When a Crazy Summer Idea Turns Into a Real Company!

You heard me right, me and my friends Jasar, Peter, and Jonathan just started a company! WOOOHOOOOO! I gotta tell you, I'm super excited about this and we are just getting started!

So, what led up to this? What made us start a company? Well, let’s rewind time a little bit.

About six months ago, Jasar and I were hanging out at our local lookout spot. It was a warm summer day, and I was working on the very website you are browsing right now! With a smile on my face, I told Jasar, “Yo, check this out!”

I handed him the computer and let him browse. The look of pure excitement on Jasar's face said everything. “This is amazing! This looks like a website created by real professionals!”

Jasar didn’t even know the brilliance in what he had just said. Because that exact phrase planted a seed. A seed that would eventually grow into something amazing! That sentence sparked a vigorous and passionate discussion between me and Jasar. It started with a “what if we started creating websites for companies?” that soon blossomed into “We should definitely create websites for companies!”.

So, here is what we did:

Part 1: Setting up the company (The rise of Webnation)

Step 1. Brain storm a bunch of names!

What is the company gonna be called? That is obviously the first question. The goal was to find a name that was simple, memorable and easy to use.

“Webdone,” Jasar suggested. A word play on a well done steak which was just pure perfection! I mean “Webdone, just like a well done steak” Is such a funny slogan XD. However, as you might have already guessed we did not go with webdone. Why? Well, a company already in the website business already had a very similar name so we wanted to be safe and not go with that. Eventually Webnation came up and nothing more had to be said, it was just perfect!

Step 2. Create the website!

I’m not gonna lie when I say that our initial webnation prototype looked like trash. It started as a very primitive page. (spoilers: We have changed it).

This is a picture of the early version of the website.

And here is how it looks now (check it out at webnation.se):

Step 3 & 4. Peter and Jonathan joins the battle!'

Peter and Jonathan were hooked as soon as we mentioned the idea to them so they joined in, bringing design, photo, animation as well as other amazing expertise.

Step 5. Create Webnation AB

This process was a bit tedious, I would say that this step took the longest by a longshot.

And done! We had just created a company! Hooray!

So, what is the next part? Well, finding customers! Don’t sit down and wait for an opportunity to come knocking on your door. Go reach for it instead! Because you learn the most by doing aaaaaaand come on it will be fun! (#KomIgenDetBlirKul).

Part 2: Finding customers! (Aaaaaand learning along the way)

The Beginning…

Saturday morning, 10:00 the wake up alarm went off. I bolted out of bed into the bathroom to get ready. This was the big day, the day me and Jasar had been planning for the last 2 weeks. Ever since starting the company, we knew this was the big step we had to overcome in order to bring Webnation to the next level. Me and Jasar were gonna go around trying to persuade restaurants, kiosks and anyone who might need a website to start using us, Webnation.

You might wonder, what is the strategy to approach the restaurants? Weeeell, we actually had no idea. However, one thing we knew for certain was that if we didn’t go out and try, well then how are we ever gonna learn! The best way to learn is to live, right? So with that thought in mind. Me and Jasar approached our first target!

The first bargain (which didn’t go as planned)

As me and Jasar entered the grill, the smell of roasted beef and fries hit you instantly. The room was spacious with lots of empty chairs and some refrigerators with beverages to our right. At the counter a young teenager stood, kinda slim with a serious look on his face. As we approached the counter, he looked up towards us but didn’t say a word.

I knew what had to be done. With a slightly unsteady voice, I opened with: “Hello! I checked online and saw that you do not currently have a website.”

The teenager gave me a look of confusion but still said nothing. He just stared and looked up as if he were thinking. Not knowing how to react, I continued “Well, me and my friend over here have just started a company and could help you out in ….” But before I could finish, the teenager held up a hand and interrupted. “My manager can help you.” He spun around and disappeared into the kitchen. I looked at Jasar, who gave me a shrug.

From the kitchen an older individual emerged presumably the manager and his facial expression screamed ‘I want nothing to do with this!’. “My cousin handles the website and he’s not here so I can’t help you!” he said in a confrontational tone.

For a second or two I stood there, not saying a word until I could produce a weak “Alright, thank you for your time”. While me and Jasar walked out the manager repeated “I can’t help you”.

Total failure? Maybe. A learning experience? Definitely.

So how did the first bargain go? Well, it was a total failure. Did it discourage us? Not in the slightest! Getting rejected is hard and it is ok to feel bad about it. But life is filled with these sorts of things so it’s very good to learn how to handle rejection in a good way. Feel everything, the bad feelings, the disappointment, and shame. But then pick yourself up and try again!

We headed for our next destination, a Thai restaurant and guess what. It went perfectly! I’m not even going to retell that encounter because all that happened was that a super kind lady was very excited by a potential improvement to their current website. Me and Jasar left the restaurant with a smile on our faces.

That feeling when things actually go right.

Part 3: To be continued…

We don’t know where this will lead, but what we do know is that we are gonna learn a ton and have an amazing time along the way!