Iโ€™m Nik, I built a no-code hiring platform from $0 to $80K MRR and achieved 30% MoM. AMA!

Nik Shevchenko
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I wanted to create products fast and affordable. Several years ago I lost $300K on building a product that never has been released (a platform for managing crypto assets). Thatโ€™s how WeLoveNoCode started. I created a platform to find a no-code developer in one click, share a project and get it developed in weeks, not years and for a very reasonable price. After 6 months of 24/7 work on WeLoveNoCode we achieved super cool growth: ๐Ÿš€ $80K MRR ๐Ÿ’ธ 30% MoM ๐ŸŒŸ profitable from day one and keep growing ๐Ÿ† super happy that WLNC was #1 on Product Hunt. I also closed a seed round recently and might have more cool news soon :) Before WeLoveNoCode, I built 15+ no-code apps myself and went via 500 Startups with another company. My main credo: more work, fewer words. Outside of work I enjoy reading books and working remotely. Excited to share all my experience and help other makers grow! AMA ๐Ÿ”ฎ I'd be happy to answer questions on growth, product building, no code, hiring, fundraising, remote work...

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Khoa
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Hello fellow maker! How did you begin your journey and why have you chosen this problem to solve?
Nik Shevchenko
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@onmyway133 Thanks for asking, Khoa! I saw your apps on Product Hunt. Great job! PastePal 2.0 is neat.
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Nik Shevchenko
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@onmyway133 To answer your question: I'm a second-time founder. My first company I started five years ago (I wanted to build a platform for managing crypto assets and trading on several crypto exchanges). It only resulted in me spending something like $300,000 and three years of my life on it. My development process was not very successful, which resulted in constant switching from one software development team to another. The end of this story is sad - that product never became live. Afterward, I joined a 500 Startups accelerator program with another company which I sold. During my time at 500 Startups, I learned about no code and finally felt the freedom of building products fast and by myself. โ€‹โ€‹Oh my god, this was so cool! I felt that I needed to tell as many people as possible about this opportunity. Thatโ€™s how I started with WeLoveNoCode.
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Khoa
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@kodjima33 Awesome to hear. 80k MRR is a huge number. Just upvoted your product on PH
Khoa
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@kodjima33 Hi Nik, glad you like WWDC Together, I made it for free as a place to hangout during WWDC Keynote, as the last 2 keynotes Apple had to do online due to the pandemic. Hope we can all go to SF next year
Alex Kukharenko
Hello Nik! I have many ideas but Iโ€™m not a developer (hey from designers ๐Ÿ‘‹). Any tips on what I can build with no code?
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Nik Shevchenko
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@alexdeardream You can build almost everything :) No code is very powerful. With it you can build something as simple as a new landing page in Webflow, design portfolio in Carrd, web-platform in Bubble, mobile app in Adalo or automation in Zapier. You can also connect APIs, build internal tooling to automate routine tasks or even create a VR app. You are limited only by your imagination.
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Graeme
Thanks for AMA. With the hiring company doing well, do you think to build a no code app too?
Nik Shevchenko
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@graeme_fulton > With the hiring company doing well, do you think to build a no code app too? WeLoveNoCode is a platform for getting matched with a no code developer and release your product super fast. WLNC itself is build with no-code. For now, we are not planning to make our own no code tool.
Nik Shevchenko
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@graeme_fulton The reason for this is simple - there are many no code tools out there, so it doesn't really make sense to compete.
Arpit Mishra
Hi Nik, had been working with B2B SaaS that help in tech hiring for a decade now. This seems ๐Ÿ”ฅ. Would love to explore the product more. Let's stay in touch and catch-up sometime .
Marie Martens
Hi Nik, that's impressive! What are your most important channels to find new users in the no-code space?
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Nik Shevchenko
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@marie_martens Marie thanks for joining my AMA! Tally product looks very interesting. I see you are working in the no-code space as well. Our marketing was kind of secondary, compering to defining users' needs. We spot user problems and value prop: fast, affordable, simple no-code development, which gives users ready product. All this in weeks. Regarding channels for no-code: it really depends on your persona. Some no-code tools, like forms can be used in a very big companies by specific teams (design team, marketing team). While others, like WeLoveNoCode are best for fast MVP creation for smaller teams. So our channels are: social media ads Google ads Product Hunt
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Nik Shevchenko
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@marie_martens I believe that it all starts with product-market fit. If you see it, you will have growth and your marketing channels will work. If there is no PMF, even the best paid traffic won't work because the product doesn't solve a real nead.
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Marie Martens
Thanks a lot for elaborating @kodjima33! I definitely agree on the PMF. Our growth has been organic and we haven't spend money on ads yet, so interesting to see how it worked out for you guys!
Susannah Skyer Gupta
Hi Nik, really interesting platform. I'm curious, if we tried this, who are the developers we would get on our project; what sort of experience do they have?
Nik Shevchenko
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@suzgupta > really interesting platform. huge thanks for the feedback!
Nik Shevchenko
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@suzgupta > who are the developers we would get on our project; > what sort of experience do they have? We have our own no-code development team. We carefully select each of our no-code developers, having interviews, and internal learning program, and qualifications checks. That allows us to keep the quality of skills, which people are bringing, and the quality of the work output. For every project, we have an internal review, so we are 100% sure that we are delivering what we promised.
Susannah Skyer Gupta
@kodjima33 Can clients select a particular developer and, if so, what criteria can we see about them beforehand?
Nik Shevchenko
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@suzgupta Thanks for diving deeper. We have an internal selection. There are 100+ no-code tools, which we support and every developer has their own core focus. We internally match that developer with the project, knowing that this no-code dev made many similar projects exactly for this user story ("make Airbnb-like app with a focus on Indian market"). This allows keeping speed. Also, it reduce time for client < - >no-code developer communication. Let's it be like this - we are also doing internal project management.
Keith Gill
Congrats on the impressive numbers! What is your main lesson learned from building a startup from 0 to $80k?
Nik Shevchenko
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@digitalkeith Growth is starting with funding product-market-fit. If you meet users' needs with your solution, the growth and marketing is becoming much easier. A few tips: focus on speed do more, talk less track your metrics from the day 0 always run user interviews and listen to users hire the best possible people, if you canโ€™t ask for their advice Our marketing is a mix of product-led growth, paid channels and outbound sales. Until right now we even didnโ€™t have a marketing team, so all the growth was happening thanks to the product, which meets user needs.
Eduardo Toledo
Hey! How did you stared welovenocode startup, how did you come up with the idea, and how did you get traction?
Nik Shevchenko
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@es_toledo I will combine my previous answers if you don't mind :) So, I'm a second-time founder. My first company I started five years ago (I wanted to build a platform for managing crypto assets and trading on several crypto exchanges). It only resulted in me spending something like $300,000 and three years of my life on it. My development process was not very successful, which resulted in constant switching from one software development team to another. The end of this story is sad - that product never became live. Afterward, I joined a 500Startups accelerator program with another company which exited. During my time at 500startups I learned about no code and finally felt the freedom of building products fast and myself. Thatโ€™s how I started with WeLoveNoCode. How we did we get growth: Our marketing was kind of secondary, compering to defining users' needs. We spot user problems and value prop: fast, affordable, simple no-code development, which gives users ready product. All this in weeks. Regarding channels for no-code: it really depends on your persona. Some no-code tools, like forms, can be used in very big companies by specific teams (design team, marketing team). While others, like WeLoveNoCode, are best for fast MVP creation for smaller teams. So our channels are: social media ads Google ads Product Hunt
Inna Proshkina
Hi Nik! How did you get #1 on Product Hunt? Which day of the week did you launch? BTW we launched today, please check us out!
Nik Shevchenko
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@inna_proshkina Our Product Hunt is a full day of work! We do preparation with the visuals, copy and positioning + marketing strategy.
Nik Shevchenko
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@inna_proshkina I believe that the day of the week is not as critical as having fit with the PH audience. Are you sure that your users are on Product Hunt. And congrats on launching!
Inna Proshkina
@kodjima33 these are obvious and generic things to say, I was hoping to get more. The devil is in details ;)
Nik Shevchenko
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@inna_proshkina In details: - we did minutes by minutes plan - we used all our marketing channels to inform our community that we launched - we changed the copy on the website, targeting the PH audience. Being #1 is not about some tips and tricks. If the PH community doesn't like your product (your product doesn't meet its needs), no amount of "hack" will help. PH algorithm is very smart. Also, it's a community place, not a platform to only promote your product. Those are details that matter: founders who are engaged with the community and feel what is important for it - are getting better results. Founders, who try to trick the system ends up having a lot of upvotes but a lower position on the page
Nik Shevchenko
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@inna_proshkina More to think about: - what is the competition this day? If you have Stripe launching something - you won't be #1 - what announcement is the PH team is doing? If PH has announced their new CEO, all attention will be there - what activity PH has this day/week/month? If it's summer, it's less active - is your community on Product Hunt? (your users, friends, those who will support you) Eventually, when you are getting the first boost and listed on the main page, the PH community decides if they like your product. That's why knowing that your users are here is critical.
Inna Proshkina
How much do you pay to get featured on the homepage?
Nik Shevchenko
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@inna_proshkina Can you please clarify the question. For the Product Hunt, you do not pay to be featured on the main page, it's about the users love. Or have you asked something different?
Nik Shevchenko
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Huge thanks to everyone who joined my AMA! I will be here today, tomorrow and till the end of the week. Looking to answer on all your questions.
Vlas Babinets
If I build something with NoCode or LowCode can my product usage be limited?
Nik Shevchenko
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@new_user_294840ab29 No. In terms of users for the projects we are building, NoCode tools are not limited. I have seen apps with 200,000+ users.
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MEHAK SAMAIYA
Awesome job with WeLoveNoCode! My query - How can I choose which Nocode app to use for my needs? On what basis?
Nik Shevchenko
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@mehak_samaiya As a general rule: try to move fast & lean with whatever you are building. You donโ€™t need to spend weeks on choosing โ€œthe best no code toolโ€. For almost every task you will find some tool. For example, we support a stack of 100+ no-code tools. If you would try to evaluate each of them (even for 30 min), it's already a 50h (almost 2 weeks).
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Nik Shevchenko
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@mehak_samaiya So, for a scale of your side project, I would really recommend you to chose from the popular tools. Those are great: to make landing Tilda, Wix, Squarespace, Carrd, Bubble, Webflow to make mobile app Adalo, Glideapps, Bravo Studio Apps Internal automation Notion, Airtable, Coda, Zapier easy payments BuyMeACoffee, Gumroad, Stripe to send emails Mailchimp, SendGrid At WeLoveNoCode you donโ€™t need to choose the tooling, you just tell what you want us to build. I wonโ€™t stop repeating that no code is cheaper, faster, and simpler.
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Nik Shevchenko
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@mehak_samaiya Your basis for choosing no-code tools are the following: - learning curve - support (especially, if you are new to no code) - technical capabilities - price
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Anastasia
How can I become your no code dev?
Nik Shevchenko
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@new_user_47c42ccb06 Happy that you are considering becoming a code developer! Yes, you can start learning in our academy - https://academy.welovenocode.com/ or join courses from no code tools. Ideally, if you will be able to work on some real projects right away. It can be your side-projects or freelance
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Nik Shevchenko
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@new_user_47c42ccb06 you can also join our courses if you want to learn with us we have 200 hours of different courses recorded in the four different no code platforms like Bubble, AirTable, Tilda, Webflow and many, many more. We educate people and after that, we connect them with companies.