We Reached 400k Users With a No-Code Tool

Summary

Mariam, 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

00:00

🚀 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.

05:01

🌐 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.

Keywords

💡No-code platform

A no-code platform is a software development environment that allows users to create applications without writing code. In the context of the video, Marian's startup developed a no-code platform that enabled users to build internal tools and portals, which attracted significant interest and revenue before the product was even fully developed.

💡Prepayment

Prepayment refers to the act of paying for a product or service before it is delivered or provided. In the video, Marian mentions that they received prepayments of $5,000 from five customers, which served as the initial validation for their product idea.

💡Product validation

Product validation is the process of confirming that there is a market need for a product and that customers are willing to pay for it. Marian's startup validated their product by securing prepayment from customers, which indicated a real need for their no-code platform.

💡Community engagement

Community engagement involves actively participating in and fostering a sense of community among users or stakeholders. The video highlights the importance of community in the growth of Marian's startup, where they actively engaged with no-code builders and entrepreneurs, leading to organic growth and word-of-mouth promotion.

💡Airtable integration

Airtable is a cloud-based platform for organizing information, and integration refers to the process of combining two or more software systems to work together. Marian's startup integrated their no-code platform with Airtable, which was a popular demand among customers and significantly contributed to the product's success.

💡Product Hunt

Product Hunt is a website where new tech products are discovered and shared. It serves as a platform for startups to showcase their products to a community of tech enthusiasts and investors. In the video, Marian's product became the number one product of the day on Product Hunt, which helped them gain thousands of sign-ups and paying customers.

💡Revenue growth

Revenue growth refers to an increase in the income generated by a company from its business activities. Marian's startup achieved a 3x growth in revenue each year by clarifying their positioning, expanding marketing efforts, and focusing on community building.

💡Content and SEO

Content refers to the various types of media and information published online, while SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the practice of improving a website's visibility in search engine results. Marian's startup used content creation and SEO strategies to attract more customers by addressing their pain points and making their product more discoverable online.

💡Internal tools

Internal tools are software applications used by a company's employees for various tasks, such as inventory management or employee portals. Marian's no-code platform was designed to make it easier for users to build these types of tools, which was a key focus of their product development and marketing efforts.

💡Investor updates

Investor updates are communications sent to investors to inform them about the progress and performance of a company. In the video, Marian mentions building a portal for self-serving investor updates, which streamlined the process of keeping investors informed without the need for frequent emails.

💡Scaling a business

Scaling a business involves growing and expanding a company's operations, often with the aim of increasing revenue and market share. Marian's startup scaled their business by focusing on serious use cases from established companies, in addition to attracting makers and entrepreneurs, and by leveraging community growth and marketing channels.

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]