No-code Fund Memo

<aside> 👉 Updated website with Deck, Memo and No-code Report can be found here.

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Intro

Hi! I'm Ben. I am the CEO of Makerpad—solo-founded in Jan 2019—an educational company focused on no-code/low-code technologies. I raised a small round in September 2019 from Earnest Capital, Andrew Wilkinson (Tiny), Sahil Lavingia (Founder of Gumroad), Andy McLoughlin (Uncork Capital), Ross Mason (founder of Mulesoft), Ronald Hans (founder of WeTransfer) and several others.

Makerpad is the #1 platform for anyone interested in the no-code movement and this fund is being run in close partnership with Makerpad. We were voted the #1 no-code product of the year ahead of Glide and Webflow in the Product Hunt Golden Kitty Awards 2019. We're currently a team of 11 (4 FTE and 7 PT), with our revenue currently growing at 100%+ YoY.

Before creating Makerpad, I was Community Lead at Product Hunt where we were acquired by AngelList.

Thesis

The next big shift in the internet revolution is 'no-code/low-code'. Many people misunderstand its meaning, but the importance of democratising software development is understood widely. We no longer code in 0's and 1's. No-code/low-code is the next abstraction layer which unlocks the potential for everyone to build on the internet.

This belief has driven the creation of this fund and helped shape the way I will invest. I'm going to be investing small checks, across a wide variety of early-stage companies in the space who have a lead investor (I can also help with intro's).

An "index" approach to investing in no-code/low-code companies.

(We'll be working closely with our investments on community building and product growth.)

I will look for companies that:

Are building in the no-code/low-code ecosystem (examples: Webflow, Zapier, Bubble, Supabase)
Are building tools for creators with a 'no-code first' approach (examples: Convertkit, Gumroad, Circle)

Why me:

Actual value-add: Leading no-code expert; the largest no-code community platform; partners who pay Makerpad (e.g. Airtable, Zapier, Bubble + ~50 more). I've built a reputation as one of the leading voices in the no-code industry
Earliest possible dealflow. I see no-code companies before they raise, and often before they launch (Bildr, Draftbit, Causal, Circle, Stacker and Supabase all seen very early)