"It took us seven years but today, when users tell us, 'I want to build this', it's very rare that the answer is no", rejoices Emmanuel Straschnov, co-founder of Bubble, a platform that allows you to build a bespoke site without touching the code.
The start-up founded in 2012 in New York has just completed a first round of financing of $ 6.25 million, led by SignalFire (which has notably invested in Uber and Lime). The goal, and not least: «Become the reference platform for those who want to create a site before putting their hands in the code», summarizes the entrepreneur.
When Emmanuel Straschnov met Joshua Haas in 2012 through their Harvard common network, they joined "At the first coffee". Their goal, at a time when "Everyone swore by learning code", he recalls: "Turn any user into a programmer".
A few years of "Ant work" later, the Bubble team has grown to 15 people, including 6 engineers and has nearly 280,000 users, including 2,700 companies who pay for the premium service of the platform.
The start-up even promises to be able to program the equivalent of Twitter or Airbnb in a week, thanks to a library of modules that the user can select, move and modify to his liking. "We wanted to wait until we were ready to raise money. If we multiply the number of users by ten but they are disappointed, they will never come back ", argues Emmanuel Straschnov, who found "A turning point" last year. "The product has grown sufficiently to cover all possible uses"he says.
Faced with increasing competition and a proliferation of sites creation platforms, Emmanuel Straschnov ensures that Bubble, a pioneer in its creation, can count today on "A lot of advance". With this fundraising, entrepreneurs intend to multiply their income by three in the next 18 months, ending the year at "25 or 28" people in the team and especially, bet on start-ups.
"The advantage of start-ups is that you can grow with them. And even if they do not work, entrepreneurs can always come back to us for their next project or recommend us »observes Emmanuel Straschnov, who imagines a monopoly in 15-20 years. "Most companies will no longer have coders, only a few developers will enrich the platform".
