Easily install pre-built Shopify section templates without hiring a developer!
Shopify Insights
Meet Ronen Hirsch
I have been interviewed a few times over the past few years and I thought why not share my story with you!
Building a Brand & Selling Online in 2023
I was a panelist on this podcast discussing building a brand and selling online.
Meet Ronen Hirsch
We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ronen Hirsch. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ronen below.
Hi Ronen, appreciate you sitting with us today. Maybe we can start with a topic that we care deeply about because it’s something we’ve found really sets folks apart and can make all the difference in whether someone reaches their goals. Self discipline seems to have an outsized impact on how someone’s life plays out and so we’d love to hear about how you developed yours?
From a young age, I learned the value of a strong work ethic and getting compensated for hard work. My first job was delivering newspapers at 5am! I would wake up on school days, rain or shine, and deliver papers from my bike. My parents always supported my desire to work.
I now work from home and despite others always saying that they find it difficult to focus on their work at home, I never had this problem. I love what I do and in general enjoy working. I’m always eager to solve new problems and deliver the best websites to my clients. So I think that’s where this self-discipline comes from.
Of course, there are days that you don’t have the energy or desire to get out of bed, but somehow I just do, drink my cup of coffee and get started. Within an hour, I’m totally into it!
Create an Experience Around Your Brand - Ronen Hirsch
Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in design services but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Ronen Hirsch, Founder, and CEO of Studio Umbrella Inc., located in Los Angeles, CA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
I am the founder of Studio Umbrella, an LA-based web design, and development studio that has created countless websites using a range of technologies. Our expertise is with Shopify websites, but we aren't limited to just that, as we have built numerous websites (both e-commerce and "regular" informational) within other platforms, including WordPress. We cater to small and medium-sized businesses in a variety of industries.
Additionally, I started another business called Qwiqode ("Quick Code"), where we develop and sell flexible, highly customizable pre-built section templates that are easily installed on Shopify stores without the need to hire a developer - saving both time and money and eliminating frustration. We target web designers who build sites for customers as well as store merchants directly.
Meet Ronen Hirsch
We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ronen Hirsch a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ronen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
Setting up a custom shop with Shopify is meant to be so easy and quick. Just create a Shopify account, choose a theme to install, and start adding your products and other content. Voila, your storefront is ready for customers!
But more often than not, you run into a problem. Even though Shopify is a fantastic e-commerce platform, the themes available to choose from have a variety of content blocks to add to your site, but each theme is different. And if there’s no option to add a certain layout or a particular functionality that your store needs, you might be forced into finding a workaround via a third-party app or custom code developed just for you. And both solutions come at a high cost.
qwiqode was born from this problem we discovered. Let’s give web designers and merchants an easier way to upgrade their site, saving them time and money.
Community Highlights: Meet Ronen Hirsch
Today we’d like to introduce you to Ronen Hirsch.
Hi Ronen, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
To keep it short, I was born in Detroit, Michigan, grew up in San Jose, CA, lived for 20 years in Israel (minus 3 years while living in Holland), and now living in LA for about 8 years so far and really love it here. I’ve been running my own Web design & development business for about 17 years now, called Studio Umbrella. We specialize in creating custom websites, both e-commerce and “standard” for a variety of industries. For the past 10 years, we’ve been focused on Shopify and have worked on numerous projects, both from scratch and site upkeep and maintenance.
Recently, we just launched another site, https://qwiqode.com that sells pre-built Shopify sections to web designers and store merchants so that they can easily add content templates to their site because Shopify themes can be limiting at times with the sections that they provide. This way, templates can be added without the need to spend extra time and money on web developers.
Meet Ronen Hirsch | Web Developer and Designer & Owner
We had the good fortune of connecting with Ronen Hirsch and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Ronen, what’s something about your industry that outsiders are probably unaware of?
Many people are unaware of the time and amount of work that goes into a website. It’s not just choosing any design, pasting in some content and launching the website.
A lot of time and effort goes into realizing the potential for a specific business, designing the website so that it best represents the business, their services and products that they’re selling. On top of that, the user experience (UX) of the website needs to be spot on in order to ensure that the visitors stay on the site, get the information that they’re looking for and find value in the business and their products or services. That’s what makes the website a success and a positive return on their investment.
On the technical side, we as developers need to make sure that the site works on all browsers and devices, function properly with various integrations that they may require and also make sure that search engines will properly index the site. Especially when building custom solutions, there is a lot of work to ensure accuracy in all aspects of the project.
Meet Ronen Hirsch of Studio Umbrella
Today we’d like to introduce you to Ronen Hirsch.
Ronen, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Growing up, I always had a computer at home. My dad bought the first IBM PC in the early 80’s and so it’s always been a part of my life. As I grew up in San Jose, I learned some simple coding and began visiting BBS’s (‘prehistoric’ websites) in the early internet days of the 90’s while constantly being attracted to graphic design as well. I studied Product (Industrial) Design in Eindhoven, The Netherlands and during that time, I learned how to use Flash (among other things of course!) to create presentations of my projects – I was always attracted to the presentational/graphic/interactive aspect of my projects. After receiving my degree, I moved to Israel and started my career by creating a Flash portfolio website for myself which led to some friends’ websites and I quickly found out that I very much enjoyed this and am good at it as well! So, one client led to another and ‘StudioRonen’ (my studio’s initial name) quickly gained steam, turned into Studio Umbrella a few years later and now, nearly 12 years later, I’m living in Los Angeles while Studio Umbrella continues to grow and prosper.
Ronen Hirsch - Web Developer & Designer, Owner of Studio Umbrella
WHAT DO YOU DO?
“I’m a web designer & developer creating a variety of websites for businesses including e-commerce online stores, corporate and informational websites, portfolios, landing pages, mini-sites and more.”
For over 12 years I’ve been running my own studio called Studio Umbrella serving a range of clients. I place a very high importance on uniqueness and high quality of design as well as solid, custom coding and Shopify, Prestashop and Wordpress. I developed my own custom CMS (Content Management System), called Raincoat, which allows my clients to update their sites’ content easily.
In addition to taking on a complete project which involves design & development, I provide other graphic designers with coding services as well as designing websites for a client who already has a developer.
I had the pleasure to speak with Claus Lauter from the Ecommerce Coffee Break Podcast. We discussed why our pre-built section templates for Shopify make store development easier for web designers and store merchants.
On the show you’ll learn:
- What Shopify sections are
- How Shopify's Pre-built Templates can help you
- Why upgrade to OS 2.0 from Shopify 1.0
- Examples of Shopify sections
- And more
