We Reached 400k Users With a No-Code Tool
Summary
TLDRMariam, the founder of a startup, shares her journey of reaching 400,000 users with a no-code platform that has garnered rave reviews. Despite not having a product, she managed to secure prepayments of $5,000 from five customers, validating her idea. The startup faced challenges but found a pivotal moment by integrating with Airtable, which led to significant growth. Mariam emphasizes the importance of community engagement and iterative feedback, which helped triple the company's revenue each year. The company's success is attributed to clear positioning, exploring new marketing channels, and leveraging the community. Mariam envisions a future where no-code becomes a widespread skill, empowering millions to build efficient tools, and possibly leading to an IPO. She also shares a portal she built with her platform for investor updates, showcasing its utility for internal tooling and investor relations.
Takeaways
- 🚀 Marian's startup reached 400,000 users by creating an intuitive no-code platform that allows users to build internal tools and portals quickly and easily.
- 💰 Marian was able to charge $1,000 per user even before having a product, validating the market need with prepayments from five customers.
- 🤝 Starting in 2019 as a family business, Marian and her husband focused on validating the idea by first finding customers and understanding their problems.
- 📈 The first version of their product was a basic website builder launched in April 2020, which garnered significant customer interest and willingness to pay.
- 🔧 They faced challenges such as customer pull-offs and investor skepticism but remained committed to their vision of an easier way to build software.
- 🎯 A pivotal moment came when they decided to build on Airtable, which aligned with customer demands and set them on a successful trajectory.
- 🌐 Launching their application builder with Airtable integration in August 2021 led to rapid growth, becoming the top product on Product Hunt and attracting a passionate community.
- 🗣️ Word of mouth and community engagement were significant growth drivers, with founders actively participating in the no-code community and fostering a sense of belonging among users.
- 📊 They published their roadmap publicly, allowing users to upvote features, which helped build a strong feedback loop and made customers feel included in the product's development.
- 📈 To triple revenue each year, they clarified their positioning, expanded marketing efforts, and doubled down on community engagement, which became a significant growth lever.
- 🌟 Marian's vision for the next 5 years includes empowering billions of knowledge workers with no-code skills and building the largest ecosystem of no-code tools.
- 🔗 They created a portal for investors to self-serve data and updates, reducing the need for manual monthly reports and fostering more autonomy for investors.
Q & A
What is the core product that Marian's startup created?
-Marian's startup created an intuitive no-code platform that enables users to build internal tools and portals, which are powered by various data sources like Airtable, Google Sheets, Hops, SWOT, and others.
How did Marian's startup validate their idea before building the product?
-They validated their idea by securing prepayment from five customers interested in their product, which amounted to $5,000 each. This initial validation led them to start building the product.
What was the first version of Marian's product like?
-The first version of their product was a basic website builder with only 10 blocks, allowing users to build a website in 5 minutes.
Why was the first year of building the software challenging for Marian and her team?
-The first year was challenging because they started building the software in 2019 as a husband and wife team, managing family responsibilities while trying to validate their idea and build the product without leaving their full-time jobs.
How did Marian's startup manage to charge $1,000 per user before having a complete product?
-They managed to charge $1,000 per user by offering early access and prepayment options to customers who were interested in their product, validating the market need and securing initial funding.
What was the pivotal moment for Marian's software that led to significant growth?
-The pivotal moment was the integration with Airtable, which became a highly demanded feature by their customers and users. This integration, along with the launch of their first application builder, led to significant growth and customer engagement.
How did Marian's startup build a vibrant community around their product?
-They built a vibrant community by being active in the no-code community, engaging with users, and promoting what the community members were building. They also published their roadmap publicly, allowing users to upvote features, which made customers feel included and part of something significant.
What were the three main strategies Marian's startup used to triple their revenue each year?
-The three main strategies were: clarifying their positioning and messaging, expanding into different marketing channels and content creation around pain points, and doubling down on community engagement and user-generated content.
How did Marian's startup shift their focus from attracting only no-code makers and entrepreneurs to more serious business use cases?
-As the product matured, they started seeing more serious use cases from established businesses. They realized that relying solely on no-code makers and entrepreneurs was not sustainable for long-term growth, as these individuals' projects often fail or stop. They shifted their focus to cater to businesses building their internal operations and day-to-day workflows.
What is the future vision for Marian's startup in the next 5 years?
-The future vision is to empower billions of knowledge workers to build their own tooling for more efficient job performance, making no-code a skill set as common as Excel, and potentially building the largest ecosystem of no-code solutions, with the possibility of an IPO or establishing a significant business.
How did Marian address the challenge of keeping investors updated without constant communication?
-Marian built a portal using their own software platform that allows investors to self-serve and access key highlights, metrics, team updates, and community information, reducing the need for frequent updates via email.
What is the template Marian created for reporting to investors?
-The template includes sections for key metrics, team updates, product and community highlights, and a section for how investors can help the company. It is designed to be accessible and customizable to fit the company's needs.
Outlines
🚀 Startup Success: No-Code Platform Growth
Mariam's startup achieved significant growth by creating an intuitive no-code platform that quickly gained popularity. Despite not having a product, they managed to secure prepayments from five customers, amounting to $5,000 each. This validation prompted the development of their software, which integrates with databases like Airtable and Google Sheets. The initial challenge was to validate the idea and find product-market fit, which they accomplished by launching a basic version and observing customer interest. They faced setbacks with customer churn and investor skepticism but remained committed to their vision of simplifying software creation. A pivotal moment came when they integrated with Airtable, leading to a surge in customer engagement and solidifying their market position.
🌐 Community-Driven Growth and Scaling Strategies
Mariam's company grew exponentially by focusing on three key strategies. First, they clarified their positioning and messaging to concentrate on specific use cases for internal tools and portals. They updated their website and pricing strategy to better align with customer value metrics. Second, they expanded their marketing efforts beyond organic channels, focusing on SEO and content creation to address specific pain points that potential customers were searching for online. This approach significantly increased their visibility and customer acquisition. Third, they doubled down on community engagement, which proved to be a powerful growth lever. They fostered a community of builders and entrepreneurs, actively involving them in product development and promoting their creations. This approach not only helped them grow their user base but also created a loyal and passionate community. Mariam also shared her personal experience of building a portal for investor updates, emphasizing the potential for no-code platforms to empower knowledge workers and predicting a future where no-code becomes a ubiquitous skill.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡No-code platform
💡Prepayment
💡Product validation
💡Community engagement
💡Airtable integration
💡Product Hunt
💡Revenue growth
💡Content and SEO
💡Internal tools
💡Investor updates
💡Scaling a business
Highlights
Marian's startup reached 400,000 users by creating a no-code platform that received high praise from users.
She was able to charge $1,000 per user before even having a product, securing prepayment from five customers interested in the concept.
The startup validated their idea by first finding customers and understanding the problem they were addressing.
They launched a basic version of their platform in April 2020, which was a simple website builder that could be used to create a website in 5 minutes.
The initial product attracted customers willing to pay five times more than competitors like Wix or Squarespace due to its ease of use.
Despite facing challenges and customer pull-offs, the startup remained committed to their vision of an easier way to build software.
A pivotal moment came when they decided to build on Airtable, which was highly demanded by their customers and users.
The launch of their first application builder with Airtable integration in August 2021 was a success, attracting significant attention and customers.
The startup's community of builders played a crucial role in their growth, with word-of-mouth being a significant driver of new users.
The company published their roadmap publicly and allowed community feedback, fostering a sense of inclusion and empowerment among users.
As the product matured, it began to attract more serious use cases from established companies, not just individual makers and entrepreneurs.
The company's revenue tripled each year through clarifying their positioning, expanding marketing efforts, and focusing on community growth.
They updated their website and pricing strategy to better target customer value metrics and use cases.
Content creation and SEO articles around pain points helped the company become one of the first results in Google searches, driving significant growth.
The company doubled down on community efforts, creating initiatives and infrastructure to support user growth and user-generated content.
Marian built a portal for investor updates to streamline communication and provide self-service access to key metrics and updates.
The company's vision for the next 5 years is to empower billions of knowledge workers with no-code tools and to establish no-code as a common skill set.
Marian hopes to spend more time as a maker herself, inspired by the community and customers building with their platform.
A template created by Marian for reporting to investors is available for others to use and customize for their own needs.
Transcripts
this is Marian her startup reached
400,000 users by creating a no code
platform that people Rave about and the
crazy part is she was able to charge
1,000 bucks per user before even having
a product so we had five customers
interested in prepayment of $5,000 I
flew over to Berlin to get her story and
ask her exactly how our company grew
thanks to a Vibrant Community and our
secrets to Triple Revenue each year this
is the drag and drop story of softer hey
Mariam so tell us what are you guys
building we're building software the
most intuitive noot platform to build
internal tools and portals powered by
your data air table Google Sheets hops
SWOT and others some typical examples
are Inventory management employee portal
steam inonet the first year was very
challenging why is that so we started
building software in 2019 with my
husband arur as a husband and wife and
having a family we couldn't live our
full-time jobs from the early days
always our thinking was what is the
easiest and fastest way to validate this
idea this product first actually was to
find customers and to understand there
is a problem so we had five customers
interested in prepayment of $5,000 in
the bank that was the first validation
for us to start building the product and
then afterwards we launched a very basic
version of our vision which was just the
tip of the iceberg which was a website
builder with literally 10 blocks you
were able to build a website in 5
minutes we launched it in April 2020 and
we saw a huge interest from customers
paying five times more than Wix or
square space because it was help helping
them build it so fast and easily while
building we also unfortunately because
it was taking longer than anticipated we
had our customers pulled off and they we
had to return the money back at the same
time investors kept telling us doesn't
make sense it's too too broad
verticalized and build something very
specific to a use case however we didn't
want to do that we were very strong
Believers that there has to be an easier
way to build software and we wanted to
keep that very horizontal using building
block Concepts components as an
abstraction Beyond apis and
microservices first pivotal moment for
software was when you guys decided to
build on air table what happened at this
time true to our MVP approach and MVP
mindset we try to figure out what's the
easiest and fastest way to validate our
idea and to validate the web application
Builder with the database so we set out
to actually integrate with a third party
database instead of building our own and
airable at the time came out as one of
the most demanded our customers and
users were using it we saw it grow gr we
couldn't estimate how much it's going to
grow that set us on a good trajectory of
road so we launched our first
application builder in August
2021 6 seven months after launching the
MVP Builder it was a hit hit with the
air table integration we launch the
product on product hand and by the time
we already had quite engaged and
passionate community so we became number
one product of the day we got thousands
of signups and seven paying customers
that was kind of the first pivotal
moment for us where we realize we are
actually solving a real problem and
customers really need this as a solution
one of the biggest secrets of sofware
has been its Community with thousands of
builders in the community how did you
achieve that community and word of mod
has been one of the biggest driver of
growth for us bigger than Al of our
acquisition channels it happened
naturally so early on Founders myself
and Arthur were very active in the noot
community we basically found our tribe
and we engaged we were talking to users
noot Builders all the time and once we
launched on product hand there was
actually an early user base that was
really interested and eager to try the
product from there on we kept iterating
we basically kept getting feedback one
of the secrets I think for us was we
wanted to help the community promote
what they're building it kind of
naturally made sense to us we built a
product that empowered others that let
others build things on top of that and
they felt like they they got superpowers
and we wanted to share that we wanted to
promote that help share in social in our
newsletters another thing we did was
publish our road map life publicly and
allow people to upvot our features this
just helped have an open feedback and
customers felt like they were part of
something big we did listen to them we
did get back to them with with feedback
and next steps and they felt that
they're really part of something big and
they wanted to support us as well after
you launch these first products and you
started to grow through your community
realize that your early audience would
probably not let you grow to a massive
business so early on the product was
very simple it allowed building simple
websites and directories from Air table
and naturally it attracted more nood
makers and entrepreneurs who are
building their side projects or startup
ideas as the product matured we started
seeing more and more serious use cases
from serious companies so over time we
also realized that relying only on
makers and entrepreneurs as a customer
segment is just difficult and is not
going to help us build a big business
because their project stop their startup
ideas fail all the time we also saw more
sticky use cases from actual businesses
we saw entire business is building their
internal operations and day-to-day
workflows and external client partner
Communications entirely with software
apps since three years that you started
to build on our table the growth really
picked up and you reached 400,000 teams
also grew your Revenue each year of like
3x how did you achieve that we did three
main things first was really clarifying
our positioning and messaging internally
and externally so we were very clear
with internally with our teams that what
are the use cases internal tools portals
that we're focusing on in our product
building and marketing efforts and
externally as well we updated our
website with the core use cases IP
targeting we updated our pricing to
Target better the customer value metrics
second thing was beyond our organic
efforts we started expanding into trying
out different marketing channels and
different ways we can acquire more of
our ICP customers we basically realized
during our call and I kept asking
customers in every other interview how
do do you find out about software and I
kept hearing similar answers was I'm
searching certain problem so they faced
a problem they had a certain challenge
they wanted to solve and they would find
software without even knowing what
software or no Cod is so we basically
started creating content and SEO
articles around those pain points that
really helped people find software
easily as one of the first results in
the Google search so konio started
picking up and was our second biggest
Channel 20 30% of our growth level and
the third thing we did as well was
doubling down on community so Community
is a big growth lever and big core
proposition of software and we had
someone dedicated even to to run all of
the efforts and initiatives and we
started creating initiatives and set the
infrastructure for further user growth
and user generated content to pick up
because we saw people creating their own
articles their own courses in different
languages around software and we wanted
to have a good foundation for letting
people do this more repeatedly on their
own without us really having to organize
and pull up on all of that Mariam there
is one challenge I wanted to give you I
always struggle to keep our investors up
to dat by sending them you know monthly
updates and I was thinking that maybe
you could help me build with software
platform that they could access to just
Self Serve this data and I wouldn't have
to bother them every month funny enough
I had the same problem and it was pretty
combersome to send back and forth emails
I built a portal myself for software
investor updates do you see software
being being in the next 5 years
hopefully in 5 years we have empowered
billions of knowledge workers to build
their own tooling to do their jobs more
efficiently and no Cod becomes the Exel
like skill set that every other person
will have and hopefully we have build
the largest echosystem of no Cod and who
knows maybe we have ipoed or have built
already a big business by then and where
do you see yourself in the next 5 years
I hope I'll have more time to be maker
myself because I'm always jealous of all
of our community and all of our
customers building things with software
launching and you building their own
mini projects and even though it's
extremely fun and exciting and the most
challenging to work on software itself
but I do miss the time that I can spend
on building my own things Beyond just
you know internal tools and things for
our own organization are you done with
the portal do you want to sh to me yes
for sure so here is a portal I built for
June you can log in as an investor or as
a team member and as easy as just going
through you know your key highlights and
low lights showing your key metrics P
investors your team updates product and
community and let your investors Self
Serve companies are sharing with
investors are sign up paid numbers mrr
customer turn all of the marketing
related acquisition activation related
metrics then team information update
about hiring and a section for how can
investors help you you can obviously add
adjust the portal as you need this is
just one version you can add your own
components your own touch to it Mayan
thanks so much for coming thanks so much
for the invite it was a lot of fun for
those who are looking for a platform to
build internal toolings or portals then
check out software. it's an amazing tool
to build the portals we've been using it
at June I just I just love it if you're
looking for the template that Mariam
created for us to actually report to
investors and let them log in and do all
the work themselves then check out the
link in the description in the thread
wherever this video is online until next
time thanks so much for watching and see
you
[Music]
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