My Big Idea: personal CV and website platform Self

Hi Javier! What's your elevator pitch?

Self turns an existing CV, resume or portfolio into a polished personal website in under a minute. A user uploads the material they already have, chooses a template, reviews the AI-generated page and publishes it on a shareable self.cv address. The page complements the traditional CV rather than replacing it: it gives recruiters, clients and collaborators a faster, more visual way to understand someone's experience, projects and professional story.

Why does the market need it?

A PDF CV is still useful, especially in formal recruitment systems, but it is a poor public interface. It can be awkward on mobile, easily lost in an inbox and limited when someone needs to show projects, media, publications or context. At the other end of the market, general website builders often begin with a blank canvas and ask the user to make dozens of design, hosting and layout decisions.

Self sits between those two experiences. It starts with verified career material and turns it into a responsive page that the user can edit, publish and share. LinkedIn remains valuable for discovery and chronology, while Self gives the professional a focused, standalone link and more control over how the story is presented.

Where is the business today?

Self has been fully live for about three months. We now have around 300 users and more than 100 published pages. It is still an early-stage business, and growth is slow but steady, which is exactly what I want at this point. It gives us enough activity to learn from real behaviour without forcing us to scale before the product and positioning are ready.

Our organic visibility is improving every day as Google indexes more of our site and content, and we are seeing roughly a couple of organic sign-ups each day. We are also seeing many users arrive after discovering Self in answers from ChatGPT and other AI assistants. That suggests people are not only searching with traditional keywords, but asking direct questions about how to turn a CV into a website and discovering us in the response.

What made you think there was money in this?

The idea began with my own CV. During a period of uncertainty at work, I had to rebuild it and found myself thinking about it as an engineer. I did not want another static document. I wanted one clean link that worked on any device and made my experience and projects easier to understand. I built that page for myself, then started looking at the wider market.

The gap was clear. Resume builders largely optimize the document, while broad website builders make people design a site from scratch. Portfolio tools can work well for some creative professions, but many people simply need a credible professional page without becoming a designer or developer. The commercial opportunity is in removing that setup work while offering paid tools for people who want deeper customization, analytics and control.

What's your biggest strength?

Our biggest strength is that Self starts from information the user already trusts. We are not asking someone to invent a personal brand in front of a blank canvas. We organize their real experience, projects and skills into a web format, then keep them in control of the result.

That existing-content-first approach makes the product fast, but the more important advantage is clarity. A good professional page should answer four questions quickly: who is this person, what can they do, where is the evidence and how can I contact them? Every feature should help answer one of those questions rather than add more noise.

What is the secret to making the business work?

For us, the secret is patience. We are prioritizing organic growth over paid acquisition because we want to understand which users arrive with a real problem, what convinces them to publish and what brings them back. Slow, steady growth gives us a cleaner feedback loop than buying a large amount of traffic before the product and funnel are mature.

We understand that paid acquisition can become an important part of the funnel, and we are not opposed to it. We simply want to earn the right to scale it. The plan is to build search visibility, useful content, referrals and AI discovery first, then use paid channels when we know the activation and conversion journey is strong enough. I would rather play the game slowly and properly than manufacture a short spike that teaches us very little.

How do you market the company?

Our marketing is organic-first and product-led. The free plan lets someone create and publish a useful page before deciding whether Pro matters, while every shared Self page, social card and QR card introduces the product to another recruiter, client or colleague. That distribution is closely connected to the value of the product rather than being a separate advertising layer.

We invest in search-led educational content, editorial contributions and thoughtful outreach to creators, career professionals and educational organizations. Google is gradually indexing more of that work, and AI assistants are becoming a meaningful discovery channel when people ask how to turn a CV into a website or build a professional presence. Paid acquisition will have a role later, but for now the goal is to build durable demand and learn which messages convert organically before amplifying them with spend.

What funding do you have? Is it enough?

Self is funded entirely with my own capital. We have taken no external investment, so I can make product and growth decisions with a long-term view and without pressure to chase artificial short-term numbers.

I am not disclosing the amount invested. It is enough for the current stage because we are keeping the company lean and prioritizing organic growth. If we consider external capital in the future, it would be to accelerate a product and acquisition model that has already proved itself, not to replace disciplined learning.

Tell us about the business model.

Self uses a freemium subscription model. The free plan costs nothing and includes one hosted self.cv page, free templates, content editing and share cards, with a required Powered by Self badge. The current public Pro price is €5.99 per month, or €35.88 per year, and adds all templates, advanced design controls, AI edits, analytics, SEO controls, a custom domain and optional branding removal. Team is aimed at people managing multiple profiles, such as career professionals, agencies, schools and teams, and is currently €29.99 per month or €179.88 per year.

The main variable costs are AI processing and hosting, so the economics depend on paid conversion, sensible usage limits and disciplined infrastructure. The free tier is designed to be genuinely useful, while paid plans charge for the controls and insights that become more valuable when a professional page is an active part of someone's search or client work.

What were you doing before?

My background is in software engineering, telecommunications, machine learning, computer vision and scientific research. I worked as a researcher at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and at CERN, where I contributed to beam instrumentation and accelerator-physics projects.

At CERN, the work included applying machine learning and computer vision to beam measurements and online calibration. It was a demanding environment where software had to interact with real scientific systems, imperfect data and operational constraints. That experience shaped how I approach Self: make complex technology useful, measure what matters and do not hide uncertainty behind a polished interface.

Are there any technologies you've found useful?

We use several AI models for different parts of the product, including ChatGPT 5.6 Sol and Gemini 3.5. One of their most useful jobs is mapping the varied, unstructured information in a resume, CV, portfolio or image into the structured JSON that powers a Self page. The model has to identify sections, preserve the candidate's facts and wording, and leave uncertain information unresolved rather than filling gaps with guesses.

The important engineering work is not simply calling a model. It is building the validation, schemas and review workflow around it. We combine the models with document parsing, computer vision and deterministic checks so the generated page remains editable and traceable to the user's source material. That combination lets AI remove formatting work while the user keeps control of the professional story.

What is the future vision?

The long-term vision is for Self to become the practical home of a person's public professional identity. The first step is turning existing career material into a page. From there, the product can help people keep that page current, present different parts of their experience clearly, understand whether it is being read and reuse the same verified information across applications and professional conversations.

I also see value beyond individual job seekers. Career professionals, schools and teams often help many people present their work, but the process is fragmented across documents, links and website tools. Self can give them a focused way to create and manage polished profiles while each person remains in control of their own story.

About Javier Martínez Samblas

Javier Martínez Samblas is a software developer and the founder and CEO of Self. His background spans software engineering, telecommunications, machine learning, computer vision and scientific research. He has worked as a researcher at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and CERN, contributing to projects in beam instrumentation and accelerator physics.

Javier's professional profile  |  Self

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