We had a lovely chat with Alex O’Byrne of WeMakeWebsites this month, after he attended the How to charm the fashion press dinner. Ranked #1 for Shopify design, build and marketing, and 40k independent retailers read their advice blog and newsletter every month, it’s safe to say that WeMakeWebsites know their stuff! Alex gave us a break down of how the company began, and how they have become a successful business over the years.

What’s the elevator pitch for your business?
WeMakeWebsites work with design-led independent brands and retailers that care about how their website looks. We create elegant eCommerce stores that are effective at turning visitors into customers. All our team are in-house and our past and present clients include The Economist, Condor bikes, British fashion designer Christopher Raeburn and two 2015 Build a Business finalists.

What were you doing before you launched your company?
I worked in banking technology, which was not up my street at all. 

I much prefer what we do now, which is helping SMEs flourish by improving their online presence. I also hope we’re playing our part in making a better designed internet.

If you have co-founders, where did you meet them?
I met Piers whilst we were doing our internship in the banking world. Back in ’06 that’s just what you did after Computer Science. Startups weren’t really a thing then and my limited imagination just meant that I went with whoever offered the most cash…  and who’d actually employ me… I was just a guy from Yorkshire trying to get to the Big Smoke because that seemed the right thing to do.

After returning to London we realised that we weren’t getting the opportunities we craved at work, mainly, to make a difference, so in our spare time started extracurricular activities. Actually now I think about it, Piers was going to teach me how to play Philip Glass or Einaudi on the piano, but we got distracted making iPhone apps. We made one to help people find bars that are still open called ‘Last Orders’ but never launched it.

I went on holiday to Nice and read Hunter S Thompson’s Rum Diaries and that somehow inspired me to take a chance, so the day I got back I quit and I rang Piers to tell him… and we decided to give this a go.

Nearly six years later, I am hugely grateful for where we are now, we spent so many evenings and weekends trying to deliver websites and making all sorts of mistakes but that’s just part of the journey. Now our company feels a lot more grown up and is consistent at delivering what our customers come to us for, which is high quality online stores that generate sales.

Our team are great and I think we have a special environment here.  Some of the work we produce I am amazed at because I could never have done it! That’s one of the great things about building a company – seeing the end results improve as people join to help you with your mission. It’s also great because having a company is like having your own gang, a nice gang though that helps people.

What’s your biggest ‘hindsight’ moment?
In business I don’t have too many – you just need to accept that the whole thing never stops being a learning process, especially when you’re a startup. Eventually you look up and things are working.

One thing I’ve noticed is that all the most inspirational figures in business and beyond always talk about not giving up, this is because the journey is constant up and downs and holding on and sticking with it is often what makes the difference. Every founders’ biggest battle is with themselves.

What will the rest of 2015 bring?
We have a few big launches coming up and are hiring like mad for front end developers.

I’m also wintering in the Philippines, yes as of 2015 I am using wintering as a verb like they do in the Hamptons. My girlfriend has just become a doctor in Psychology so we’re going away for one month break before 2016 hits. I’ve never been to one of those beaches with turquoise water before, like you see in The Beach film. Christmas is relatively quiet for eCommerce website builders – the hard work for the festive season is happening right now.

One piece of advice for someone starting a business in your sector?
Choose a niche – saying you’re just a web designer will not get people interested enough. Decide what type of website you want to specialise in building. Or if you decide to focus more on the marketing side, start by choosing to focus on PPC, or SEO, or social. You can broaden out once you have an audience and customer base.

Also, start an email newsletter and provide advice that will help your target customers. This allows you to build trust and establish yourself as an expert. Just start with friends, family and LinkedIn contacts. This will continue to grow if you give people on your website a good reason to join your list – we now have 11,000 online sellers on our mailing list.

Convince someone to use your product/service in under 50 words.
If you need an eCommerce website… we are the highest rated web designers on Shopify and we take pride in getting our projects right first time. We’re bringing professionalism to web design and we also have in-house expertise, with 40,000 retailers reading our advice every month. Some of our customers have doubled their revenue.

The brands that tend to like our work are in fashion, cycling, luxury and homeware.

What’s your favourite startup in your sector (not including your own)?
I’m following the developments in FinTech closely and am setting up a journal to cover this over at Fintech Review.  I like what TransferWise are doing with both their product and marketing. I like FinTech because I see a lot of potential to disrupt the old structures and create something new and better.

That’s not in our sector though is it… so I suppose in eCommerce I’m a big fan of products that make running an online business easier. So Ship Station and Emma would be examples of that.

What’s your favourite London restaurant?
‘Best Mangal‘!!! All of them. Machete does great Mexican food, in Victoria Park Village.

What’s your favourite meal?
I’m known for making the same old El Paso fajitas from a box, in my adult life sadly I’ve never really gone beyond that. I’ll eat anything! Except mushy peas and mustard.

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