🧱 No-Code: Custom GPTs, Getting Early Users, Million-Dollar Businesses

In this Trends.vc Report, we talk about building in public, preselling, affiliate programs, custom GPTs and more.

🔍 Problem

Repetitive work wastes time, money and energy.

💡 Solution

No-code tools help you:

Build products faster
Automate repetitive tasks
Make systems easier to maintain

Without writing code.

🏁 Players

No-Code Apps

UserLoop • AI-powered surveys for Shopify
Strabo • Investment portfolio tracker
SubSocket • Set up recurring and one-time payments with PayPal
Riku • Build and deploy AI models
Packfleet • Delivery platform for ecommerce businesses
beegle • Marketplace for on-demand helpers

No-Code Tools

Craftar • Build scalable APIs and automations
Adalo • Build custom responsive apps
Softr • Build directories, client portals and internal tools
Make • Build no-code automations
Framer • Build websites with AI
Zapier • Build automated workflows

No-Code Founders

Prabhjot Singh Lamba • Helps to craft automations visually with Craftar
Max Haining • Teaches how to build no-code projects with 100DaysOfNoCode
JJ Englert • Builds no-code MVPs with Studio NoCode
Kieran • Teaches Bubble with Zero To Pro Bubble Course
Katt Risen • Interviews no-code founders at No-Code Exits
Bram Kanstein • Teaches how to build no-code MVPs with No-Code MVP
Seth Kramer • Teaches how to use popular no-code tools with No Code MBA

🛠 How to Build No-Code Businesses

Build a directory with no-code tools and resources. Help others sift through the noise.

Jonas made Duuce with Carrd. Then sold it for 5 figures.

Art West made NoCodeDevs which makes $10,000 MRR.

Drew Thomas made NoCodeList with Bildr and Airtable. Then sold it to Stefan Quartemont.

Joe Brown made Nucode with Bubble, SendGrid and Fathom. Then sold it to NoCodeOps.

Build in public to stay top of mind.

Goutham Jay grew Famewall to $1,000 MRR by building in public.

Katt Risen made $12,000 with No-Code Exits which she was building in public.

Marie Martens and Filip Minev grew Tally to $60,000 MRR by building in public.

Presell to validate demand.

Marc Lou is preselling a course on making viral launch videos.

Alex Vaughtton presold NocodeHackers courses for €1.000. Then grew the platform to €13,000 in revenue.

Alex Rainey presold My AskAI chatbot builder for $5,000 before launching. Then grew it to $18,000 MRR in 6 months.

🌱 How to Grow No-Code Businesses

Share video tutorials on YouTube. It’s a discovery platform that can help to boost your visibility.

Glide shares how to build internal tools.

Bubble shares how to build full-stack web apps.

Softr shares tips on how to use their website builder.

Offer freemium to lower your user acquisition costs.

Umso lets you build a website for free.

Typeform lets you build online forms for free.

Backendless lets you build a database for free.

Build an affiliate program. Get others to recommend your no-code tool.

NoCodeAPI offers a 30% commission for attracting paid users.

Jet Admin offers a 30% commission for referring paid customers.

No Code MBA offers a 40% commission for every customer you refer.

💰 How to Monetize No-Code Businesses

Charge per user to grow with your customers.

Jestor charges per builder and per user.

Fibery charges up to $20/user per month.

AppSheet charges up to $10/user per month.

Offer subscriptions to earn predictable revenue.

TillyPay is a payment platform that charges $40 per month.

Tally is a form builder that has a pro plan for $29 per month.

Nocodey is a marketplace for no-code gigs that costs $79 per month.

Offer sponsorships to help brands connect with their target audiences.

No Code Founders offers sponsored ads.

NoCodeDevs offers paid ads and reviews.

Katt Risen offers sponsorships at No-Code Exits.

🔮 Predictions

We’ll see more million-dollar businesses built with no-code tools.

Joe Speiser said he was running a $1,000,000 startup on a $200 no-code stack.

Flexiple grew to $3,000,000 ARR. It runs on no-code tools that cost $100 per month.

Justin Welsh made $5,000,000 with his one-person business. He started with Carrd, Airtable, Zapier and other no-code tools.

Brett Williams grew Designjoy to $1,500,000 ARR and $3,000,000 in sales. He uses Memberstack, Trello and Webflow to run his design services.

Nuage Stays was a $5,000,000 short-term rental business running on a $200 no-code stack. While it was successful, COVID-19 put a strain on the business.

Custom GPTs will become the new interface for building no-code apps in ChatGPT.

Alex Atallah made a speed reading coach.

Nick Dobos made $2,192 with GPT apps such as Grimoire.

Princely H. Glorious made an app that helps to design board games.

Putri Karunia made a prompt generator for building websites with Typedream.

Pieter Levels made a text-based adventure game. He open-sourced the prompt to help you build one yourself.

We’ll see no-code tools for building AI agents. They will take the guesswork out of building, training and running autonomous AI models.

AgentGPT is a visual builder for AI agents.

Relevance AI lets you build AI agents without code.

Flowise AI is a drag-and-drop UI for building AI workflows.

Promptly helps to build AI apps and chatbots without code.

OpenAI’s GPTs let you build custom AI agents in ChatGPT.

😠 Haters

“No-code tools are less powerful and flexible.”
No-code tools are easier to use but less powerful. Custom software is more powerful but complex. Tradeoffs are a fact of life.

“Bubble’s pricing changes took some companies out of business. Platform risk is too high.”
While this is true. The accessibility, cost and development speed often outweigh the downsides. Bubble is a unique case. They tried to find a fair price in 2022. They tried again in 2023. Most no-code tools don’t have this problem.

“There’s little-to-no technical moat here.”
There are other types of moats to build around your business. Scale economies, network effects, branding and more.

“Using ChatGPT to write and debug code is not ‘no-code’.”
True. But this is better than hiring a developer if you need to add custom code to your no-code product.

“User-based pricing limits growth.”
While it adds obstacles to user growth. There are some benefits. You can align your expenses with the workload produced by your user base. Your revenue grows as your customers’ teams grow. You get engaged customers who pay for real users instead of subscriptions they forgot to cancel.

🔗 Links

Growing a No-Code Form Builder to $60,000 MRR • The thread behind this report.
Building a Report on No-Code Businesses • The tweet behind this report.
What Is No-Code? • Simple guide to no-code tools.
Bubble Crash Course • Learn the fundamentals of Bubble by building a marketplace app.

📁 Related Reports

Micro-SaaS • Build a no-code tool to solve a specific problem for a specific group of people.
Product-Led Growth • Distribution matters more than product.
AI Agents • AI agents can think, plan and do tasks on your behalf.
Low-Code • Focus on solving problems without wasting effort.
Directories • Save people’s time and build a defensible business.

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