Creative Journeys with Hannah & Nick Ippolito, Founders of SquareKicker
The Creative Journeys series, powered by Squarespace, delves into the experiences of five self-employed creatives – Evie Kemp, Becca O’shea, Mark Easterbrook and Hannah & Nick Ippolito – exploring their creative pathways.
Find out how Hannah and Nick haves crafted a livelihood aligned to their values in the article below and watch their candid conversation with the other creatives on demand.
Kia ora Hannah & Nick. Can you share a bit about your background and what led you to make the pivot from designers to entrepreneurs?
Our entrepreneurial journey started during the great stay home mission of 2020. At the time both of us were working in our individual business, Nick as a web designer and Hannah as a photographer. When the lockdown came we found ourselves with no client work and a little too much time on our hands (if you don’t count suddenly having to homeschool our 3 kids). Nick had been playing with the first basic ideas of what would become SquareKicker and, along with Rowan Findlay, who was working in the web design business with Nick, they decided to spend their time working further on this idea. After a few weeks it was obvious that this was going to be an exciting opportunity so Hannah joined the team to run the business and marketing side of things and we added Nat Booth to the team as another developer.
Take us through your business journey so far with Squarekicker. Were there any challenges or experiences that were key to shaping and influencing where you’ve landed today?
The journey into running a software startup has been fast and furious. The first SquareKicker product was launched 6 months into our first year and the business has grown rapidly from that moment. We are now a team of 14 and will be launching our second product in August 2024. With this kind of fast growth we have had to learn quickly and constantly. The biggest shift for us is moving from being hands-on creatives to business owners and leaders. This new role has been such a privilege as well as a challenge. We have had to develop our skills quickly, relying on advice from friends, podcasts, books and other business leaders. I honestly don’t think we would have been able to move through these challenges without a strong supportive community.
Can you talk a little to your personal values and lifestyle choices that help you navigate the often blurred lines of balancing business with daily life?
One large factor in us staying successful is that we are partners in life and business. This allows us to keep each other in check if one of us notices the balance drifting. The work is never going to be complete inside a 9-5 so it’s great that we can brainstorm together over late night takeaways and help each other with projects while we watch a few episodes of tv on our couch. There are so many advantages to running an online business. You can be flexible, work from anywhere etc. but this also comes with the flip side of feeling pressured to work everywhere, all the time. We try to keep a check on this for ourselves and our team. We have built rhythms into our office culture to remind us of these values with things like coffee walks every week, team lunches every month and flexible hours.
We have also tried to be very intentional with the values of SquareKicker, making sure they remain clear with the team and any decisions we make. Having the vision, mission and values of the company set early in our journey has helped give a frame to any challenging decisions we have needed to make.
Are there any work day rituals, tools, or routines you find essential?
One of the things we love most are our team retros where we get together every fortnight to celebrate our wins, talk about improvements we can make and share what we are looking forward to. This allows us time to slow down, refocus and support each other.
When it came to choosing a website build platform to base a no-code design tool off of, why Squarespace?
Even before we built SquareKicker, Nick was prioritising Squarespace for his builds with clients. It is a fantastic platform for getting online fast with a beautiful website that is easy to maintain. Web designers don’t want to worry about the overhead of managing a server or code updates which can slow down the website’s development process and take away from creativity. With Squarespace, all your focus can just be on design and content. However, if you wanted to really exercise your creativity and build something that stands out, you had to find another platform or add your own custom code, which not everyone has the time or ability to do. We saw the opportunity to eliminate a pain point using a no-code design tool that empowers designers and allows the freedom to build custom websites without the complexity. We realised this was something that no one had ever built for Squarespace due to its lack of third party integration, but with enough creativity and courage we set off on a mission that many thought could never be done.
What’s one thing you wish more designers knew about Squarespace’s functionality and the opportunities for customisation?
From our experience, many web designers that build websites for their clients using Squarespace have tried many other platforms in the past, but keep coming back to Squarespace because they love the drag-and-drop design experience along with its seamless client hand-off learning curve. These intuitive design tools feel natural to use and don’t get in the way of their creativity which enable them to build websites at speed that are beautiful, mobile responsive and easy to use. This makes their websites affordable and their clients happy. The challenge that often occurs is when their client wants a site that has a few extra requirements or a bigger brand wants a specific design that Squarespace’s out-of-the-box design tools do not allow for. Unfortunately some designers settle for a less intuitive platform that they know will have this functionality, but will take a lot more time and create a steep learning curve for the client. Some designers also attempt to code these features themselves using code plugins or copy and paste snippets of code found on the internet. This slows down the build time and causes frustration when trying to get code to work the way their client wants. At the same time this custom code can often make the website very complex and not intuitive to use, which was the main reason to use Squarespace in the first place. Using SquareKicker not only empowers designers to build the kind of websites their clients want but allows them to customise their work with an intuitive no-code design tool. Designers can finally create custom websites at speed with no added complexity and keep the client happy with a website that is beautiful, as well as unique and simple to use.
What tips and tricks have you learned over the years that help you stay productive and inspired?
Keep an eye on your why! Our company vision is to empower designers to live the life they want. When deadlines are tight or things aren’t falling easily into place, remembering who we are building for and the impact we can have is really inspiring. On a practical level, one of the ways we do this is by keeping our customer as the first priority in our decision making. We have a Slack channel called “Best Wishes, Warmest Regards” (yes that’s a Schitt’s Creek throwback) where we post user feedback so the whole team has a chance to see what our customers are saying, not just the social media and customer support teams.
What advice would you give to aspiring Aotearoa NZ, creative entrepreneurs looking to design a life and career aligned with their values?
Be curious and courageous! Be curious to find and explore a problem and courageous enough to try building a solution. And of course, interview your target audience asap! The best way to start successfully is to deeply understand your customer, their goals, their pain points and what solutions they may have already tried for solving the problem you are trying to address. This is the fastest way to product market fit.
Lastly, where can we find your work online?
You can find us at squarekicker.com, insta, facebook and linkedin.
Visit squarespace.com/designassembly and use the code ‘designassembly’ for 20% off a new annual subscription*
About Squarespace
Squarespace is a design-driven platform helping entrepreneurs build brands and businesses online. We empower millions in more than 200 countries and territories with all the tools they need to create an online presence, build an audience, monetise, and scale their business. Our suite of products range from websites, domains, ecommerce, and marketing tools, as well as tools for scheduling with Acuity and creating and managing social media presence with Bio Sites and Unfold. For more information, visit www.squarespace.com/designassembly.
Enter promocode DESIGNASSEMBLY at checkout by 11.59PM NZST on September 30, 2024 to receive 20% off your purchase of a new subscription plan for a Squarespace website. Discount applies to the first payment of an annual or monthly website plan, but does not apply to future recurring payments. Discount may not be applied to previous purchases, subscription upgrades, combined with any other offer or applied after September 30, 2024 to purchases made before expiration of this offer. Use of Squarespace is subject to the Squarespace Terms of Service posted at https://www.squarespace.com/terms-of-service.
