🚪 How Sharath went from No-Code MVP to $2,700 MRR
The No-Code Exit Story of Sharath Kuruganty and Shoutout
Welcome 134 new subscribers 👯♀️ to No-Code Exits. The newsletter that shares every week a story of how a No-Code Maker went from 0 to $.
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👀 Katt’s week (+ gift🎁)
I dabbled with NoCode + AI for the first time this week. No-Code builder Softr released some new features and I made this AI kids play idea generator in 40 minutes.
Next week, I will enjoy some time off with my husband and 2 little ones. You can expect a new issue again in the new year (the amazing story of Makerpad that got acquired by Zapier 👀 ).
Enjoy the holidays dear readers and let’s build some incredible things together in 2023!
The interview this week is not 100% no-code. But it is such a good story and Sharath is such an amazing maker that it is too good to not share. He:
💡 Got the idea by scratching his own itch
🎢 Validated demand by launching a landing page
🏗️ Launched MVP with No-Code and learned a lot from talking with first users.
🌱 Got his first users by a built-in viral loop and partnering up with ambassadors
🤝 Found a technical co-founder to level up
🚪 Grew it to $2,700 MRR and sold it
Enjoy it.
📣 Cool Classifieds
PHPRunner builds visually appealing web applications with little or no programming.
Pricewell is a No-Code solution to easily implement Stripe subscriptions on your website built with Webflow, Bubble, Wordpress etc.
Landbot is a powerful No-Code chatbuilder thanks to integrations like Zapier, Airtable, Stripe, Calendly, Mailchimp etc.
Rabbit Hole is a newsletter for product managers with curated content across different formats for PMs that educates & entertains them.
🔥 Maker Interview
First a short introduction
Sharath Kuruganty works at Threado as Head of community. Previously he helped nurture communities at Product Hunt, and On Deck and advises early-stage founders with GTM and community building. He is the host of a podcast and a Twitter legend where he very transparently shares all his wisdom, learnings, experiments and fails with 21K followers. A true #buildinpublic OG and a huge inspiration to me.
Hey Sharath, how did you get into No-Code?
In 2017, I tried to launch a B2B Start-Up together with a good friend (KP). We spent a lot of time and money on it. Ultimately it failed and we shut it down. We had no clue about start-ups and were too naive and inexperienced.
In 2018, I still had this burning desire to become a founder and build things myself. At that time, I was reading Atomic Habits by James Clear, and it inspired me to take small steps and do things on a smaller scale to get those wins.
All big things come from small beginnings
I discovered this No-Code tutorial website from Ben Tossel (NewCo). I paid for the year subscription, and this was kind of a big deal for me to commit to learn No-Code and actually pay money for it. This really gave me a boost to start building stuff.
At the same time there were on Product Hunt small curation products winning Product of the day and that actually puts a seed into my mind. So I decided before the end of 2018 I need to ship one simple project on Product Hunt. And that’s what I did. I experienced such warm support from the community. It was an amazing feeling as a first time maker.
So this motivated me to keep going. I set the intention to build at least one project per month and see how things go. Since then, I launched more than 15 projects using No-Code tools.
What motivated you to get started with Shoutout?
It was a Tweet from KP that sparked the idea. I got this nice shoutout from him and I thought it would be really helpful if I could collate tweets like that just for my own sake.
I called him and told him about the idea, and he was like “you have to build this!”. That gave me the initial nudge. So I bought the domain and build the landing page with Carrd and an email capture with Mailerlite. And the next day I launched it, and it was just WOW. People came forward again to support, and I got around 200 signups on the wait list.
This showed that there was enough interest to continue. And by talking to the early signups and reading their comments, it evolved. People educated me and shared which features they needed.
So your idea was validated. How did you continue building your product?
I started to build the first version with Bubble and the Twitter API. It was the second time I used Bubble so I already knew a little bit about the workflows and databases but still learned alot (and had a lot of fun with it). The first version was a manual version where you copy and paste your Tweet URL’s in the Shoutout App and those tweets get displayed on this wall which you can name and share with a URL.
Once I shipped the MVP I handpicked around 20 persons who could try it out and get their feedback. Julian Shapiro said that if it could replace the embedded tweet collection from Twitter itself (which was not very attractive and had performance issuess), he would become my first paying customer.
And then you switched from no-code to code?
I had no idea how I could build this embed feature. I started to explore different options, but they were not a good solution. So I made a bold move.
I had the validation with 650 people on the waitlist.
I had positive feedback from the first 20 people
I had an MVP that exhibited the potential of the product
I had a clear road map thanks to the first tests
I decided to look for a technical co-founder in public, posted this on Twitter and received around 20 DM’s. I partnered up with Curtis, and we could quickly start building in a much more robust way and with more features.
How have you attracted users and grown Shoutout?
I always wanted to do things in public. And I started with sharing everything I'm doing on a day-to-day basis for Shoutout. It includes highlights as well as lowlights. We didn't spend much time on traditional marketing. In general, I just went with my strength, which is narrating the story in public. And thanks to being so transparent, I also got a lot of advice. Many people, played many roles in shaping the whole journey. I didn't do all of this all by my own.
What also worked well was our Ambassador program with people who were very active on Twitter and I personally onboarded them, like Jack Butcher, Alex Liman and many more. That gave a lot of visibility.
Another growth strategy was that the free version always displayed a ‘Powered by Shoutout’ so there was this viral loop built in that attracted new signups. And if a user didn’t want this branding, they had to pay.
We also were awarded with a Product Hunt Maker Grant, which resulted again in a lot of visibility and credibility too.
What was the timeline for all of this?
1 September: Idea
2 September: Launched landing page
September: Built MVP in Bubble
October: Started looking for a co-founder
November: Curtis joining as a technical co-founder
December: Beta for early signups
January: Soft launch on Twitter
February: Product Hunt launch
March: Product Hunt Maker Grant Award
Why and how did you sell it?
The biggest reason is that it's not going to be like the next billion-dollar company. It's not VC friendly. The idea has a lot of potential and is perfect for bootstrapping to generate an income on the side. But it didn't excite me anymore.
The second thing is, that Curtis and I slowly drifted from building Shoutout to like focusing on our 9 to 5 and family. All throughout the journey, we were doing this on the side. Working in early mornings, late at night or in the weekends.
It felt like it became baggage. I went to a stage where I felt guilty that we are not shipping much, but people are still paying for it. And in the last year it kept growing without us shipping new features.
So in the beginning of this year, I started talking to founders who might be interested.
I wanted to find a perfect match with someone that could take it forward. It was not that easy. Even though you are a profitable business (150 paying customers and $2,7K MRR) with a good brand reputation, it doesn't mean people are lining up for acquiring it, so it took some time.
I shared on Twitter (sell in public) that we wanted to sell it and like that we found a good buyer with a vision who offered a price close to six figures. From launch to acquisition took 2.2 years.
What kind of advice would you like to share with someone who wants to get started with No-Code?
The best way to start is to build something for yourself, and don't judge what you're building. You don't have to necessarily build the next big startup, start small and that will eventually happen.
No-Code breeds confidence if you do it in the right way. It feels like you have a superpower and can take you from 0 to 1.
So my honest advice is to have fun, build simple little ideas if you're just getting started and play around and launch it, learn from it, and move on to the next thing.
Where can we find more about you?
You can follow me on Twitter.
Check out my personal website.
Or listen to my podcast.
Do you have any questions for Sharath? Post them in the comments.
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