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Clarke McKinnon came into Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management wanting to go into corporate entrepreneurship, but he soon realized he could have a greater impact and leadership position if he started his own business.

In 2019, McKinnon, who graduated from SU in 2014, launched The.com alongside his brother, Jeff McKinnon, with a goal of making the web more composable and collaborative. The two had $4.4 million in seed funding.

The McKinnons’ business breaks down templates, a standard way to build websites, into customizable “blocks.” A block is a “reusable website building unit,” such as a header or a banner, according to The.com.

Users can press a “create sites” button on The.com, which makes blocks appear as editable cells where a user can directly adjust website features such as font size. This “low-code” construction makes website building more accessible to the population outside of engineers, McKinnon said.

The website can be traced to McKinnon’s first website agency, AFJ Venture Strategy, which he created at the end of his sophomore year, also working alongside his brother.

During his freshman year at SU, McKinnon met Ray Wimer, a professor at Whitman. McKinnon said Wimer noticed his entrepreneurial spirit while he was a student, and Wimer was critical in McKinnon’s journey to realizing his potential.

“I thought the unique characteristic about Clarke is his inquisitiveness and curiosity,” Wimer said. “It wasn’t always in the class. It was usually after the class — he would come up and ask a question or make a comment that showed he was thinking a step or two ahead.”

At AFJ, McKinnon helped build thousands of websites, but he said he was frustrated by the traditional website construction technology that utilizes templates. He added that a template makes websites look identical even though everyone is telling a different story.

From his frustration grew the backbone of The.com, which breaks down the web into “atomic pieces” where developers can grab different aspects of other websites, such as a footer or navigation tool, to create their own website. McKinnon said simplifying the website construction process is something he was put on earth to solve.

“In terms of business ideas, you really need to find something that has either made your life worse for long enough or something you are super passionate about,” he said.

McKinnon had both.

Scott Friedberg, who has remained close with McKinnon since their time together at SU, has supported him throughout the development of The.com.

“Clarke is a very thoughtful person, also very detail-oriented in all aspects of his life,” Friedberg said. “That carried through to his business.”

Friedberg said The.com’s success working with creators and building more than 4,000 websites in the last six months is a culmination of the years of experience McKinnon has had in website building.

“(The McKinnon brothers) have been very strategic in how they maneuver through that opportunity, and have never been stuck in their ways, always working with the developments in the industry to make sure they have the right product for that particular time,” Friedberg said. “What they have right now is genius.”

https://t.co/JQgoCjFUqI builds with one goal in mind: bringing a community of creators together.

— The.com (@the__com) March 6, 2022

When asked about the qualities that contribute to an entrepreneur’s success, McKinnon responded with persistence, self-confidence and being able to let things go.

Being persistent is something McKinnon said he learned from his business partner and brother. Watching the persistence he demonstrated in reaching out to potential connections frequently, Clarke McKinnon was motivated to do the same.

As a freshman at SU, McKinnon listened to Jerry McDougal talk to students. McDougal, an executive at Apple at the time, was one of the first senior businesspeople McKinnon came in contact with, and he inspired McKinnon to want to join their ranks.

McKinnon reached out to McDougal on LinkedIn every two months with no response, he said. It took him three years to finally get a response from McDougal, who eventually gave him advice.

Persistence isn’t perceived as a negative to senior business people, McKinnon said.

“You kind of have to look at it (starting a business) as a marathon,” McKinnon said. “As long as you are moving towards the finish line, it is a good thing.”

Published on March 21, 2022 at 12:26 am

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