Update: How Daniel built a vertical SaaS with $100,000 booking revenue
The No-Code Success Story of Daniel Ginsberg and Utrain
Hello there,
Welcome to 112 new subscribers. 🙏
I talked with basketball trainer Daniel Ginsberg. Yep, you read that right! Read about:
✨ Scratching your own itch
🔥 Building software for a very specific industry
💥 Switching from code to no-code
👀 Growing to 2400 users
Enjoy and happy building.
PS: missed last week’s interview? Read here how I built an SEO optimized directory and sold it.
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🔥 No-Code Founder Interview
Learn every week from a real world no-code success story
Hello! What's your background?
I’m Daniel Ginsberg, Co-Founder & CEO of Utrain. My background is a blend of sports and entrepreneurship. I’ve always had a passion for basketball and technology. I got into No-Code because it allowed us to quickly build and iterate on our app without needing heavy development resources. It’s been a game-changer for launching our app.
Tell me more about the product you have built?
The idea came to me as a basketball trainer spending too much time on administrative tasks—scheduling, managing clients, and organizing sessions. I realized there wasn’t a platform tailored to our needs, which led to the creation of Utrain. Our motivation was to help basketball trainers like myself focus more on what they love—coaching—while growing their business. Utrain simplifies bookings, handles payments, and connects trainers with athletes, saving time and reducing errors like double-booking.
Which no-code tools did you use to build and run it?
To build and run Utrain, we used a combination of No-Code tools that allowed us to move quickly and efficiently:
Bubble: We chose Bubble as our main platform for building the Utrain app. It provided the flexibility to create custom workflows and a responsive design without needing to write code. Bubble was ideal because it allowed us to integrate various features like user registration, scheduling, and payments seamlessly.
Zapier: We used Zapier to automate repetitive tasks, like sending confirmation emails and notifications. It connects different apps we use, saving time and reducing manual work.
Airtable: Airtable was our choice for managing data behind the scenes. It acts as a dynamic database for tracking user profiles, bookings, and session details. Its simple interface made it easy to customize for our needs.
Stripe: For payment processing, we integrated Stripe because of its robust API and easy setup. It ensures that trainers can receive payments securely, and its No-Code integration with Bubble was a perfect fit.
BDK wrap to turn our Bubble web app into an iOS and Google Play app
We chose these tools because they are user-friendly, scalable, and provided us with the flexibility to iterate quickly while keeping costs down in the development phase. I want to give a huge shoutout to our partners at Rapid Dev for helping us speed up the development process.
How did the initial version look like?
Building the initial version of Utrain was a long journey of validation, quick iterations, and adapting based on user feedback.
Validation: Before starting development, we spoke with basketball trainers to understand their challenges—most struggled with managing schedules, payments, and client communication across multiple platforms.
Initial MVP: We initially built our MVP using React Native, but we found the development process too time-consuming and complex for our needs at that stage. After testing, we decided to switch to Bubble which allowed us to iterate much faster.
Version 1: Our focus was on core features—trainer profiles, scheduling, and payment processing. We launched with a simple, functional design to a small group of trainers, using their feedback to refine the product. This lean approach enabled us to validate the concept and improve rapidly based on real-world use.
What is the business model?
Our business model for Utrain is based on a commission per booking, where clients and NOT the trainers, pay a small transaction fee for each booking processed through the app. More similar to a ticketing platform. Since launch in Jan 24’, we generated $100,000 in booking revenue, our initial first goal at launch!
How have you attracted users and grown your product?
To grow our revenue, we’ve focused on targeted marketing campaigns to reach basketball trainers, utilizing social media and online communities for awareness. We also completed 21 NIL Deals where college basketball players all around the country promote Utrain.
We welcome each new basketball trainer to Utrain through social media. When trainers see these posts, they’re motivated to check out the app, driving our traction further.
Users: We have over 2,500 active trainers using the app to manage their bookings and client interactions.
Visitors: Our website attracts around 30,000 unique visitors per month
Social Media: Our social media presence includes over 8,000 followers on Instagram and 24,000 profile visits, where we engage with the basketball community and promote our features.
What's your advice for people just getting started?
Begin by addressing a pain point you’ve experienced personally. Seek out others who face the same challenges and share your vision with them. As you receive credible feedback, make incremental adjustments to your product. Repeat this process until you’re ready. Importantly, do not launch until your product is functional. These days the general public lacks patience for an unfinished software idea; they want immediate value. This was our biggest mistake—losing early users while seeking feedback instead of ensuring we met their needs right away.
Thanks for sharing your story Daniel!
🔥 Update
It’s been an exciting ride since we launched Utrain last year. We’ve now crossed over $200,000 in gross booking revenue, all built one transaction at a time. The platform continues to grow with 3,400+ users, 5,000+ sessions posted, and just this week, we rolled out one of our most requested features: Memberships.
We’re also proud to share our first integration partnership with Automatic AI. Their team is using Utrain’s scheduling infrastructure to power their trainer dashboard branded as “Powered by Utrain.” It’s a big step toward expanding our reach beyond just basketball and positioning Utrain as the backend engine for other platforms.
On the monetization front, we’ve been refining our revenue model significantly. Through my work with Lighthouse Labs, we’ve begun implementing ACH-to-ACH payments to reduce processing costs, and we’re launching a premium tier called Utrain Pro.
Utrain Pro is priced at $19.99/month and gives trainers advanced tools to grow their business, including:
A custom booking domain
An AI Assistant Coach that handles scheduling via chat and voice
SEO promotion, making their trainer profiles more discoverable by city and state
Our goal is to reach ~10% margins and deliver net profits of around 78%, ensuring the business remains sustainable while delivering even more value to our users.
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