How We Built Whimsical

I started Whimsical in the summer of 2017. The plan was to build a tool that would let people collaborate on ideas visually in a way that’s simple and enjoyable. A bit like Dropbox Paper but you get flowcharts and wireframes instead of plain text.

Visual collaboration is not an entirely novel idea, of course, but the existing tools were all cumbersome and uninspiring. So I set out to build the opposite – fast, simple and with obsessive focus on thoughtful design.

Fast. You want to move as fast as possible with a small team. Speed is the ultimate startup advantage, and vice versa, being slower than other companies is the surest way to go out of business.

Simple. Tools that have less features are easier to understand fully and are less likely to break. In contrast, complex tools will often be half-understood. Which in turn will lead to mistakes and surprising issues. Which in turn will slow you down.

Thoughtful design. Poorly designed tools may seem to do the job at first but will gradually lead you deeper and deeper into a swamp that will be very costly to escape. Which in turn will slow you down.

Leave a Comment