🚪Finding product-market fit with a No-Code Chrome Extension
The No-Code Success Story of Tom Wesolowski & Cluee
Hi, Katt here.
Welcome to the 97 new subscribers this week. 👯
For this week’s No-Code success story I talked with Tom Wesolowski, an amazing No-Code maker and the founder of Cluee. He talks about:
😱 The mistake of building a product for everyone
🛟 Finding a niche and real problem
🫧 Building Chrome Extensions with Bubble
👀 When to work with Webflow and Xano
🌈 A free marketing tactic that beats paid ads
Enjoy reading and happy building!
PS: did you miss last weeks interview? David breaks down how he built a cool Quiz App and how it was acquired (with 0 revenue). Read it here
tonik is a seasoned design studio, working with early-stage startups, helping them in their 0 → 1 journey with designing, building and launching their MVPs.
They’re big believers in leveraging no-code tech as a capital-efficient way to build products.
Some of the viable ventures they launched with no-code are Micasa, Caktus and Pickle.
If you have a project in mind, you can find their availability here or reach them via hello@tonik.com.
🔥 Maker Story
Hello! What's your background?
My name is Tom, and I've been in the No-Code business since 2020. Prior to that, I ran several internet businesses. One was a software house with over 250 people, and another one was an AI-related startup back in 2016. When the pandemic hit, I found myself confined to my home with a lot of free time on my hands. That's when I decided it would be interesting to start something new from scratch, but this time, on my own. A friend introduced me to Bubble, and that's how my journey began.
What is the product you have been working on?
Cluee.app is an automatic time-tracking solution tailored for No-Code developers. It uses a Chrome Extension to integrate with your No-Code editor and tracks the time spent on design, data, workflows, app preview and externally connected apps (e.g., XANO). The primary advantage is its background operation. This eliminates the need to manually start and stop a timer. However, the real value lies in the insights you gain about the actual time spent on your app. This allows you to make more accurate predictions for future projects, assess profitability and monitor team progress. Additionally, it facilitates easy reporting to clients when working with time-based pricing.
What went into building the first version?
That's an interesting story on how to pivot and find your niche. My first product served a broad range of freelancers across various industries. It was a web app that handled project management, cash flow, invoicing and more. However, after several MVP tests yielded no significant results.
After a few months of building, I had created a massive app that, unfortunately, wasn’t solving a painful problem and no one wanted to use.
On the bright side, the experience taught me how to build really advanced apps with Bubble, even though it failed to attract users. I realized the need to focus on a niche and solve a smaller, more specific problem.
Thanks to my No-Code Twitter community, a friend of mine (Miguel) suggested building a product centered around time-tracking specifically for No-Code developers. I connected the dots—realizing that I had an early-stage product and could pivot into a niche I was also a part of and even scratching my own itch. I quickly:
built a simplified MVP
launched it publicly
and this time targeted fellow No-Code developers
People genuinely liked it. So my journey is essentially a story of searching for a niche, finding a product-market fit, and doing it all through No-Code. I don't think this would have been possible with a traditional approach, as the flexibility of No-Code allowed me to iterate and pivot much more quickly than a conventional software stack would have permitted.
Which No-Code tools did you use?
The entire product is built on Bubble, supplemented with a bit of custom JavaScript to power the Chrome Extension. After conducting beta tests on Bubble, I opted to transition the database and backend to XANO due to the high volume of API calls and extensive background data processing, which Bubble struggles with.
For the website, I use Webflow, and I've employed Make for some custom background automations. However I'm in the process of consolidating everything into XANO. I chose to separate the website from the main app to ensure that even high website traffic won’t impact the database and app performance. Next to that Webflow is also fast and SEO-optimized Webflow.
As of now, Bubble remains the most robust full-stack alternative, making it sufficient for 90% of apps. I always recommend to start with Bubble, and then you can always migrate to an external backend when the need arises in the future
How did you make a Chrome Extension with Bubble?
That really depends on the type of extension you're aiming to build. If you're looking to perform a lot of background tasks, like time-tracking, you'll need to incorporate custom JavaScript code to manage that. Fortunately, you can easily learn how to do this by asking ChatGPT. For most other scenarios, you can simply wrap your Bubble app into an extension and link it to native browser functions using one of the available plugins. I recommend checking out Bubble Hacks by Charles, as it's well-documented and user-friendly. Plus, you can begin with a free basic version of your Chrome Extension.
What's your business model?
Cluee has a typical SaaS subscription business model. I charge subscriptions based on whether you are a solo freelancer ($4) or an agency ($25). The newly introduced agency plan also offers an array of additional features geared towards teamwork and reporting.
Currently, I have over 150 users who have signed up, with half of them actively using the product and around 15% being paying customers.
How have you attracted users and grown your product?
Initially, I thought taking a shortcut through paid advertising would be effective. I allocated a marketing budget and experimented with various channels, ranging from Facebook, Reddit, and Quora to Twitter and LinkedIn ads. However, the results were disappointing; even though I managed to attract users, they signed up but never engaged with the product again. So, I pivoted to a #buildinpublic approach. I relaunched on Twitter, announcing that I was developing a "Bubble-time-tracker," and opened a waitlist. Nearly 50 people signed up immediately.
When the product was ready, I simply emailed them and granted access. The best part was that the majority of these early users were genuinely engaged, providing invaluable feedback and insights on how to improve the product.
Having such engaged early adopters is crucial; it confirms that you're solving a real problem and building for real people, not just based on your own assumptions.
Over the past few weeks, I've not only focused on enhancing the product based on user feedback but also engaged in discussions with No-Code agencies about an upcoming "Agency Plan," set to launch this month. I believe that with the introduction of the Agency Plan, I can further demonstrate the real value of time reports and collaboration features, thereby accelerating user growth even more quickly.
What's your advice for people just getting started?
It's incredibly straightforward yet impressively effective: put yourself out there for the world to see. This could mean building in public on Twitter, increasing your visibility on LinkedIn, or attending or speaking at events where your potential customers are. The more people know about you and your work, the more insights and feedback you'll receive.
Thanks Tom for sharing your journey and all your knowledge.
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