remember hours of frustration in trying to design a page just the way I wanted it. Learning code and the software was twice the challenge. Man, I wish there had been an easier way.
Well, today there’s a much simpler way. It’s called Jibr. Jibr is a drag and drop website building app available through your browser that makes creating the site for your startup supremely easy. Not only are you able to build professional sites with Jibr themes, but Jibr also hosts your domain and includes email addresses and storage space as part of your account.
For any startup wanting to create a web presence quickly and simply, Jibr is the way to go. Not only that, Jibr’s customer service is tried and true.
We had chance to speak to Jibr founder Paul Schoenmakers recently and here’s what he shared with us:
How do you see Jibr making an impact in user page building?
A few years ago we started with a Free Website Builder (Webklik) in our home country The Netherlands.
Webklik soon became the country’s number one website builder and has to date helped almost 430,000 users get started with their very own web page. We’ve seen a massive growth over the last few years which gave us confidence in our long term goal: helping businesses build their presence online.
Once we noticed that people were really engaging with our product and building great websites, it was clear we had to take it one step further by building a platform that could offer even more functionality to a much larger group of users. So our small team of talented developers went back to the drawing board and set to work on a brand new, state-of-the-art web builder: Jibr.com
Our belief is that every small business owner should be able to afford a professional website.
Of course their is quite a lot of competition in this particular market, but a website is like a commodity. Every small Business Owner needs to have a website and can’t afford not having one. For us it’s about providing them with the most easy website builder and giving them support to be successful online.
What previous business experience do you have that you feel has directly impacted what your vision is for Jibr?
When we first started working on Jibr we didn’t realize enough what it is that makes us happy to do our work everyday. We believed most of it was all about becoming the largest international Freemium website builder. So our initial goal was to launch as a Freemium product and attract these millions of users. But just a couple of weeks before our launch we got to rethink this vision.
What is it that we like to do the most?
For us, customer support is the single most important thing and we really love to provide a great service. That’s the moment our vision became much clearer – we didn’t need millions of free users to love what we do. We would be happier if we could continue delivering the great experience to all of our customers like the way we do now.
If someone needs help to get something working on their website we will do everything we can to get this done. Some people believe this is time consuming, but for us it’s about delivering happiness.
Tell me about the name “Jibr.”
Do you want the real answer, or the explanation that’s on our site? Well let me tell the truth: we first started out with Jibr.com as our working name – as I happened to have bought this 4 letter domain a few years ago. But after a while we got so used to it and decided to launch under this name anyway.
What’s the startup culture like in the Netherlands?
We are based in Eindhoven which is in the southern part of the Netherlands an 1.5 hour drive from our capital Amsterdam. There is a nice startup community in Amsterdam. We thought about opening an office there as well, but two years ago I decided it would be even better for us to get an office in Berlin.
So that’s why we are a real international startup these days with offices in Germany and Holland.
If I’ve only a weekend to visit the Netherlands, what should I do and where should I go?
If you just have a weekend, spend some time in Amsterdam. I can also recommend to visit Maastricht to experience a bit more of an authentic Dutch city that’s not so much an international tourist spot as Amsterdam. It’s a 2,5 drive from Amsterdam, but definitely worth it!
As we are based in Eindhoven I should also mention our hometown. Till 28th of October it’s Dutch Design Week – it’s really worth to visit Eindhoven if you happen to be in the Netherlands this weekend.
What’s been the most challenging aspect thus far of running Jibr?
We’ve been bootstrapping our company since we started, it is great to be self-funded and profitable. But on the downside sometimes decisions have to be made to do things a bit different, or in a slower pace, then when you have some more cash available. Being profitable from the start is of course something that I can recommend every startup.
What do you see as a common misstep startups make that you think can be easily avoided?
Doing things based on assumptions, you shouldn’t. Make decisions based on numbers and test everything.
How do you see Jibr standing apart from the competition?
First of all our technical system – allowing our customers to really build a great website. And of course our Customer Support, our clients get real personal answers by all of our team members almost with the speed of light.
It’s about being authentic and delivering happiness!
How can our readers get in touch with you?
Readers can get in touch with me by sending an email to Paul at jibr.com
