Webflow community grant application
Yo Como Webflow
Hello, this is Mason. I’m 293 days into Duolingo. However, if I were attempting to learn Webflow, with my level of Spanish, I would be stuck somewhere between trying to find the bathroom and saying I can eat an apple.
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When Edgar Allan began working with international clients and teams, I couldn’t help but think of the challenge of working in a second language — not to mention all of the people who don’t speak English, and are thus limited in their ability to have access to modern tools like Webflow.
So, at the beginning of the year, we set out to make a difference.
Our response to this call has been initiating multiple avenues of connection between Webflow and the Spanish community. We have learned and grown on various platforms such as Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Spotify, to engage people wherever they might be. Now, less than a year into the effort, we have built the world’s largest Webflow-focused Spanish community, one week at a time. And yet there is still so much opportunity.
Today, I am applying to the Webflow Community Grant Program, so we can take what has been started and with Webflow's help, scale this budding community into something even more impactful.
We are open to any level of investment. It could be to help promote what we have started, provide funding so we can dedicate additional internal resources to support this community, or do something more ambitious like translate a Webflow 101 crash course. (Audition video below). And if we were to dream even bigger, it would be to take what we have learned about the transcreation of content and share it as a blueprint so that others could replicate the model for other languages and communities worldwide.
Spanish Webflow University Audition Video
What are you looking to achieve with the grant?
We want to help more people break the code barrier by first helping people break the language barrier.
The reality is that much of the Webflow world is in English. This means that for anyone trying to break into the tech field — but especially non-English speakers — a huge language gap can make the task seem insurmountable. At that point the challenge isn’t trying to learn a new tool, or how everything works, or even connecting with new people; it’s trying to do all of that in a second language.
This is our challenge
As we looked around for where we could make a contribution to the Webflow community, we realized that the Spanish-speaking demographic was an underrepresented group with an amazing talent pool.
We began by giving the Spanish-speaking demographic of Webflow users a voice and the credit they deserve, while doing so and expressing themselves in their first language. As Florencia would say, she is much funnier in Spanish.
From that dual premise, Webflow Café was born.
Webflow Café is a weekly live show with Edgar Allan hosts Felix and Florencia (from Spain and Argentina, respectively) that not only encourages participation from the Spanish-speaking Webflow community, but also gives English-speaking Webflow users an opportunity to practice international language skills and learn from our Spanish-speaking peers in their own language.
The Café has focused on open dialogue, sharing of information and has included a wide range of guests.
Who/what groups of people does your initiative impact?
Our goal is to grow the Spanish-speaking Webflow community.
Since launching the first episode of Webflow Café, a name inspired by Argentina café culture, in summer (January) 2022, the format already has evolved in several ways and received hundreds of views (and dare we say rave reviews?) across platforms.
Originally we posted content on Twitter Spaces as an easy way for people to pop on, but we quickly learned that an audio-only format is only appealing to an online audience for so long. After all, Webflow itself is a visual content management system (CMS)…so why not adopt a visual approach? It wasn’t long before our hosts became the faces of the show, turning to livestreaming, complete with interactive chat and guest Q&A.
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Whether you’re new to Webflow and just starting out, or you’ve been using the platform for years, there are skills for everyone to learn or improve! Episode topics range from step-by-step tutorials of Webflow basics like building a blog to exploring more advanced UI and UX design techniques, such as creating a client dashboard.
“We’re trying to find the balance between attracting new people and making sure that the people who already know Webflow don’t get bored. We especially love ‘happy beginning’ stories from new Webflowers – some of whom even have ‘graduated’ from Webflow with qualifying tests and have become official Webflow Experts since starting to practice and watch our show!” - @Florencia
Our accomplishments by the numbers include:
- 15 (and counting) streams on Twitch and YouTube
- 13 podcast episodes
- 98 Twitch subscribers
- 141 Luma community members
Other areas of impact include:
- Creating Spanish native cloneables in both Webflow and Figma
- Managing and facilitating conversations in Discord and Twitter with the Webflow Spanish community
- Helping connect Webflowers around Latin America. Lima even had their first meetup!
- Streaming along with design communities in Latam
- Translating Edgar Allan’s own Knockout framework into Spanish
- Developing a directory of Webflow resources in Spanish
- Providing visibility to Webflowers in our streams to present cool things they have learned
Why are we a good fit to help push this forward?
- Edgar Allan has been working in Webflow as a Webflow agency for close to a decade.
- We have 8 full-time members who are bilingual representing Spain, Argentina, and Peru.
- We have helped enterprise clients such as Betterfly create multi-language sites with translation and localization solutions.
¡Vamos!
There is so much good to be done — to help more people grow in their careers, to help Webflow grow as a platform, and to help grow as a global community. We are excited to be at the beginning stages of this moment, and look forward to continuing to share the spirit of Webflow with the world.
Thank you,
Felix, Florencia, Pablo, Kevin, Mayra, Ivo, Martin, Analiz, and Mason