When I asked Mark Westguard how he got into the web, he didn’t start with a business plan or a bootstrapped success story. He started with a memory, coding as a kid, discovering the web at university, and getting excited about the early days of Netscape.
In our interview, we traced his path from launching one of the UK’s fastest-growing web agencies in the ’90s (yes, the ‘what’s a website?’ era) to his unexpected move into product development. And that path included:
- Creating an RSVP tool for his own wedding that turned into a licensing deal with Condé Nast
- Running an agency in New Orleans where a team member introduced him to WordPress and WordCamps
- Listening to his team’s pain points and deciding to solve one: forms
“Forms felt like putting an alien on the page,” they said.
So he built WS Form, a fully responsive, developer-focused plugin that handles just about anything you can imagine on the frontend, including some pretty creative uses of AI.
Why He Didn’t Replace Support with AI
Mark is thoughtful when it comes to customer support. He sees AI as a tool to assist support, not automate it completely. Repeat questions like “Why won’t my form send email?” could be triaged with AI suggestions, but the final response is still human.
“Support has been one of the strongest points of the product. I want to keep it that way.”
And that’s a philosophy I think more product builders should pay attention to. It’s easy to chase efficiency. It’s harder to stay human at scale.
AI Inside the Product
WS Form also includes AI in smarter ways. You can:
- Ask it to build a form (“Make me a mortgage calculator”)
- Use OpenAI endpoints to generate images, transcribe audio, or create content
- Build a form that outputs a blog post and featured image, then publishes it in WordPress
This isn’t just novelty. It’s practical automation that stays in the user’s control.
Mark’s Advice for Builders
At the end of the interview, I asked what surprised him most about moving from agency work to product work. Without hesitation: support.
The shift isn’t just about building a plugin. It’s about maintaining relationships, documentation, and real trust with users over time.
That’s what makes WS Form work. And that’s what makes Mark someone worth listening to, especially if you’re trying to build a product of your own.
💬 Question for plugin devs and indie builders:
How are you thinking about AI in your product or support flow?
Let’s keep this one going—drop your thoughts on LinkedIn.