Impressive Startups Built with No-Code
No-code platforms are disrupting the startup industry in an exciting way. With the recent developer shortage, no-code solutions allow startups to avoid paying sky-high salaries for new talent and quickly shift those resources to getting a prototype out. They also enable more startups to grow from non-tech founders that no longer need to bring in partners with direct programming experience.
Sure, it always helps to have some team members with a background in mobile app development or something similar, but the flexibility and power of the no-code or low-code movement is revolutionizing the startup industry. People with little to no experience in programming are crafting new companies faster and with less initial capital than ever before, all because of no-code platforms.
What does no-code mean?
No-code is an easy-to-manage software platform that empowers people with non-technical backgrounds to create programs, mobile apps, web apps, websites, and more without using any code in the conventional sense. No-code platforms usually have a drag-and-drop interface, and help founders and entrepreneurs get their products to the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) stage and beyond much more quickly than would be possible with conventional coding.
The number and variety of digital products you can build using a no-code platform is only capped by your imagination. You can use no-code platforms for side projects to hone your skills, or you can build a full-fledged online business. Let’s take a look at some of the more impressive startups built using a no-code system.
1 - Lambda School
One of the best startup examples using no-code products has got to be Lambda School. It is somewhat ironic that an educational platform helping students learn full-stack development, blockchain, or other programming subjects was founded by utilizing a no-code system.
Lambda School is an online tech company helping students learn skills to enter the software and app-related fields. Their main competitive advantage is their ISAs or income share agreements that allow students to pay nothing upfront. Instead, they will be on the line for roughly 17% of their income after graduation until they pay back an agreed-upon amount.
The entire company was crafted with many different no-code platforms until they received enough funding and investment to create a more customized website. The point is, their MVP built with no-code was enough to grow into an exciting new business with a much smaller team than usual. Lambda School was built using a combination of a variety of SaaS products and no-code platforms. While choosing the tools they would use to create school admission forms, manage contact scheduling or automate email, the decision makers at Lambda School made sure to pick the tools their instructors were already familiar with, and by doing that, avoided a steep learning curve.
2 - Kollecto, Inc.
There is a renaissance of artistic indie creatives happening right now. All they need is a TikTok or Instagram account with a decent following, and a new business is born. The only problem is that keeping track of all these fantastic artists is next to impossible for collectors.
That is why Kollecto was born. This is a web app built with no-code to connect artists and collectors, much like Spotify suggests playlists or Netflix for movies. With Kollecto, ordinary people can manage and curate their own digital galleries with direct links to the artists they love for others to purchase their creations.
The founder, Tara Reed, was able to start her no-code project for less than most waiters make in a week. Since Tara was not coming from a coding background, she leveraged no-code tools and readily-available SaaS products to get Kollecto up and running in a short time. An accelerator quickly scooped up the MVP, and the business scaled up really fast, giving Tara thousands of active users actively creating new artist portfolios.
3 - Rebel Book Club
Do you want to meet a no-code startup with a ton of tenacity? Then, you need to check out Rebel Book Club. This company was founded as a subscription business where active members are sent a monthly non-fiction book and a secret meeting location in their area where they will discuss the book they read over book-inspired cocktails.
The tenacity part comes from the fact this company started close to the beginning of the pandemic. They saw massive crowds at their monthly meetings and then moved to a Zoom model to stay afloat. The good news is, their MVP was flexible enough to adjust without needing a team of programmers on the back end. Two guys run this company, and they are still getting a ton of buzz from investors because they are offering an exciting way for people to get back into the habit of reading. This is an excellent way to leverage a no-code platform with one of the greatest traditions of knowledge and entertainment around the world—reading.
The interesting part about Rebel Book Club is that, like its funding sources, all their no-code solutions were suggested by the crowd. From the very beginning of this company in May 2015, they have relied heavily on the input and influence of their community. They used no-code tools to design their website, manage member applications and integrate different SaaS products for event creating and email marketing.
All of this worked well for their guerilla-style meetings, but to get the Subscription Management toolkit, they began asking around to their community. Unfortunately, that part of the system was placed on hold due to the global pandemic. They began leveraging Zoom as their primary platform for delivering the same experience until restrictions begin to lift once again.
4 - Qoins
Everyone wants a little help every now and then to keep their finances in check. Qoins was created to save a little money while automatically setting aside portions of daily transactions to pay down any debt. It is a mobile app that takes the guesswork out of overcoming financial worry like startup Acorns has been helping investors develop a portfolio.
This system was built with low-code and no-code platforms and the product quickly moved from ideation phase in 2017 to the MVP stage in 2018. It was around this time that the investors started to show interest in the company and it received a significant amount of angel investment. Although the company later moved some of its processes to conventional code, it is still running on a no-code infrastructure to a large extent.
5 - Switchboard
If we’re talking about revolutionary no-code startups, we need to mention Switchboard. This company started as a way to place ad-screens on Uber and Lyft driver's vehicles. That way, you’d see an ad for your local pizza joint as you ordered an Uber to get home from the clubs. The founders quickly realized they had stumbled upon a bigger problem. Getting all those screens to sync the ads they wanted to display was next to impossible because they were using different software.
They created Switchboard to manage DOOHs (digital out-of-home media) accessible to the general public all from a single platform. Their web app allows marketing teams to easily control all the screens displaying their campaigns without contacting each one individually. Switchboard’s SaaS model is exploding in interest and drawing in investors, all from a no-code MVP.
Switchboard was another project completed using only no-code tech stack. The real fantastic point of their process was the speed with which they went from concept to MVP within 30 days, all thanks to the no-code technology.
What about your startup?
The point of all this is that it is easier than ever to launch a tech-driven startup. No-code and low-code capabilities are transforming how we do business, and it begins with you.
If you have a brilliant new idea ready to move to the app stage, why not give no-code a try? That is where the expert team at Peaka can help. Our no-code development platform lets you create fully-responsive web apps in an easy-to-understand drag-and-drop visual designer and helps you take the first step to build your own successful startup!