🚪 No-Code Excel Formula Bot with 3.3K MRR
The No-Code Succes Story of David and Excel Formula Bot
Welcome 161 new subscribers👯♀️ to No-Code Exits. The newsletter that shares every week a story of how a No-Code Maker went from 0 to acquired (except for this week🥸).
👀 Katt's Week
Last weekend was No-Code Weekend. In 3 days, I built the first version of No-Code Acquire. It’s a platform targeted at marketers where they can find no-code projects for sale and turn them with some marketing love into profitable businesses. I have still loads to do, but happy to have a first version ready. You can read more about how I got the idea here.
I need to sharpen my cold email skills because next week I will try to reach out to some No-Code tools to sponsor this newsletter. These tips from legend KP were helpful to me. His newsletter is every week packed with practical tips, so make sure to subscribe.
This week something unusual in No-Code Exits… Instead of the usual acquisition story, it is a (great!) story of a profitable business made with No-Code. I had been playing with the idea already, and it was suggested a few times in the audience survey, so let’s try it! I will do a poll to see if you like it, or you can always reply to vent your opinion.😁
💡 Acquisition Inspiration
Get inspired by No-Code projects for sale on Microns 🚀.
What Popular Newsletters Database
No-Code Tools Gumroad and Softr
Customers 800
ARR: Yes
Price: $20,000
📣 No-Code Black Friday Deals
I kicked out the classifieds this week, so I can share my favorite No-Code Maker Black Friday Deals. So many goodies, I’m sorry monthly budget.
No Code MBA Unlimited
Access to 100+ in-depth courses to learn building with different No-Code tools. One of their recent courses: Building No-Code apps with AI.🔥
💰$75 discount (until Friday midnight)
Dorik
No-Code website builder. It’s such a strong all-rounder that you can use for any project with beautiful designs, endless customization options, CMS for blogging, Airtable Integration, membership, … And their pricing is 👌.
💰20% off (until 30 November)
Carrd
A No-Code website builder with great templates.
💰40% off (until 30 November) with code ITSBF2021
Plugins for Carrd
Widgets to power up your Carrd websites.
💰34% off (until 30 November)
Llama Life
A beautiful To-Do list for timeboxed working. I use it every day.
💰40% off (until 30 November)
Tiny Kiwi
My favorite image editor to create beautiful screenshots and images.
💰30% off (until 28 November) with code BLACKFRIDAY
Famewall
Share social proof and easily embed it into your website.
💰20% off (until 29 November) with code BFCM
🔥 Maker Interview
Hello David, tell us a little bit about yourself.
I'm an analytics nerd that works in digital marketing analytics for my full time job. Admittedly, I do not know how to code a website. I used to be a Wordpress guy, so I've always been familiar with No-Code web applications, but never a web application to BUILD another web application. I was just used to build websites—with no elaborate functionality. During paternity leave, I went down a rabbit hole of web applications that have API integrations (without knowing how to code) and I stumbled upon Bubble.
Tell us about your product that you made?
While on paternity leave, I went down a rabbit hole of learning more about AI and stumbled upon OpenAI. I started "playing" around in the playground by asking it basic questions. Then, the analytics in me came out, and I started asking it Excel related questions - starting off easy and then asking it harder and harder questions. My mouth dropped to the floor, followed by me Googling to see if an AI Excel formula generator already existed. I couldn't find it anywhere. So I started Excel Formula Bot.
Did you validate the idea?
The site that exists today was not the site that existed in July, when I launched a VERY rough MVP. It was literally two boxes: the input where the text instructions would go and an output where the formula would spit out. I shared the site on the /excel Subreddit looking for a few testers. That post went viral (or as viral as a post can get in a nerdy Subreddit like /excel), then was reposted on the /InternetIsBeautiful Subreddit where it garnered 10K+ upvotes.
That was all I needed to pursue it as a real business. One month later, I launched the new website with more functionalities like signup, subscriptions, etc.
And yes, I racked up several thousand dollars in API costs before actually making a dollar. The MVP was free and had unlimited usage. It was like the Wild, Wild west. It was the best thing for it, because I firmly believe that was the reason it went as viral as it did. Not many websites with a paywall go viral these days. It immediately became one of those "10 websites that should be illegal to know" sites.
Which No-Code tools did you use ?
The site took a full month to build. The tech stack includes:
Bubble for the web app
Open Ai for the AI
Stripe for payments
Sendinblue for email verification and email campaigns
Localize.js for language translations, since Excel is used across the world.
How did you launch and grow your product?
The MVP was launched on Reddit and went viral there and on TikTok. The official site was launched on Product Hunt, where the virality continued throughout that week.
While my MRR continues to go up and to the right, launch day was still the highest revenue generated day. Fortunately, I've been riding the coattails of social influencers willingly promoting the website, as well as word of mouth. Aside from social media algorithms, this is really the first time a lot of people are directly interacting with artificial intelligence. It's something worth of being shared with other people. That has allowed me to solely focus on the product, as demand has continued to sustain since launch. I do have some big things in the works for marketing in the next few weeks that I'm excited to share soon!
Why did you choose to build with No-Code?
Because I don't know how to code :) I wanted to move quick. Since the idea hadn't existed yet, I didn't want someone to build it before me. I knew if I wanted it done quick, I'd have to do it myself.
Were there any shortcomings in using No-Code VS Code?
Not that I can think of. Building in No-Code web apps like Bubble is ironically like working in Excel. It's a lot of logic building. If you know code, it doesn't hurt. But it’s not mandatory.
Can you share some stats?
Since launching September 1:
1.1M website visitors
1.6K paid users
$3.3K MRR
$22K in revenue
What kind of advice would you like to share with someone who wants to get started with No-Code?
Just. Get. Started.
Start with a low barrier to entry and work your way up. When I launched the site, I didn't require a log in and users had unlimited formula requests. Then I added a log in. Then I limited the formula requests. Then I required email verification. Low barrier to entry = more users trying it.
Where can we go to learn more about you and your project?
You can follow me and Excel Formula Bot on Twitter
Check out Excel Formula Bot here
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