Getting to know you: David Rusenko

What do you currently do?

I am the founder and CEO of Weebly, the easiest way for entrepreneurs to create a site, build an ecommerce store, and grow and promote their business.

What was the inspiration behind your business?

While in college, I realised that creating a website was too difficult for most people. Being online is critically important when you want to start and grow your business, and Weebly aims to help entrepreneurs around the world succeed.

Who do you admire?

“Richard Branson. He is a fearless entrepreneur who has trail-blazed the notion of reinventing industries and has a list of successes in his path. I was fortunate enough to meet with him a few years ago as one of a few people with a Galactic ticket to space. Here’s a guy who is bold, creative and hard working enough to attempt to make space travel attainable to anyone in this lifetime. That’s inspiring and his gusto encourages me to lead by example by pitching and executing on big ideas in our industry of building an online business.”

Looking back is there anything you would have done differently?

There are lots of things I’ve learned along the way and that I’d do differently in hindsight, but no major regrets.

What defines your way of doing business?

Our two core values are Radical Respect + Honesty = Trust, and Simplicity in Everything. These govern everything we do, all the way from the way we design our product, our internal culture at the company, and our relationship with our customers.

What advice would you give to someone starting out?

One, just get started. Lots of people have a dream, but very few people act on that dream instead of just talking about it. Two, don’t stop. It is impossibly difficult to start something from nothing, and it sometimes takes the world a while to catch up. Most people end up quitting way too early, and you haven’t failed until you’ve given up.