🚪How Olive built an app with Airtable and 52 paying users
The No-Code Success Story of Punch and Olive Haus
Hello there,
Katt here. Welcome to 91 new subscribers🕺.
Inspiring story this week with Olive, a very talented (I mean look at that!) non-technical website designer that started building apps with Airtable.
Read about:
🔥 From personal pain points to intuitive app
🤔 Building apps with Airtable
💥 Finding users through Product Hunt + Communities + Twitter
Enjoy and happy building.
PS: missed last week’s interview? Read here how a no-code fintech startup raised $2 Million.
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🔥 No-Code Founder Interview
Learn every week from a real world no-code success story
Hello! What's your background?
Hola! My name is Olive. I'm a web and brand designer with a history in social media management. I’ve always been interested in entrepreneurship and especially digital products. Last February, I decided to dive head-first into app development with no tech background or experience.
I've never developed anything other than websites using drag-and-drop builders, so what made me decide to dabble in apps? Airtable did! And the platform also got me addicted to app-building in the process.
My first introduction to Airtable was a modest one over three years ago. I used it as a tool to sync between my business CRM and the contacts on my iPhone. I considered it more of a middleware tool like Zapier or Make, but then I discovered Airtable interfaces and everything changed. I was able to build tools and solutions for absolutely all my internal operations: from accounting, to managing client requests, to making custom-designed apps for each of the roles within my business. It solved numerous pain points all within the same platform.
At first, it was just a fun way to increase efficiency and productivity within my own operations. Then I had a huge lightbulb moment and it suddenly became so much more than a personal project. I wanted to figure out a way to make it accessible to others so that they could enjoy the same benefits.
How do you get your ideas for apps?
The most important part of building apps for me is determining whether or not it solves a personal pain point.
I try to find significant friction in my day-to-day life
I resolve it using Airtable.
I build an Airtable app to see if I can streamline the workflow to make it intuitive and easy for anyone to use.
If it helps complete a time-consuming task in a fraction of the time or simplifies an otherwise complex process, I’m satisfied to move forward.
What is the latest product you have been working on?
Punch is a time-tracking, time-blocking, and personal scheduling app for Airtable. It gets its namesake from built-in punch cards used to track hours worked.
Punch was really born out of a need to improve my personal productivity. I have a terrible habit of working nonstop without breaks which inevitably leads to reduced focus and burnout. I think it’s something a lot of founders struggle with from having to wear so many hats. Because of this commonality, I set out to make it highly accessible and customizable.
Punch includes nearly 50 templates for shifts, time blocks, and workday styles, as well as custom-made schedule options with an easy drag-and-drop builder. It uses automation to populate a day, week, or even month with a chosen schedule at the press of a button.
What’s most interesting about Punch as a time tracker is its simplicity. Everything from plotting your day down to the minute, to scheduling an entire month can be done in seconds. It’s built to make scheduling extremely efficient while also giving users access to prebuilt templates using proven productivity methods.
What went into building the first version?
Punch started out as a simple scheduling calendar. I experimented with blocking time in different ways, and also researched various productivity methods. I wanted a tool to improve focus, but I also wanted it to be done in a sustainable and individualized way. Pretty quickly, I found it bothersome to manually block out every day, so I built templates to automate that process.
I ultimately discovered that I preferred to mix-and-match my time in a way that was more unique to me, so I made Punch’s drag-and-drop builder as a way to easily create custom schedules. Between built-in templates and custom tools to create an ideal schedule, Punch is meant to simplify the process of scheduling and managing time without taking a whole lot of resources to do so.
When Punch was finally in a place where each feature worked how I wanted, I rebuilt it from the ground up. I repeated this process probably two or three more times. My Airtable account is littered with rejected versions of Punch. This part is inarguably the hardest as it can be super time-consuming, but I find that it helps me trim unnecessary bloat and I end up with a much more refined product. The entire process from start to finish took about two months.
I managed to flex Airtable’s capabilities in ways I’m really proud to showcase! For instance, making it so that templates can be used to automatically create time blocks on a calendar involves formulas, automations, look-up fields, and linked records. This all works seamlessly together so that users have the least friction possible to schedule their day, week, or month.
Which No-Code tools did you use?
Punch is 100% Airtable with some low-code scripting and airtable automations. I chose Airtable because I rarely need additional tools or integrations outside of it. ChatGPT helped me immensely with scripting as I have absolutely zero coding experience.
How have you attracted users and grown your product?
It’s a one-time payment of either $19 for Punch Time Tracker, or $29 for Punch Pro Time Tracker. Punch Pro requires a paid Airtable account, and both versions include lifetime access to updates.
Revenue growth has primarily been through Punch’s launch on Product Hunt as it’s still incredibly new. Product Hunt has been the best vehicle for marketing, growth, and traffic by far. Punch got #1 Product of the Day which was super unexpected and a huge boon.
I’ve also increased my activity in Airtable communities on Reddit, Facebook, and the Airtable Forums which has led to conversion and word of mouth. I have a number of free Airtable templates that users often download who then subscribe to my mailing list, as well. As for more general marketing, I consistently share whatever I can on Twitter.
So far there are 58 paying users.
What's your advice for people just getting started?
Be consistent and build an organic, engaged audience early! The build-in-public community on Twitter is a fantastic and welcoming place to get started. Also start collecting email subscribers early on with waitlists or lead magnets.
As for building no-code products, I would recommend trying to solve a pain point in your own life that is likely experienced by others. Then do what you can to make that solution as intuitive and easy to use as possible.
Thank you for sharing your story with so much enthusiasm Olive, looking forward to see which other Airtable apps you will launch. Go give her a follow on Twitter.
🍿 Katt builds in public
My actions, fails and wins on growing my no-code projects to ramen profitability
It wasn’t a productive week here. I did a lot but not what I was supposed to do (launch presale of no-code playbooks). I’m convinced about the value it brings but not about the best way to ‘package’ it. And to be honest…there is also this shiny new idea 😬. “It’s a tiny one, will only take me a few hours” + “No-Code Exit readers will love this too….” I whispered to myself as excuses…
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