Generative AI has increased productivity in several fields, including website creation. Established players like Wix and bootstrapped companies like Relume enable users to create site designs by specifying their needs in prompts. Armenian business 10Web feels it has an advantage in the competition.
10Web uses text prompts to create WordPress websites, which are notoriously difficult for novices. WordPress, unlike Wix and Squarespace, is open-source and requires extensive site design skills to utilize. It also doesn’t provide hosting services, so users must handle additional backend responsibilities.
Due to its customizable features, w3techs believes that 40% of websites use WordPress. Shopify came in second amid a rise in direct-to-consumer e-commerce as suppliers create their online storefronts with the Canadian startup instead of Amazon.
10Web’s Yerevan-based engineering team added generative AI models, including Llama 2, GPT-4, and Stable Diffusion, to WordPress to make it easier to use. “Architecturally, building a platform for WordPress is not easy,” said 10Web co-founder Arto Minasyan, who also operates Krisp, a machine learning business that reduces background noise from audio.
Your hosting infrastructure must be excellent. WordPress security, backups, and uptime need managed services. He said, “All those things are very, very hard because each website is an instance.” In contrast, if you’re using a closed-source solution like Wix or Squarespace, you design one backend and produce pages for each website.
WordPress’s two million developers give Minasyan confidence that improving usability will pay off. Founded in 2017, 10Web has a good cash flow. About 20,000 of its users pay (Minasyan indicated that some SMB clients may have hundreds of websites). Overall, 10Web has created 1.5 million sites.
10Web might charge per website or per visitor. It will introduce a payment mechanism so users may charge consumers, and 10Web will earn a commission.
Minasyan claimed the firm generates $5 million in yearly recurring income and will reach $25 million by next year. Armenia’s ideal location helped the firm develop, according to the founder. Armenia has inexpensive engineering skills like other former Soviet states.
“Armenia has AI talent four times cheaper than the U.S. “We can get the best AI talent here,” the entrepreneur said. It’s hard to acquire top talent for a California web builder because of Google, Amazon, and OpenAI.
Armenia’s first unicorn, Picsart, launched in the capital city’s innovation area and sets an example for other companies. Given Armenia’s modest economy, entrepreneurs have traditionally visited the U.S. These strategies are shared by 10Web’s 70-person crew, which hires engineers in Armenia to take advantage of local tech expertise and marketing and business development personnel in the U.S. Having a U.S. presence may also boost funding.
“99% of Armenian startups target the U.S. market,” claimed the entrepreneur. If you require less than $1 million, you may raise from Armenian VCs, but if you need a few million for seed or tens of millions for Series A, go to the U.S.”
