Lessons learned after achieving $170k MRR and raising $1M in funding | Hacker News Reader

Lessons learned after achieving $170k MRR and raising $1M in funding

9 pointskodjima3315 comments

Hello to all the HN community! It's Nik here, I founded WeLoveNoCode (welovenocode.com), a platform that connects people with the best no-code developers to build their software and apps without a single line of code. All that is based on a monthly subscription.

My startup just raised $1M in funding and we reached a monthly recurring revenue of $170k+ within less than a year. I have learned a lot from other makers here, So I decided to also share my experience about building a startup that is growing at rocket speed. I hope this helps other entrepreneurs (and if you are looking to join a fast-growth startup, I’m hiring).

So, how did we achieve this kind of growth in a short time? I drafted some important lessons I learned and would like to share them with you.

Now, let's dive deeper in comments:

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- Fundraising is hard.

You should see things from an investor's perspective. As an entrepreneur, you’re completely absorbed in your startup. You’ve spent years building this business, you think about it 24 hours a day and you spend most of your time actively working on it. However, for the investor, what matters the most is the long-term viability of the business and returns on investment. Seeing things from this perspective will completely change how you approached raising capital and lead you to revisit how you pitch for investment. You must realize that to your investor, your start is not a product or a technology. You must position your startup as an investment.

- Find a model that works

When we started out, our model was to charge customers an hourly service fee. By the end of the first year, our monthly revenue grew to $20k. While it felt good, delegation and an hourly fee was no longer an efficient model. Automation was the answer. We decided to build a platform that matches developers with specific skills with projects that require that skillset. Today, we offer clients a low-cost no-code development subscription service.

This allows you to start your project quickly, efficiently, and affordably– a gap that clearly exists in the market. Entrepreneurs get access to the best no-code developers who have been pre-vetted by us. Don’t be afraid to allow your model to evolve as you get feedback from customers. However, continue to deliver satisfying services as you evolve. No startup got a business model right from the first try!

- An MVP tells you what your customer really wants:

I often see entrepreneurs try to build a flawless product before shipping. The problem with this strategy is that it’s often complex for customers to use or sometimes doesn't even solve their problem. Unless your product is high-risk, creating an MVP helps you gather quick feedback from your customers so you can iterate better. It can also be a useful prototype for your potential investor. You can build an MVP with tools like Bubble, Webflow, or a mix of Zapier and Airtable.

In our case, I built a landing page about no-code development and invited leads to book a call. This is how WeLoveNoCode started: a simple landing page built with Tilda. Built MVP with users is always better than no perfect nothing.

From a marketing perspective, I believe that you need to validate ideas with landing pages, instead of building MVPs

This way, you will be able to validate the idea without time spent

Agreed. Building new products is just useless nowadays. I think this lesson is just useless

* building fully functional product for MVP = useless

- Start with Satisfying your Customers

Sounds very basic, right? Because I had no cash to do any advertising, I let my work speak for me and I made first sales, controlled the quality of development, and asked for feedback later on. I tried to exceed expectations on all the work I did for clients. When you focus on delivering results that satisfy your customer, they will spread the word. Don’t be shy to tell them to share about your business. What helped while growing: having weekly feedback from customers and keeping constant interaction based on that feedback.

- Educate the market:

I know that no code is the best option for fast testing of product ideas, releasing MVPs, getting user feedback, automating internal tasks, and shipping typical apps. All these can be done in days, not years, and in a very cost-effective way compared to doing it in code. That's why we made WeLoveNoCode (welovenocode.com). Based on our experience, 95% of things that you can build with code you can also build with no Code, just much faster and cheaper. But NOT everyone on the market thinks this way!

Wow, that was long but hopefully useful!

No-code seems strange to me. I see a lot of hype around it but can’t figure out why everyone is so bullish

I tried building on webflow and bubble but it too cringe

Why did you think that this will actually work in the first place?

- Approach Marketing with a growth mindset:

Growth starts with finding product-market-fit. If you meet users' needs with your solution, growth and marketing become easier. Our marketing is a mix of product-led growth, paid channels, and outbound sales. Until recently we didn’t have a marketing team, so all the growth happened thanks to the product, which meets user needs. Now, we are much more focused on having a marketing strategy, marketing OKRs, and even Head of Marketing!

-Be very clear with your value prop:

For WeLoveNoCode the value is the speed of product delivery, cost efficiency, and quality. For $1999/month the client gets a brain of 3000+ Nocoders with a stack of 241 tools instead of a single no-code developer with experience of 1-2 tools. It took us time to define our value prop and we are still working on it for different users. If you don't focus on the value, you will have problems later on. ...

- VC money is not the only way:

You can consider crowdfunding, raising from Friends and family, Government grants, Angel investors, or pure bootstrap. Whichever route you are taking (and you should consider more than one at a time) the key to success is talking to multiple people at once. This creates a buzz and a feeling that interest exists, pushing investors to act for fear of missing out. It really works.

Hey, thanks for sharing I used no-code for a long time with different projects but these tools didn't let me to create something that I can actually release on the market. They were not complex enough. How are you dealing with some complex projects, including blockchain technology or data science?

From my experience, 5% out of 100% projects just can't be done with no-code. At least for now. Unfortunately we decline complex projects that require AI/Blockchain or Big Data

The only option we have is to wait until someone builds a better no-code tool:)

Good question, from one side there are performance limitation with no code but from another side, there are so many projects which brings value to users without beeing too technical.

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