I built Typeform because I dreamt of creating ‘conversational’ forms, now I really can.
Back in 2012, I co-founded Typeform alongside Robert Muñoz. We were creatives, each running our own web design agencies in Barcelona. Fate saw us sharing a workspace in the city centre, which fortuitously led to our fast friendship and a collaborative working dynamic.
We started contributing to each other’s projects and frequently found ourselves humorously lamenting the headaches brought on by over-demanding clients. We longed for the day when we could build our own product and shift from serving clients to satisfying customers. We were tired of making puddles, we wanted to make waves.
The turning point came with a project from the Barcelona-based bathroom company, Roca. They sought a lead capture form to engage visitors at their showcase gallery in Barcelona. However, instead of crafting a conventional form for them, we innovated. What if a form could resemble a conversation, with a natural flow of one question at a time? Driven by this captivating ‘what if’, we chose innovation over convention.
I remember, fondly, my childhood days in Belgium, when weekend trips to the seaside meant receiving TV signals from the UK. Oddly enough, ITV frequently broadcast the movie “WarGames.” It was from this film that I drew the inspiration for Typeform.
Our vision was to reshape forms. Instead of resembling mundane laundry lists of questions, we wanted them to feel like engaging, real-life conversations. “WarGames” demonstrated that this idea was more than feasible; it was within our grasp.
So, we eventually presented “Roca” with our first conversational form (build in Flash!). Their showcase gallery was its first home, and its success catapulted us onto the path we had dreamed of. Recognising that we had stumbled upon our next big endeavour, we spent the following year perfecting the form’s design and mechanics. The result was the birth of Typeform, which was more than a product; it was a testament to our journey, a symbol of our shared ambition and dog-headed perseverance.
As Typeform began to acquire its first users, we tirelessly worked towards making it more conversational. Incorporating features such as logic branching made the conversations feel more responsive to users’ choices. We introduced hidden fields and piping so that the form could greet users personally, enhancing their interactive experience. We were determined to make the form as conversational as possible, leveraging every strategy available within the technology constraints of that time.
Fast forward 11 years and we find ourselves on the precipice of a new technological era. Large Language Models are now accessible, enabling us to harness powerful AI through a simple API call. Reflecting on Typeform, I can’t help but wonder: What if we had this technology back in 2012? We could have ventured much closer to our vision of creating a genuinely conversational form, a form that not only asks questions but also reacts to your responses and answers any queries you might have — just like a real conversation.
In 2018, I transitioned from my position as co-CEO to focus on developing new products within Typeform, with the objective of making forms even more “human.” I established an R&D group — eventually named TypeformLabs — and we began by developing VideoAsk , a pioneering venture into video-driven forms. This project quickly scaled up to 1M ARR before we passed it on.
During our time working on VideoAsk, we experimented with early versions of GPT and constructed the “Human Chatbot” using GPT-2. As TypeformLabs moved away from VideoAsk to explore new ideas such as “Relayed” and “Holler,” we remained innovative and open to technological advancements.
In February 2023, TypeformLabs decided to embark on a new journey. With the recent release of ChatGPT, supported by OpenAI’s new GPT-Turbo model enabling streaming conversational text, we saw a significant opportunity.
We envisioned creating a Typeform-like product, but with true conversational capability. The idea was to allow form creators to provide basic instructions, including what information to collect, and let the system handle the rest. The respondent’s experience would then mimic a real conversation, where the subsequent question would react to the previous answer. But additionally, respondents could also ask questions and receive answers just like a natural conversation.
Since the end of February 2023, we have been diligently crafting this vision into reality. The result is a unique innovation cheekily named Formless, that just launched in Private beta.
I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to revisit the experience of originally building Typeform, but now armed with advanced technologies that can truly bring our original vision to life. It’s a delightful reminder of how things come full circle and with time, anything is possible.
You can sign up for early access at https://formless.ai
