Launch Your Business With AI: one.com Aida AI

1 - > SPEAKER_01: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the SourceForge 2 - > podcast. 3 - > I'm your host, Bo Hamilton. 4 - > Now, for a lot of small business owners, getting online these 5 - > days seems pretty simple. 6 - > You know, you buy a domain, you build a website, you set up an 7 - > email, maybe you add an online store, you think about the back 8 - > end stuff, maybe SEO, generative engine optimization is a big one 9 - > nowadays, and all the other pieces that come with running a 10 - > digital presence.

11 - > But in practice, that can quickly turn into quite a 12 - > massive undertaking, right? 13 - > With uh with the maze of tools, the subscriptions, the technical 14 - > decisions and various ongoing maintenance that's involved. 15 - > And you know, for someone who's trying to launch a business and 16 - > just grow their brand, that complexity can really become a 17 - > real barrier. 18 - > So that's really what we're gonna be digging into today with 19 - > one.

com, how the digital business journey can become a 20 - > simple, more guided, and accessible practice for small 21 - > and mid-sized businesses. 22 - > We're gonna talk about uh why simplicity doesn't have to mean 23 - > basic, you know, how one.com's all-in-one platform brings 24 - > together things like domains and websites, email and online 25 - > stores, and how ADA is helping business owners create and 26 - > manage a professional online presence without needing all of 27 - > that technical skill and know-how or complicated 28 - > prompting.

29 - > That's uh that's a big skill these days. 30 - > So uh we've got a lot to get into. 31 - > And uh speaking on this topic is guest of the show, Chris Blaine, 32 - > Chief Operating Officer at One.com.

33 - > Chris, welcome to the podcast. 34 - > Glad you could join us. 35 - > Thanks, Bo. 36 - > It's great to be here.

37 - > Thanks for having me. 38 - > Of course. 39 - > Now, um, before we get started, and I hit you with some of the 40 - > big questions of the episode. 41 - > Can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and maybe 42 - > some of your background uh for listeners who may not be 43 - > familiar with you?

44 - > SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure, absolutely. 45 - > Um, well, I uh I live here in Denmark. 46 - > So actually one.com was founded here in Denmark around 22, 24 47 - > years ago, uh and have moved here to Denmark about five 48 - > years, um, about five years ago.

49 - > Um, first of all, great place to live and great place to visit if 50 - > you're ever looking for a vacation. 51 - > But I have a long career uh mostly supporting consumers and 52 - > small businesses um in various areas of technology. 53 - > So started at Dell, spent 12 years with Dell, uh, both on the 54 - > consumer and small business side, ended up moving over to 55 - > Intuit and spent four years at Intuit, both on a website 56 - > builder product, which we'll get into a little bit here in a 57 - > second, and also on the uh online accounting software side 58 - > of things.

59 - > Uh and then I spent about six and a half years with a company 60 - > called Sojourn, which is in the digital marketing space, 61 - > specifically uh supporting uh hotels, uh cruise lines, 62 - > airlines, et cetera. 63 - > Uh, and then ended up uh moving over here, as I mentioned, to 64 - > Denmark to join a couple of SaaS businesses here, again, who 65 - > support and uh serve small businesses mostly in Europe. 66 - > Uh one a workforce management tool and another one focused 67 - > more on nurseries and giving nurseries the tools they need to 68 - > uh to be able to run their business effectively.

69 - > So a long career serving and supporting small business 70 - > customers. 71 - > And then yeah, jumped over here to one.com just recently or at 72 - > the beginning of the year. 73 - > SPEAKER_01: Very exciting.

74 - > Yeah, very, very storied uh career. 75 - > And you obviously have a lot of experience um in the tech space, 76 - > the software space, and helping small businesses. 77 - > So um, yeah, I'm really excited to get into this conversation. 78 - > Um and I'd love to visit uh uh Sweden at some point.

79 - > I've been in some of the neighboring um countries and 80 - > really, really, really love it up there. 81 - > Well, um, let's get right into it. 82 - > I I'd love to sort of I guess take a step back, maybe talk 83 - > about some of the bigger um challenges one.com is trying to 84 - > solve for business owners today.

85 - > Uh we I think we hear about this all the time. 86 - > You know, someone has a really good idea, maybe they've already 87 - > got, let's say, a product or a service lined up, but the moment 88 - > they they sit down and they actually get online, you know, 89 - > the problems start to arise. 90 - > Either they're just looking at a blank screen, they're uh, you 91 - > know, they're suddenly getting quotes from developers that they 92 - > can't afford, uh, the prices go, you know, sky start 93 - > skyrocketing.

94 - > I'm just curious, do you think we're finally at a point where 95 - > someone with no technical background can launch a 96 - > professional-looking brand completely on their own? 97 - > SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely. 98 - > Well, I mean, I think, you know, what's interesting, you know, 99 - > website building tools and technology and things that 100 - > support small businesses and getting their business online 101 - > have been around for a while. 102 - > As I mentioned, you know, I was a part of a business back in 103 - > 2012 at Intuit that was a website building tool and 104 - > technology.

105 - > But I think what's dramatically changed over the course of these 106 - > 14 years for me, but maybe even more recently over the last 107 - > couple of years is that the tools that are available today 108 - > make it much easier for customers to not only establish 109 - > a digital presence through a website, um, but also do it in a 110 - > way that really brings their brand to life. 111 - > In the past, I think you've you've found yourself with a you 112 - > know simple tool.

113 - > You know, you add your images, you have to drag and drop them. 114 - > You know, you're trying to figure out how to add text here 115 - > or there. 116 - > You know, the tools and the technology at that time were 117 - > pretty fixed in terms of what you could do and what you could 118 - > navigate around, unless you were, to your point, a developer 119 - > who could recode it and build it a different way. 120 - > But today, um, you know, certainly with the um with the 121 - > evolution and ongoing evolution of AI, there's a lot more uh 122 - > tools available for small businesses to make it much more 123 - > simple for them to not only start their business, but also 124 - > then to bring that business online in a really meaningful 125 - > and impactful and professional way.

126 - > SPEAKER_01: I totally agree. 127 - > Yeah, it seems like just a few years ago, you know, uh where 128 - > building a website yourself basically, you know, meant meant 129 - > wrestling with all these different templates and just 130 - > kind of fingers crossed, hoping things weren't gonna break. 131 - > Um and then once you get into some of the more complex like 132 - > back-end stuff, like um dealing with, you know, complying with 133 - > various regulations with privacy, security, and then 134 - > working with SEO, things just got way more complex, right?

135 - > So the the it's nice to see the barriers to entry are are 136 - > decreasing quite significantly. 137 - > Um, but I want to talk about that simplicity, you know, 138 - > thing. 139 - > So there's like this perception that uh simple is bad, I guess. 140 - > Like it's almost like a dirty word.

141 - > Um and in order for something to be to be quote unquote good or 142 - > capable, it has to be complex, it has to be, you know, almost 143 - > difficult to use and learn. 144 - > But um I would almost push back on that a little bit um 145 - > nowadays, especially for for small business owners who are 146 - > already wearing, you know, 10 different hats. 147 - > Um what when it comes to like building a company's digital 148 - > presence, how can simplicity actually become a real 149 - > competitive advantage?

150 - > SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, first of all, um, you know, I talked a 151 - > little bit before in the introduction about uh the many 152 - > years of experience I've had in working with small business 153 - > customers across the globe. 154 - > And the the cool thing about small businesses, um, but also 155 - > the hard thing as a small businesses business is that they 156 - > have the challenge of time. 157 - > They just don't have time to do everything they want to and need 158 - > to do to make their business successful.

159 - > Um, and so they spend too much time trying to solve the things 160 - > that are less important for their business or the things 161 - > that take them more time because they're not experts in, you 162 - > know, in this particular instance, trying to figure out 163 - > how to build a real great, engaging uh website and maybe 164 - > even plug into that other tools like an e-commerce platform, or 165 - > maybe they're a service business. 166 - > So they need a booking tool so customers can schedule 167 - > appointments or whatever it might be.

168 - > Um, you know, that challenge that has existed for them over 169 - > time just takes time away from what they really want to be 170 - > doing, right? 171 - > Which is building the small business that they're passionate 172 - > about, serving the customers that they're passionate about, 173 - > right? 174 - > Trying to ensure that they have the time to invest in those 175 - > things that are important to them in setting up, 176 - > establishing, and growing their small business.

177 - > You know, think about like if you're, say, for example, you're 178 - > a you know, you're a fitness instructor, or maybe you run a 179 - > uh a CrossFit box, right? 180 - > Like you want to be spending time helping your clients get 181 - > fit, live a healthier lifestyle. 182 - > You want to be investing in how you do that better every day 183 - > with your customers and your clients. 184 - > You don't want to be spending time trying to figure out how to 185 - > put a website up, give them the tools they need to book sessions 186 - > with you, right?

187 - > Maybe engage with them through a CRM integration into the tool so 188 - > you can communicate with them, maybe even a social uh 189 - > integration so that you can communicate online through the 190 - > social tools that are available to you. 191 - > Like all of these things are things that are kind of need to 192 - > be done, but not what you want to be spending time on. 193 - > So the simplicity, I think, is critically important there 194 - > because it gives customers back time, time to invest in those 195 - > things that really, really matter to them.

196 - > And so that's what I think is really important when we look at 197 - > how these technology tools have been evolving over the years, is 198 - > moving away from those stayed, templated versions of websites 199 - > that are complex, they don't integrate well with other tools. 200 - > You're trying to figure out how to manage multiple 201 - > subscriptions, whatever it might be. 202 - > You know, the simplicity today allows those cus those small 203 - > business customers to really use their time on the things that 204 - > they truly care about, right?

205 - > Because those things become much easier with the adoption and the 206 - > availability of new technologies. 207 - > SPEAKER_01: Absolutely. 208 - > Yeah. 209 - > You want to have, you want to help them, you know, build a 210 - > website, but also help them focus in on what they want to be 211 - > doing, which a lot of times isn't building a website, right?

212 - > It's just they they know that they need the website, they need 213 - > the the exposure and the the branding and whatnot. 214 - > But um, you know, they ultimately want to be focusing 215 - > on their craft. 216 - > Um so the less time they can spend on that on the other 217 - > fronts um is is is better. 218 - > Um and I think another word that kind of comes to mind is is just 219 - > the focus, right?

220 - > So when you're when you're not drowning in options, um, you can 221 - > actually get stuff done, right? 222 - > It's sort of it's like that paradox of choice where, you 223 - > know, it's just sometimes more features just mean more 224 - > paralysis. 225 - > You're looking, you don't even know where to start because 226 - > there's just overwhelming options. 227 - > Um and with my internet brain these days, that is that hits 228 - > very, very close to home with that sort of like, where do I 229 - > start?

230 - > There's just too much, too many things to do and too many new 231 - > tools and software to tinker with. 232 - > Um so I totally get why simplicity would be um 233 - > appealing. 234 - > Um another thing too is um when people, you know, when when 235 - > people hear simple, they I think they might also picture 236 - > something pretty narrow in scope. 237 - > Um, but I also want to I also know that one.

com gets described 238 - > as this all-in-one platform. 239 - > And so I sort of want to unpack what that actually means. 240 - > Um I think from the business, uh small business owner's 241 - > perspective, they're not just evaluating software, they're 242 - > trying to survive and grow, they're trying to um build a 243 - > website. 244 - > But I'm curious, like what does a small business really need 245 - > today to grow online?

246 - > And then how does that all-in-one platform, one dot com 247 - > offers, help solve that, help with with that endeavor? 248 - > SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, let's just start with the 249 - > basics, right? 250 - > If you're gonna have an online presence, you need a website. 251 - > The second thing is you need a domain, right?

252 - > So people can actually find your store online, right? 253 - > And then the last thing is it needs to be hosted somewhere. 254 - > So these are the basics, right? 255 - > Like domains, hosting website.

256 - > We're pretty simple. 257 - > Um, the business basics, right? 258 - > So if you're gonna run an online business and you wanna try and 259 - > grow your business, you need demand, which means you need to 260 - > find a way to reach customers. 261 - > Um, and that requires you to have some ability to understand 262 - > what SEO does for you and how that works to give you 263 - > visibility and presence online so customers can find you.

264 - > Or geo now, right, with the introduction of many other LLMs 265 - > and all of these chat GPTs, et cetera. 266 - > You need to know how to set your site up so that those can find 267 - > you and can recommend you. 268 - > The second thing is you need a way to engage with people, 269 - > right? 270 - > So you need to have content and information on the site that's 271 - > relevant.

272 - > Um, and it needs to not be cluttered. 273 - > It needs to be easy to find and easy to navigate. 274 - > Um, and so you need to ensure that your content is structured 275 - > in a way that makes it easy for customers to get the information 276 - > they need from you. 277 - > Um, you need to be able to engage with customers.

278 - > So you need an email, right? 279 - > You need maybe a platform to engage with people on social, 280 - > like I mentioned earlier. 281 - > These are important uh tools for you to engage customers in a 282 - > conversation about your business and about your brand. 283 - > You need a way to transact e-commerce tools.

284 - > As I mentioned before, maybe your um hair salon, right? 285 - > And people want to book appointments with you. 286 - > So you need to provide them the ability to book those things 287 - > with you through your website. 288 - > We come across a lot of small businesses here at one.

com that 289 - > only way you can book with them is by phoning them. 290 - > Like customers are way beyond that today. 291 - > There's too many great technologies out there. 292 - > They'll just choose an alternative, right?

293 - > If it's simple for them to find a way to book online. 294 - > So you need a way to transact with your customers online as 295 - > well. 296 - > And then, of course, you know, sort of the CRM side of things, 297 - > you need a way to ongoingly communicate with customers to 298 - > build repeatability in that purchase process with your 299 - > customers, engage them in a relationship with you, et 300 - > cetera, et cetera. 301 - > So there's lots of tools that you need to be able to be 302 - > successful as a small business.

303 - > Why does all in one matter? 304 - > Well, as we mentioned before, one of the challenges that small 305 - > businesses face beyond time is the complexity of all of these 306 - > things. 307 - > Right. 308 - > So there's different tools you need to use for SEO, right, for 309 - > optimizing your site for search.

310 - > There's different tools you need to use to engage with customers, 311 - > whether they be email products or social integrations. 312 - > There's different tools for bookings or e-commerce, there's 313 - > different tools for establishing a CRM. 314 - > And all these tools, when managed individually and 315 - > separately, just create more time for you. 316 - > Not only that, then they make it complex for you, they also make 317 - > it complex for you to run your business, right?

318 - > I have multiple logins, I got multiple accounts, I got 319 - > multiple customer, must customer service organizations to deal 320 - > with potentially. 321 - > So where all in one becomes important, and what we're trying 322 - > to do here at one dot com is to bring these tools together under 323 - > one platform for customers so they can choose what they need 324 - > for their business and do what they need for their business all 325 - > under one umbrella. 326 - > And that's tricky, right?

327 - > That's a hard thing to do. 328 - > Um, but what we've been focused on is how do we make that easier 329 - > for customers? 330 - > So here as a part of our organization, we have multiple 331 - > brands that are a part of our group umbrella that we are now 332 - > plugging in to make it easier for small businesses to again to 333 - > run their business online. 334 - > So I think in the end of the day, it's it's it comes down to 335 - > you got a lot you need to do as a small business to be 336 - > successful online.

337 - > What you need to look for is a partner that can help you do 338 - > those things easily and simply, to your point, and in a way that 339 - > makes it right kind of happening in the back end and you don't 340 - > need to worry about it. 341 - > And again, you don't need to manage all these different 342 - > relationships. 343 - > Totally. 344 - > SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's easier said than done um to have 345 - > this all in one platform.

346 - > Um, but it's, you know, the the upside speaks for itself. 347 - > Like you're saying, there's there's so many different tools. 348 - > There's so many different, the competition is higher than it's 349 - > ever been. 350 - > Um, but it's really all about you know, that full surface area 351 - > um uh of all the different possibilities uh and tools and 352 - > integrations that a customer might want for their business.

353 - > So it's not just like that that front door, so to speak, it's 354 - > the whole house. 355 - > Um and and and you're I imagine you're consistently, like you 356 - > mentioned, the umbrella of different products you guys um 357 - > have and different companies um trying to integrate that. 358 - > I'm sure you're you're just constantly adding new features, 359 - > new integrations. 360 - > You probably have a whole laundry list of different um, 361 - > you know, tools and whatnot to incorporate into your platform.

362 - > Um yeah, I'm just like what what changes when you have, I mean, 363 - > you you did address this, but when you have domain, email, 364 - > website, the store, all those things all in in one, what what 365 - > sort of changes when you have this one place for for 366 - > everything? 367 - > SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, I think in the you know, in the end of 368 - > the day, uh small business customers uh um are looking for 369 - > ways to to simplify their lives. 370 - > And you know, that simplification comes through the 371 - > amount um of of sort of complexity they have in trying 372 - > to navigate and manage technology.

373 - > Um and so I think what becomes important for customers is 374 - > having, excuse this expression, but like one neck to hold on to, 375 - > right? 376 - > Um and when you have a platform that provides that to customers, 377 - > if they have a problem with their booking tool, or if they 378 - > have a problem uh with their CRM integration, or if they have a 379 - > problem with their site, um, or if something's going on, they 380 - > want to add another domain, or they want to um increase the 381 - > capacity for for their email volume, whatever these things 382 - > might be, it's it's it's better, in my opinion, to have one 383 - > person to go to to solve those problems for you.

384 - > Um and I think that's what's important for small business 385 - > customers is having that single neck that they can maybe massage 386 - > as well as hold on to. 387 - > Uh, but but in the end of the day, really have that person or 388 - > that company that's there to support and help them, um, 389 - > whatever their needs might be. 390 - > And things go wrong in technology, right? 391 - > Like it's not perfect.

392 - > Things break all the time. 393 - > And, you know, we're not immune to that here at one.com. 394 - > Um, so when that does happen, like you don't want to have to 395 - > go down to the tire shop to fix your tires and then drive across 396 - > town to figure out what you need to do with your transmission and 397 - > then go across town because you know your glass is cracked, and 398 - > then go like like you just don't have time for that as a small 399 - > business.

400 - > So, how do we make it easier uh for these customers just to be 401 - > able to reach out to one person to get the help and support that 402 - > they need to solve the problems that they have? 403 - > SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, there's there's absolutely there's 404 - > there's a real peace of mind uh in knowing where to go when 405 - > something when something needs attention. 406 - > Absolutely. 407 - > Um, okay, so I know a lot of people get get sort of burned by 408 - > this where you you finally you launch a site, you feel good 409 - > about it, and then maybe it's six months later, maybe longer 410 - > than that.

411 - > Uh maybe sometimes it's like a month later, but something just 412 - > goes wrong, something breaks, and then it's back on the to-do 413 - > list. 414 - > You're starting to you know have to pull people from different 415 - > departments trying to tackle the issue. 416 - > Um, maybe you have an IT team, but chances are they're they're 417 - > probably pretty lean if they exist at all. 418 - > Um so there's this ongoing sort of maintenance tax that nobody 419 - > really talks about when you're first getting started.

420 - > I'm curious, how is AI changing that experience for business 421 - > owners? 422 - > Is it making it you know better or worse? 423 - > Um, or does it depend on the situation? 424 - > Curious to hear your thoughts on that.

425 - > SPEAKER_00: I mean, of course. 426 - > I mean, AI opens so many doors and so many opportunities, not 427 - > just for small business customers, for really anybody. 428 - > Um, but I think what's really changing here is how AI becomes 429 - > proactive, not just reactive. 430 - > And um there are hundreds, thousands of use cases of how uh 431 - > AI can support you with reactive responses to the questions you 432 - > have, even within maybe in the example here of building your 433 - > website.

434 - > Like, I want a website, right? 435 - > What kind of website do you want? 436 - > I want this type of website. 437 - > Okay, I will build it for you.

438 - > Um so it's reacting to what you're what you're telling it to 439 - > do. 440 - > Um, I think what's changing and what we're working on here is 441 - > how do we bring um agentic intelligence into our solutions 442 - > so customers don't even need to ask. 443 - > Um, and let me give you an example. 444 - > Uh maybe not necessarily something broke, but um, let's 445 - > use SEO as an example.

446 - > One of our um agents, our AI agents, is going to continuously 447 - > check how you're showing up in search engine optimization. 448 - > It's gonna check Google, it's gonna check where you're 449 - > falling, where your competitors are. 450 - > And it's gonna come back to you and it's gonna say, hey, oh, 451 - > FYI, you're on the third page. 452 - > One of the things I would recommend us doing is putting 453 - > additional content on your site that supports these types of 454 - > search terms.

455 - > Would you like me to do that for you? 456 - > Right now you have not only somebody looking out for your 457 - > business, checking those things for you, but also then saying, 458 - > not only is that available, but I'll actually just do it for 459 - > you. 460 - > You don't need to do anything. 461 - > If you want me to, that's what I'll go do for you.

462 - > And so certainly the customer is still in control, but you have 463 - > this now sort of agentic opportunity to build a much more 464 - > successful business without having to know what to do all 465 - > the time or not having to know what to ask. 466 - > Right. 467 - > It will tell you these are the things you want to go uh focus 468 - > on for your site and for your business. 469 - > And so I think that's pretty cool.

470 - > And I think that's really what's evolving with AI and how that's 471 - > changing from, again, this reactive to a more proactive 472 - > approach to really helping small businesses uh sort of navigate 473 - > the complexities of all of these tools that we've been talking 474 - > about. 475 - > SPEAKER_01: Absolutely. 476 - > Yeah, I mean, it's uh it's it's a wild, um, it's a wild, you 477 - > know, world we're we're journeying into with this AI um 478 - > and what's capable nowadays.

479 - > I mean, I was just uh vibe coding a website not too long 480 - > ago just to kind of test out the current state of AI with some of 481 - > the the leading you know um tools out there and LLMs. 482 - > And um, it's pretty, I mean, it's pretty amazing that you can 483 - > just sort of if you see a particular uh you know 484 - > attractive like carousel of uh feature or um of certain you 485 - > know various visuals, you can literally just sort of be like, 486 - > hey, I like this from the XYZ website.

487 - > Can you incorporate it to mine? 488 - > You know, and it'll just do that. 489 - > But then what you're talking about with the agentic 490 - > capabilities, being able to, you know, sort of cross reference 491 - > other websites and other resources out there and kind of 492 - > be proactive and say, Hey, I noticed you don't, your your 493 - > website doesn't have this page doesn't have this thing that you 494 - > might want. 495 - > Um, I can add that for you.

496 - > Or I was thinking too, if it's able to tap into some of the 497 - > metrics and analytics and say, hey, like we could. 498 - > Potentially get people to stay on your website, you know, 30 499 - > seconds longer by adding this feature, let's say. 500 - > You know, it's like with YouTube and the watch time, it's just 501 - > inevitably it drops off after people press play. 502 - > But uh the videos that really have uh a lasting impact, you 503 - > know, it'll um, you know, they have that hook up front, they 504 - > they kind of lay the the groundwork.

505 - > It's like things like that can help really uh, you know, help 506 - > the listener and viewer um stick around longer. 507 - > So I imagine all these different tools can be applied to the 508 - > website as well. 509 - > Um so they're just I don't know, it's really it's really 510 - > fascinating. 511 - > And I think there's also a little bit of a paradox 512 - > happening in AI right now, um, in terms of, you know, uh the 513 - > tools that are supposed to make things easier are also sort of 514 - > introducing their own learning curve, right?

515 - > Um prompt engineering is is a is a real skill nowadays. 516 - > Um and I think most small businesses don't have time to 517 - > really develop it. 518 - > Let's say I think for some, maybe of the younger audience, 519 - > like bored into it, they might have like they're starting to 520 - > get the get the hang of it. 521 - > Um and some some of it isn't pretty intuitive, but there's a 522 - > whole level of complexity with prompt engineering that I think 523 - > um is really starting to um you know show.

524 - > Um so I understand you guys have a new AI tool to help with all 525 - > this called IDA AI. 526 - > Um, so my question is, how does Ida AI make website creation 527 - > just feel more intuitive, feel more guided, less intimidating 528 - > for someone who just wants to get online? 529 - > SPEAKER_00: What we've done with ADA is is really sort of back to 530 - > this whole conversation is try to make it simple and easy for 531 - > small businesses to take back time and spend it on the things 532 - > that they love.

533 - > We just actually uh relaunched our website building product uh 534 - > with ADA driving it. 535 - > Um, and there's a couple of really cool things that I think 536 - > are important. 537 - > Um, the first one is a lot of customers already have a 538 - > website. 539 - > So they don't want to go back out and try and figure out how 540 - > to build a new one, right?

541 - > They got one. 542 - > Like, how do I just make it better? 543 - > Uh so one of the things that we've introduced with ADA is to 544 - > modernize. 545 - > Uh so it's a modernized function.

546 - > So all you have to do is put your URL into ADA, and ADA will 547 - > take a look at your site and recreate your website for you 548 - > using all the same content, all the same imagery, uh, et cetera, 549 - > and build you a brand new, refreshed site in minutes in 550 - > quotation marks, right? 551 - > And depending on how big your site is. 552 - > Um, but what's really cool about that for customers is you know, 553 - > this challenge of well, how do I make this better?

554 - > How do I bring it up to speed? 555 - > How do I make it cooler? 556 - > How do I make it more professional? 557 - > You know, I don't want to have to start from scratch when I've 558 - > already got something.

559 - > Like, how do I take that and and just modernize it? 560 - > You know, we're providing that, or ADA is providing that uh to 561 - > customers now. 562 - > So that's number one. 563 - > The second thing is, you know, this vibe coding stuff, it 564 - > requires some intelligence, right?

565 - > Like I gotta tell you, I'm probably not the most um savvy 566 - > uh technical person when it comes to trying to vibe code or 567 - > just tell uh an AI tool what I want it to do. 568 - > I I always get it wrong and stuff has gone wacky on me. 569 - > And I I don't know how to fix it, I don't know what question 570 - > to ask to fix the problem that exists. 571 - > Um what we tried to build with ADA is a super intuitive 572 - > platform for customers.

573 - > Again, you know, we're serving small businesses here. 574 - > So, you know, we're not trying to build highly complex uh 575 - > e-commerce engines for mid-market and large enterprises 576 - > like that. 577 - > Of course not, right? 578 - > So who we're solving for is, you know, relatively simple set of 579 - > needs.

580 - > Um so we don't need to make it complex in terms of what we're 581 - > asking customers um to tell us about their business. 582 - > Uh, we make it very simple. 583 - > Um, the other cool thing is that we we make it relevant to their 584 - > industry and relative relevant rather to their location, right? 585 - > So, you know, if you tell Ada, listen, I live in Copenhagen, 586 - > Denmark, as I do, and I want to build a site for you know 587 - > cycling tours around Denmark, it's going to select imagery for 588 - > you that represents where you are, right?

589 - > Instead of just pictures of people on bikes. 590 - > And I think those are the cool advancements in technology. 591 - > And what we've tried to build Ada to bring forward is 592 - > intelligence in that build that makes it simple with very 593 - > easy-to-use prompts. 594 - > So customers don't have to spend all this time trying to figure 595 - > out how to ask the agentic tool, hey, I want this or I want that, 596 - > or I need these things, or I want that to change or adjust.

597 - > I mean, you can certainly do that, but but the simplicity of 598 - > the questions that we ask and the simplicity of how we can get 599 - > to a quick site execution that is relevant to their business 600 - > and relevant to their location, I think is super powerful. 601 - > SPEAKER_01: So it's got that context awareness. 602 - > Um that's interesting. 603 - > Yeah.

604 - > Um, wow. 605 - > Okay. 606 - > So generative AI and website building is is um, you know, 607 - > it's it's democratized. 608 - > Everyone can really, you know, start building a website with 609 - > pretty much any run-of-the-mill LLM.

610 - > But the the thing that separates um, let's say ADA with uh, you 611 - > know, something from, I don't know, Chat GPT, OpenAI, Claude, 612 - > um, is is the the context awareness, the complexity 613 - > involved. 614 - > And I I read something uh around um like more than a third of new 615 - > websites generated are are generated or created with AI. 616 - > And that was like a month or so ago. 617 - > Now I'm sure it's it's it's much more than that.

618 - > Um and I think that figure was even pretty conservative to 619 - > begin with. 620 - > But it just makes me think of okay, you can create this 621 - > website, let's say, but like there's so much back-end, you 622 - > know, behind the scenes stuff that's involved. 623 - > Um and so by working with a dedicated, you know, platform 624 - > that actually can handle all the back-end stuff and all the 625 - > different tools and integrations and whatnot, you're gonna set 626 - > yourself up for success as opposed to um uh the headaches 627 - > in the future of just, you know, maybe creating a website with 628 - > Claude, let's say.

629 - > Um, because the that's sort of the the unsexy side of having a 630 - > website is just the stuff that doesn't show up in the 631 - > screenshots that but can cause all those those problems and 632 - > really, you know, go back to the time element. 633 - > Time is is the ultimate asset, and people in businesses don't 634 - > have the time to be spending fixing things and maintaining 635 - > their website. 636 - > They just want it to work. 637 - > Um, so my uh when it comes to SEO, you know, privacy, 638 - > compliance, and all that behind the scenes work, um, how much of 639 - > that can AI realistically take off a business owner's plate?

640 - > SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, as I mentioned before in the example 641 - > I used with uh the agentic approach to helping small 642 - > business customers understand how they can improve, you know, 643 - > their their um searchability, visibility online through 644 - > through search engines. 645 - > You know, certainly there's tools that that can help them do 646 - > that. 647 - > I think when it comes down to ultimately, you know, solving 648 - > some of the more complex issues, you know, you mentioned 649 - > compliance and other things.

650 - > Um I think it matters to have a partner that that understands 651 - > the um complexities of where you operate. 652 - > And certainly, you know, AI tools can do that. 653 - > But you know, there's a lot that goes behind that and is is not 654 - > just behind the scenes from an AI perspective, but also behind 655 - > the scenes from a just a platform perspective. 656 - > Um and I think where you operate matters.

657 - > Um you know, one of the things that that we're proud of here is 658 - > that we're a European company, we're a European business. 659 - > And the majority of our customers are here in Europe. 660 - > And and Europe has some very specific things that matter when 661 - > it comes to compliance, um, you know, certainly privacy, um, 662 - > that aren't as necessarily as um rigid as they might be in other 663 - > places around the world. 664 - > So I think making sure that you establish a partnership with 665 - > somebody that that understands those things and has built those 666 - > things into the platform.

667 - > And then, of course, enable the AI tools that we use to support 668 - > that ongoing is is super critical and super important for 669 - > small businesses. 670 - > Um, certainly the agents, as I mentioned before, can always be 671 - > checking the site. 672 - > Hey, there's things that are wrong here. 673 - > We need to update this, you know, this, you need a privacy 674 - > clause.

675 - > You, you know, these things are things these agents can 676 - > absolutely solve for customers. 677 - > And as I mentioned before, like we're we're just getting started 678 - > with this journey, and there's additional agents we'll be 679 - > adding here over time. 680 - > Um, but those are certainly places where I think AI can 681 - > help. 682 - > But again, I think the real critical and important piece of 683 - > this is not information.

684 - > It's not just simply telling a small business owner or a 685 - > website owner what the problem is. 686 - > It's actually doing something about it for them, right? 687 - > And that's really where I think the AI tool becomes powerful, is 688 - > not just in the inform, but actually in the do for. 689 - > Um, and again, you know, to my point earlier, I think that's 690 - > that's one of the things we've really focused on here is 691 - > there's lots of great AI tools out there.

692 - > You you mentioned yourself, right? 693 - > Like there's a ton, right? 694 - > There's small businesses that have got lots of choice. 695 - > Um, I think what becomes important is how does that tool 696 - > not just help me get online, but how does it help me run and grow 697 - > my business online and actually kind of do it for me in the end 698 - > of the day?

699 - > SPEAKER_01: Well, you mentioned the the some of the data uh and 700 - > privacy regulations um uh you know required for for companies 701 - > operating in Europe um and and abroad as well, but uh Europe is 702 - > really kind of leading the the charge there with with some of 703 - > these regulations with GDPR um among other things. 704 - > Um so um and I think small businesses are really expected 705 - > to hold themselves to the same standard as as some of these 706 - > bigger enterprises when it comes to things like GDPR and and and 707 - > SSL and just data handling in general.

708 - > Um but they're they have to do so with with obviously a lot 709 - > less resources, right? 710 - > So it can become a real, real challenge. 711 - > Um, and there's uh there's a gap as as well, and just a lot of 712 - > owners are just hoping they're covered, kind of fingers 713 - > crossed, I imagine. 714 - > Um, so how does one.

com just help simplify those concerns for 715 - > businesses that don't have like an IT team to make sure they're 716 - > compliant with everything. 717 - > SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like like I said before, I mean, I think the 718 - > important thing is knowing what they are and building the tools 719 - > and the technology to support them. 720 - > Um, you know, we have a whole department of people here that 721 - > are focused, you know, on our own compliance and privacy work. 722 - > And of course, you know, that easily translates into the tools 723 - > that we develop and we deploy for our customers.

724 - > But I think, you know, when it comes down to privacy and 725 - > compliance, and and back to your point a second ago, um, you 726 - > know, small businesses aren't any different than enterprises. 727 - > There is no um there's no leeway. 728 - > There's no like, oh, it's okay, you're small, you don't have to 729 - > do like there is a requirement, there's a legal requirement to 730 - > do certain things. 731 - > So so they they all have to operate under the same rules.

732 - > Um but I think what's important when we when we when we start to 733 - > look at um compliance and privacy um is you know, how are 734 - > we ultimately protecting as a as a business, as one dot com, how 735 - > are we protecting our customers and ensuring that they are set 736 - > up for for success and and we can take some of those those 737 - > concerns off their plate. 738 - > So as I said, you know, we we we operate here, we know the rules 739 - > here, and so they're pretty stricter, stricter than than 740 - > most other places in the world.

741 - > And so our technology is built to support those things. 742 - > And certainly the agents that we use are obviously developed in a 743 - > way that also will support that. 744 - > But I also think it falls on the business owner themselves to be 745 - > aware of those things and ensure them for themselves that they're 746 - > they're also following the proper standards. 747 - > Like I can develop a, I can integrate a CRM tool for you, 748 - > but you know, if if you choose not to allow customers to opt 749 - > out, like that's that's that's a rule that you need to make sure 750 - > that you're adhering to as a small business owner.

751 - > So we can certainly build that into the technology and support 752 - > customers in that journey. 753 - > But there's obviously got to be a level of awareness of what it 754 - > takes to run a bit a small business, dependent on where you 755 - > are in the world. 756 - > Um, and how do you ensure that you are set up for success there 757 - > too? 758 - > And the tools can certainly help, but you've got an 759 - > obligation as well.

760 - > SPEAKER_01: Yeah. 761 - > No, well very well said. 762 - > Like that's so true. 763 - > It's like you can you can bake in the protection, um, but 764 - > ultimately it's it's yeah, it's on the business owner to to you 765 - > know make sure they are um they integrate or they they apply um 766 - > what you guys offer.

767 - > Um and and also I think also the the being able to just kind of 768 - > offer uh resources and information about like, you 769 - > know, what is a SSL certificate and like what what is a cookie 770 - > policy supposed to say, you know, stuff like that, I think 771 - > could be super helpful. 772 - > But again, it does fall back ultimately on the business 773 - > owner. 774 - > SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and the agent, the AI can help you with that, 775 - > right? 776 - > Like it will script it for you.

777 - > It'll write it based on sort of what it understands to be the 778 - > rules and also sort of informed by all the other customers we 779 - > have, because you know, it's a continuous learning engine 780 - > around how do we set these things up properly for customers 781 - > depending on what market they're in. 782 - > And so certainly the ag tools can help for that, with that as 783 - > well. 784 - > But to your point, you know, it's definitely the 785 - > responsibility of the business owner to ensure they're 786 - > adhering.

787 - > SPEAKER_01: Now, uh another uh uh common um sort of trend we're 788 - > seeing nowadays in in addition to, you know, um AI website 789 - > building and and AI in general is this sort of introductory 790 - > pricing bait and switch, let's say, um, that people have 791 - > basically learned to uh distrust the number they're seeing at the 792 - > checkout because it's sort of it's it's usage-based. 793 - > Um, you know, one figure ends up being a completely different 794 - > figure for whatever reason.

795 - > Um I feel like they're they're already sort of mentally bracing 796 - > for what the bill is going to look like um after you know they 797 - > they sign on to work with a company. 798 - > Um so I'm curious, like how how is one dot com uh just trying to 799 - > make part of that experience uh more transparent? 800 - > What are you guys doing on that front? 801 - > SPEAKER_00: We talked earlier about the fact that I've been a 802 - > part of many different companies of various sizes uh uh across 803 - > the globe.

804 - > And I will say that this particular industry that is sort 805 - > of the domain hosting and even website building space has some 806 - > very aggressive pricing tactics from an acquisition standpoint. 807 - > Um and uh you know, I think customers can often run into 808 - > sticker shock uh if you or we as as um business partners with 809 - > them are not transparent in exactly what they're paying 810 - > today and and what they would be expected to pay tomorrow. 811 - > And so this is a constant struggle, and we we don't do it 812 - > right all the time.

813 - > I like because customers, to your point, see what they see up 814 - > front, they expect that to be the thing, and then of course, 815 - > you know, when they do get the sticker shock at renewal, um, 816 - > you know, they feel they feel cheated or or they feel like you 817 - > know they we weren't transparent with them. 818 - > So our job um is to ensure that we do that well. 819 - > Um and certainly um with things like domains and things like 820 - > hosting, that's a little bit more challenging because usually 821 - > those are used as acquisition tools generally.

822 - > Um but website building, we can be a lot more transparent, 823 - > right? 824 - > Because um uh we can be transparent on on the other 825 - > things as well, but but with website building, usually you're 826 - > sort of so there's more of a monthly cycle to what you're 827 - > doing. 828 - > It feels more like a SaaS product than it does sort of 829 - > purchasing, you know, a domain for a period of time or 830 - > purchasing a sort of a hosting solution for a period of time.

831 - > And so um one of the things we're thinking about is how do 832 - > we ensure that we, in this all-in-one solution, package it 833 - > together in a transparent way for customers so they understand 834 - > exactly what they're paying for. 835 - > Um, so so number one is certainly a level of 836 - > transparency. 837 - > Number two is ensuring that we're we're bringing things 838 - > together for customers so they feel like they have one thing 839 - > they're paying for over time.

840 - > Um, and then the last thing is back to your point, you know, AI 841 - > is tricky because, you know, this sort of notion of credits. 842 - > You can do only so many things. 843 - > And then you run out of tokens and you run out of credits or 844 - > whatever. 845 - > Um, and now you're paying, you know, you know, I just wanted to 846 - > like change the background color to blue, and now I gotta spend, 847 - > you know, whatever.

848 - > Um, you know, we are trying to build and construct our offering 849 - > and our solution to give customers much more flexibility. 850 - > Um, you know, that's tricky, right? 851 - > Because AI comes at a cost. 852 - > So we're trying to balance that as we deliver uh and develop and 853 - > deliver these tools to customers and be transparent in that 854 - > journey with them.

855 - > Um so yeah, so I think this is that this is a challenging area 856 - > for our industry generally. 857 - > Um, and I think what we have an obligation as providers of that 858 - > technology is to be fully transparent with customers and 859 - > do our best to call out the price you pay today and what 860 - > what you would be expected to pay in the future, sort of based 861 - > on that acquisition pricing strategy. 862 - > You know, but but again, you know, certainly small business 863 - > customers and customers in general, you know, like what 864 - > they see and that's what they expect, and that's what they're 865 - > gonna expect forever.

866 - > So, you know, that's always gonna be a challenge, but but 867 - > it's something that we certainly focus on every day on my team. 868 - > SPEAKER_01: That's that's I think reassuring to hear for uh 869 - > customers, perspective customers. 870 - > I I think it's it's it's an uncomfortable topic just talking 871 - > about pricing and things are changing so fast with AI um that 872 - > it's it's tough to it's tough to nail down one price that will 873 - > that will stand the test of time, um, with especially when 874 - > you have the geopolitical like uh inflation and whatnot.

875 - > Um and I think AI too is you know, it's uh a lot of companies 876 - > are operating um with the hopes of becoming profitable in the 877 - > future. 878 - > And so they're kind of just like dangling this carrot of of tools 879 - > and stuff and then and then um with the goal of, you know, or 880 - > very real possibility uh plan of raising the prices um to support 881 - > and sustain the business. 882 - > Um and the ultimate goal, like goal right now, the short term, 883 - > is just getting as many customers as possible.

884 - > And so there's uh I mean I've read a number of articles about 885 - > this and and how um basically don't get too comfortable with 886 - > with the the prices you're paying now because they are 887 - > almost inevitably going to go up as some of these margins really 888 - > tighten um and um profitability becomes a much more desired 889 - > target. 890 - > SPEAKER_00: I think it's a really good point to make. 891 - > And I certainly can't speak to the future from a pricing 892 - > perspective here, but what I what I can what I can talk about 893 - > is value.

894 - > Um and I think that's the important thing that we have to 895 - > do. 896 - > We have to bring value, we have to create value for for our 897 - > small business customers. 898 - > And that value comes in supporting them in growing their 899 - > business. 900 - > Their profitability is not gonna come necessarily from saving an 901 - > extra 10 bucks, 10 euros, whatever, 10 kroner a month in 902 - > some technology fee.

903 - > It's gonna come from a 20% increase in the number of 904 - > customers they've got or a 25% increase in the number of sales 905 - > they get. 906 - > Um so the scalability factor of growth is far more valuable than 907 - > the cost savings of technology at a certain point, right? 908 - > But but certainly, and I think that's really, really important 909 - > um, because that's what we need to be delivering to customers, 910 - > conscious of price and conscious of making sure that we we help 911 - > them balance that profitability equation, but really support 912 - > them in the thing that's ultimately going to make them 913 - > them successful um is is the growth piece of it.

914 - > SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely. 915 - > I think that's that's so true. 916 - > And and being able to, yeah, help them scale, offer those 917 - > tools, and then just think about it like, you know, you're saving 918 - > how do what do you put how how do you put a price on the time 919 - > you're saving and the lack of of a headache and right? 920 - > So um I think from that standpoint, um, you know, the 921 - > value is is really um is really absolutely there.

922 - > And um and then again, circling back to just being 923 - > straightforward and transparent about things and where things 924 - > are going. 925 - > Um and if things, if the pricing does change, just you know, give 926 - > um give customers a heads up. 927 - > Um uh I know Copilot um recently was in the news for this, and 928 - > they've been, you know, back in December, they announced they 929 - > were switching to a usage-based uh model, pricing model. 930 - > And, you know, here we are in June.

931 - > They just made the switch. 932 - > They gave customers a six-month window. 933 - > Um, obviously, you know, a lot of the headlines capture the 934 - > frustration and the the differences. 935 - > Um, but at least it was, you know, it was it was the 936 - > messaging was there.

937 - > Uh at least they they had this window of um information there 938 - > to deliver. 939 - > So circling back around or just kind of bringing this home, 940 - > let's say. 941 - > Um, we've obviously covered a lot of ground. 942 - > We've covered the tech, we've covered the pricing, we've 943 - > covered the AI layer.

944 - > Um, but I would just like to bring it back to the to the 945 - > person on the other end. 946 - > So let's close with with the you know, is this for me question um 947 - > that I know some folks are listening and are probably 948 - > asking themselves. 949 - > Um, in regards to the AI website builder you have with ADA, um, 950 - > who is it really built for and where should they go to learn 951 - > more? 952 - > SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so our our website building technology and 953 - > and ADA specifically is is here to serve and support you know 954 - > small businesses across Europe and you know across the globe.

955 - > You can access and use ADA if you're anywhere in the globe, 956 - > and actually it will speak to you in your language if you'd 957 - > like. 958 - > So that's pretty cool. 959 - > Um, but but really we're here to serve and support uh small 960 - > businesses across Europe. 961 - > Um, you know, and our goal is to do exactly what I said, right?

962 - > Give them time back to focus on the things that they really care 963 - > about, bring them more insights in the technology and tools that 964 - > we provide them, and make it simple for them to run their uh 965 - > front office, right, online with one partner and one provider. 966 - > And so that's what we're here to do. 967 - > That's what we're here to provide, and that's who we're 968 - > here to serve. 969 - > And the easiest way to learn more uh about us and learn more 970 - > about ADA is just to go to one.

com, uh go to our website 971 - > and try it out. 972 - > We have a 14-day free trial. 973 - > Um, we we continue to add features and uh other other 974 - > tools for for our customers, which will be coming and rolling 975 - > out over the course of the few months here. 976 - > But but come and give us a try, right?

977 - > Um, because you know there's there's no no risk in coming in. 978 - > If you got a website, throw your URL URL in and see what we can 979 - > we can build for you quickly. 980 - > Um and uh if you don't and you're just trying to figure out 981 - > if you'd like to build a small business and you want to play 982 - > around with the tool, then you certainly have that opportunity 983 - > as well. 984 - > SPEAKER_01: Perfect.

985 - > All right. 986 - > Well, be sure to uh drop that link in the show notes so nobody 987 - > has to go hunting for it. 988 - > One.com.

989 - > Um and then Chris, um I imagine you're over on LinkedIn, but is 990 - > there a place you'd like to send people to get in contact with 991 - > you? 992 - > SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure. 993 - > LinkedIn is great. 994 - > Uh you can find me, Chris Spleen on LinkedIn.

995 - > That's probably the best way to reach out to me if you have any 996 - > other questions. 997 - > SPEAKER_01: Perfect. 998 - > All right. 999 - > Well, this has been a really, really great conversation.

1000 - > I really feel like we covered, you know, um a lot of ground, 1001 - > the full picture, getting started, um, some of the 1002 - > nitty-gritty AI details and uncomfortable pricing topics and 1003 - > compliance and whatnot. 1004 - > So um, but yeah, thank you so much for just for being on the 1005 - > on the on the show and um for sharing all the insights you 1006 - > shared with us. 1007 - > My pleasure. 1008 - > Thanks so much for the time today, Bo.

1009 - > SPEAKER_00: Thanks. 1010 - > SPEAKER_01: And thank you all for listening to the SourceForge 1011 - > podcast. 1012 - > I am your host, Bo Hamilton. 1013 - > Make sure to subscribe to stay up to date with all of our 1014 - > upcoming B2B software related podcasts.

1015 - > I will talk to you in the next one.