For the average person, our twenties are a time to play, study and experiment as we anticipate the start of our career around the thirty mark. However, for Michelle Marcelline - a young 24 year old from Indonesia - nothing could be further from the truth.
Michelle was fortunate to attend college in the US, first it was Diablo Valley College, where she met her winning team of co-founders, and then she graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles. This is where she found the inspiration to really dream big as she brushed shoulders with some of the greatest minds of modern technology. It's undeniable, Silicon Valley is the place to be for tech startup success.
Michelle recalls watching the Silicon Valley TV series when she was younger and, although she loved the action and business insight, she never even fathomed that she could be a part of that world. Her team of co-founders really helped to push her outside of her comfort zone and, upon reflecting on this new chapter in her life, Michelle encourages other young entrepreneurs to face the fear of failure and insecurities: "It's okay to be the dumbest person in the room and surround yourself with smarter people. That way, you will grow."
The First Home Run
Michelle first stepped into the limelight - with fellow co-founders Kevin Chandra, Albert Purnama, Putri Karunia, and Anthony Christian - when admitted into the highly-prestigious Y-Combinator's winter 2020 batch. They emerged from the process with a hugely successful startup business, Cotter, a passwordless authentication platform that was then acquired by Stytch at the end of 2021. While some entrepreneurs may have felt satisfied after a big success, for this team of co-founders, it only created more drive and ambition to develop new brilliant ideas.
Rounding the Bases Again
It was actually through the development of their first product that the idea for a second venture emerged. As a marketing effort for Cotter, the team built plugins for a selection of no-code website builders, allowing people with no coding skills to add the tool to their websites.
Around this same time Notion, the note-taking app, had become very popular and the team started to receive requests for a plugin for Cotter and Notion. They were surprised that Notion was so popular as a website builder, but discovered that its simple interface is quite similar to Microsoft Word and Google Docs, making it a popular choice for those less than tech-savvy. That being said, Notion lacked some essential website building elements, such as buttons and navigation bars. It was immediately obvious to these brilliant founders that they had another golden opportunity right under their noses.
Typedream is a no-code website builder with a note-taking interface. It is easy to use and is quickly becoming the go-to website builder for the next generation for both its design and functionality. The team kept the interface simple, using Notion as inspiration. Users are able to build fresh-looking websites with design features like gradients, glassmorphism (blur) navigation bars, containers with shadows (cards), and elements (texts/buttons) over an asset (video/image). From start to finish it is possible to create and publish a website - without any coding skills at all - in as quickly as 10 minutes.
Not only is the platform making it easy for anyone to build their own website, it allows those who do have the coding knowledge to streamline the process so that they can focus on their content and product. The team also recognizes that user demands will evolve over time, and they're committed to staying on trend and developing the platform to meet those demands.
As the team's lead business developer, Michelle has been busy building sample websites on the platform and she has also taken the reins on the company's social media platforms. She explains that "[Typedream is] currently serving a new generation of creators on the internet especially in Web3, such as for NFT minting pages, as well as landing pages and personal sites."
Within this new and modern landscape of blockchain and crypto, there is a heightened level of interaction between a company and its community. Michelle has plugged into this concept brilliantly by involving their Twitter community in every significant decision, such as what product to build next or how a new feature looks and functions.
After Michelle and her team were recently featured on Forbes esteemed "30 Under 30" list for 2022, it is clear that they are not afraid to try new things and step outside of their comfort zone. Michelle has a keen eye for growing trends, and is excited to push the team forward to meeting the ever-changing demands in the industry. We've seen two huge success stories with Cotter and Typedream. We can't wait to see what this innovative group comes up with next!
