![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/0*v7jEMZgMxc2Sw6w7.jpg)

_Please welcome AJ, the founder of Carrd, a platform for building simple, fully responsive one-page sites for pretty much anything. With over_ [_4000 upvotes_](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/carrd)_, Carrd is one the most popular products of all time on Product Hunt._

[**Davis Baer**](https://twitter.com/daviswbaer)**: What’s your background, and what motivated you to get started with Carrd?**

[**AJ**](https://twitter.com/ajlkn)**:** Sure, so before working on [Carrd](http://carrd.co) (the current thing I’m working on) I was pretty much a template/theme designer mostly known for my work on HTML5 UP and later its paid equivalent, Pixelarity.

Did that for like, a decade or so, which is why I really, really needed a new challenge. Not because I disliked what I did, but because I had picked up a ton of new skills/knowledge along the way — particularly in recent years when I took things in a more experimental direction — and I wanted to see if I could pull off something big.

After a bit of brainstorming I settled on the idea of a one-page site builder since it felt like a good fit for not only the type of challenge I wanted, but also my existing background doing template/theme stuff (=gave me an edge in understanding the potential market, what users wanted, etc).

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/0*6BW7e7wieH6u_kBa)

Carrd templates

**What went into building the initial product?**

A week or two of planning followed by a few months of off-and-on development on a (very rough) prototype of the site generator (mid 2015). No real UI to speak of, but it was enough to validate the idea and move the project forward.

Following that, I hunkered down and worked on what would become the private alpha I ran by a handful of friends (late 2015), a few private/public betas (early 2016), and finally the version I’d end up launching in March 2016.

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/0*-gKxtV1xgiSo3kkP.jpg)

Example Carrd website

**What’s your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?**

“Freemium” I guess would be the best way to describe it. You can visit [carrd.co/build](http://carrd.co/build) right now and build up to 3 sites on the free “Basic” plan, then upgrade to one of four “Pro” plans (starting from $9/year) if you want more features like custom domains, forms, widgets, etc.

As to growing revenue: most of my focus has been on building the platform so I haven’t really spent a whole lot of time/effort on this, but it seems the freemium model combined with the fact that you don’t even have to sign up to try it out makes for a pretty potent “word of mouth” strategy, and so far it seems to be working well (the numbers keep going up on their own :)

**How did you get your first 10 users?**

Twitter! I already had a decent following on Twitter from my template/theme work so it wasn’t too difficult to find folks to try (and give feedback on) my then-unknown project.

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/0*wMnwtHg4_dK78IXo)

Carrd site builder

**What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced and obstacles you’ve overcome?**

Definitely scale, but probably not in the way people think. From a platform perspective I (luckily) had the foresight to develop the thing with scale in mind so as far as building and serving sites — no problem there.

However, as Carrd grows and gets used by not only more users, but also different _groups_ of users beyond just my own peers (who were mostly bootstrap/startup types), I’m having to address things I simply didn’t think of (how should I handle users who like to squat “premium” .[carrd.co](http://carrd.co/) URLs?) and implement features for use cases of Carrd I never anticipated but are apparently pretty popular among my user base.

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/0*Fm0Yh5epxSuPnk5o.jpg)

Example Carrd website

**If you weren’t building Carrd, what would you be doing?**

Probably building something else! :)

That “new challenge” phase I went through in early 2015 would have still lead to me working on _something_, but I suspect that “something” wouldn’t have been as good of a fit for me as Carrd has been.

#### Follow AJ on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/ajlkn), and build your own site at [Carrd.co](http://Carrd.co)

#### This interview is brought to you by [OneUp](https://www.oneupapp.io/?utm_source=HackerNoon&utm_medium=FounderInterview), a tool to schedule and automatically repeat your posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google My Business

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