Design your landing pages automatically in just a few seconds using artificial intelligence

Firedrop uses artificial intelligence to automatically build unique business websites in just a few seconds.

Building a webpage with Firedrop is incredibly easy, thanks to its A.I. assistant Sacha. Simply chat to Sacha in the same way as you would use any messaging app and drag the chat window down to see your changes. View the full desktop version of your webpage while editing, so you know how the changes will look for everybody. Your page will be fully responsive on all devices without you having to do anything.

Kevin William David interviewed Marc Crouch, Founder of Firedrop to know more.

Hi Marc, So tell us about Firedrop?

Firedrop wants to put the possibilities of the web into the hands of ordinary people by automating the design and generation of bespoke websites with artificial intelligence.

Tell me more about why you are building this?

I was running a web design agency and frequently found myself being unable to help wonderful small businesses because they couldn’t afford our services. Very often the reason they came to us was because they had tried to build a site themselves but found it too time consuming, too complicated and/or frustrating. But we couldn’t drop our prices, we had overheads. Firedrop was born out of a desire to create a product that would allow us to help those fantastic small businesses, and A.I. was the only way we could see of doing it without the overheads.

How is Firedrop different from what already exists in the market?

The existing options are either too complicated or too expensive. Drag and drop website builders have a steep learning curve that bamboozles people, while human web designers are expensive and unreliable. With Firedrop you simply talk to a chatbot and it does all the hard work for you. By removing the learning curve and expense, we’re making it possible for anybody to have a website and benefit from the immense possibilities that the web affords.

Can you tell us a bit about the different customer segments using Firedrop?

We’re targeting sole traders, entrepreneurs and hobbyists and so far that’s exactly what we’re getting. We have everything from photographers to lawyers using it, and even web designers! The one thing all customers have in common is that they tend to be sole traders or maybe maximum of up to 5 people, and that’s exactly who we’re targeting.

How are your customers using Firedrop? Could you share a few different use cases?

The fun thing about Firedrop is that people are inventing uses for it all the time. We have a lot of entrepreneurs, freelancers and consultancies which we expected, but we also have people using it for things like advertising jobs, organising bachelor parties, and even one religious cult!

Have there been unique use cases for Firedrop that you hadn’t thought of or expected?

We’ve had some funny ones, mostly guys making fun of their buddies — or at least, I assume it’s their buddies! We also have a lot of people pouring their hearts out to Sacha, our chatbot, which has led to some interesting websites. The psychology of that is fascinating to watch; we once had a guy just talking to Sacha for a full two hours, without even making anything.

Were there any early ‘growth hacks’ or tactics that have contributed to your current success?

We haven’t needed any special growth hack tactics because there’s been enough interest in our product that it’s kind of spread itself. The one thing we have paid special attention to is asking our customers what they think about the product on a regular basis. We get some negative feedback, a lot of positive feedback, but not shying away from asking has been one of the most helpful things for us.

What were some of the biggest challenges while building the product early on and how did you solve them?

How do you automate design? It’s one hell of a problem to solve and it’s something we’re still working on. The problem is just so big. We’ve dealt with it by breaking it down to as many small components as possible and constraining our engine until we fully understand how people want to use it. Our very first product launch included about 50% of its full potential but it was too much too soon for our users, so it’s now constrained to about 10%. We will build up from there slowly as we learn from our users.

What are the top 5–10 products that you depend on to run the company & how do you use them?

In no particular order, they are:

• Pivotal Tracker: we use this to manage our agile development process. It’s really easy to use and has great reporting, it’s essential for us to keep on track.
• Slack: all of our communication comes through here, including alerts from our devops stack about server failures and such, tickets from customers, and all of our meeting notes.
• Google Gsuite: we use this for Google Docs, Gmail, and calendars.
• Hootsuite: for managing all our social media.
• Intercom: on-site chats, support and tickets. It’s a great all-in-one tool.

Originally published at siftery.com.