Building and Managing IPs with Jeff McKinnon

Jeff is the founder of The.com, a company that offers a revolutionary new way to create, build, own and manage IP through the use and remix of Blocks. The.com was founded in 2019 by a team of serial founders and leading web developers in Boulder, Colorado.

In this slogging AMA, Jeff shares the origins of The.com, web3 design, programming and much more.

This Slogging thread by Mónica Freitas, Jeff McKinnon, Jack Boreham, Jane Sorkin, Riley, Clarke McKinnon, Sara Pinto and Abeer occurred in slogging's official #amas channel, and has been edited for readability.

Mónica FreitasMar 15, 2022, 4:00 PM

Hey @channel, please join me in welcoming our next AMA guest, Jeff McKinnon. Jeff is the founder of http://The.com, a company that offers a revolutionary new way to create, build, own and manage IP through the use and remix of Blocks. http://The.com was founded in 2019 by a team of serial founders and leading web developers in Boulder, Colorado.
Please feel free to ask Jeff anything about:

Mónica FreitasMar 15, 2022, 4:02 PM

Hi Jeff McKinnon! It's great to have you with us! Can you start by telling us a bit about yourself, your background and http://The.com?

Jeff McKinnonMar 15, 2022, 4:03 PM

Absolutely! Hi everyone! thanks for having me and http://The.com team here for the ama today! I'm Jeff one of the founders of http://The.com along with my brother Clarke.

Jeff McKinnonMar 15, 2022, 4:03 PM

It is an exciting time for http://The.com right now as we just launched some really cool features and our $4.4m Seed round led by NFX on https://tcrn.ch/32CrdTT

Jeff McKinnonMar 15, 2022, 4:05 PM

To give everyone the formal description of the platform:

Jack BorehamMar 15, 2022, 4:10 PM

Hi Jeff McKinnon, so is http://The.com built on the blockchain?

Jeff McKinnonMar 15, 2022, 4:11 PM

Hi Jack Boreham!

It actually is not built on-chain, We are built using some cool technology, classified as Serverless technology and the sites are deployed statically.

We do have Web3 ethos built into the platform though.

We have ownership and composability built into this concept called Blocks.

Jeff McKinnonMar 15, 2022, 4:23 PM

Blocks reusable sections of websites like headers, footers, galleries etc. These are all owned by the original creators. Those peoples creations always are attributed for every use of it

Jane SorkinMar 15, 2022, 4:21 PM

Do you have any build sessions I can attend or a community to network with others?

Jeff McKinnonMar 15, 2022, 4:24 PM

Hey Jane Sorkin!

Yes, we do live-build sessions twice a week on Wednesdays and Fridays!

Jane SorkinMar 15, 2022, 4:27 PM

What's the link?

Is it http://the.com/community haha?

Jeff McKinnonMar 15, 2022, 4:28 PM

Ding ding ding!

Jane Sorkin why don't you introduce yourself and the community side.

Jane SorkinMar 15, 2022, 4:37 PM

Haha hi everyone! I'm the community lead at http://the.com!

We got some cool events happening this week (come join).

https://join.slack.com/t/thecom-community/shared_invite/zt-b43kkovl-bMP5JNHhO3NJ2npQ_Sfz_w!


Events for the week

Tuesday -https://twitter.com/JaneSorkin/status/1502405792254681088
Wednesday - http://evt.to/aehaeioow
Thursday - Web3 and NoCode/LowCode with Riley (link will be posted)
Friday - http://evt.to/aehaeioswhttp://The.com

Mónica FreitasMar 15, 2022, 4:54 PM

Jeff McKinnon, so what made you want to start The.com? Were you already involved in programming?

Jeff McKinnonMar 15, 2022, 4:56 PM

Actually, Clarke and I build and scale a web development agency (by accident). After 7 years of building on legacy platforms, we had to build a tool that would let us systemize our builds and use data are our main structure to build, import content, and handoff to the customer.

RileyMar 15, 2022, 4:59 PM

When it comes to the colorful field of no-code web building tools (e.g. Editor X, Webflow, Bubble), what did you see lacking that inspired the need for something like The.com?

Jeff McKinnonMar 15, 2022, 5:02 PM

Riley great question, We literally used every other tool back at our agency, and thought, every website is just a complex data system. So why aren't editors built around that? That is what led to The.com and the spreadsheet/table style interface. It unlocked the ability to link, send, collab, and import data in new and powerful ways.

Jeff McKinnonMar 15, 2022, 5:03 PM

Jeff McKinnonMar 15, 2022, 5:43 PM

Who else has any questions? The.com has some really cool use cases you all might be interested in:

Sara PintoMar 15, 2022, 11:52 PM

Hi Jeff McKinnon, great to have you here! I'm a newbie in this subject, so I have to ask: what's "show-code" and what makes it stand out?

Jeff McKinnonMar 15, 2022, 11:59 PM

Hi Sara Pinto!

Jeff McKinnonMar 16, 2022, 12:00 AM

One of the cool pieces that http://The.com offers is the ability to directly manipulate websites code while still operating inside a "builder".

Clarke McKinnonMar 15, 2022, 6:47 PM

Hey all, I'm Clarke the other Co-founder. Fun to see the questions in here! I've got a good question for you all - what's your favorite resource for learning html/css/js?

AbeerMar 16, 2022, 5:29 AM

Hey Clarke McKinnon. I’ve used FreeCodeCamp since the beginning of my career and I’m using it to this day. As for YouTube channels, FireShip has been a very cool resource.

Clarke McKinnonMar 16, 2022, 3:49 PM

Thanks, Abeer haven't seen that youtube channel yet, nice find!

AbeerMar 16, 2022, 5:27 AM

Hey Jeff McKinnon. Great having you here. Also, hello to the rest of The.com team here. This is a very cool concept. As a developer, I’m trying to grok how this platform works. How does the developer experience differ in The.com versus competitors such as WordPress with Elementor or Webflow?

Jeff McKinnonMar 16, 2022, 7:17 PM

Abeer great question! http://The.com is built with some very unique things that are highly differentiated from legacy platforms.

Jeff McKinnonMar 16, 2022, 7:18 PM

Most importantly our editing experience exposed html and css in a table/spreadsheet format. That gives the users superpowers to manipulate the site at the deepest level. It also unlocks the ability to link and connect data in new ways.

Jeff McKinnonMar 16, 2022, 7:19 PM

I also saw you joined the community Abeer so you'll see how great that group is!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl5tHzQADU3SpzE5eqVYRhA

Jeff McKinnonMar 16, 2022, 7:19 PM

Here is the youtube channel that helps explain tons of features.

Mónica FreitasMar 16, 2022, 3:30 PM

Jeff McKinnon that's awesome!
So how does collaboration plays a part in your company?
I've noticed you put a lot of value into it.

Jeff McKinnonMar 16, 2022, 7:30 PM

Mónica Freitas collaboration is 🔑 when building and launching websites. The.com focuses heavily on collab. We have built-in live view, in-app chat, and more to support that vision.

All these features support teams working on projects together!

AbeerMar 17, 2022, 4:50 AM

Jeff McKinnon, thank you for the Abeer and the resource. If you don't mind me asking another question, I’m curious, how will new websites incorporate cyber security as the web evolves?

Jeff McKinnonMar 17, 2022, 3:45 PM

Abeer From a security perspective, The.com is built using serverless technology and produces static sites. Both of those allow for enhanced security far and above from legacy platforms.

Mónica FreitasMar 17, 2022, 3:10 PM

Jeff McKinnon, what's next for http://The.com? What is the next milestone?

Jeff McKinnonMar 17, 2022, 4:00 PM

Mónica Freitas, we have an exciting release coming up that will let companies automate the creation of websites 🚀

Mónica FreitasMar 17, 2022, 4:10 PM

Jeff McKinnon, do keep us updated! I'm sure our community will be very excited to hear about your new releases.

Mónica FreitasMar 17, 2022, 4:11 PM

Jeff McKinnon, thank you for your insightful answers! It's been so great to have you on, but unfortunately, we will have to wrap up this AMA. Do you have any final thoughts for our readers or something you'd like to promote?

Jeff McKinnonMar 17, 2022, 4:17 PM

Thanks for having us!

Jeff McKinnonMar 17, 2022, 4:17 PM

Final note is that http://The.com offers 6 websites for free! so go signup start building and join the community.