Evaluate, Referrals, Capital 🚀
👋 Welcome!
Amazon is going NoCode! Frederic Lardinois reports in TechCrunch that AWS is launching Amazon Honeycode. Honeycode is a LowCode/NoCode mobile and web app builder that aims to make it easy for anybody in a company to build their own applications. The software is backed by a database in AWS and a web-based, drag-and-drop interface builder. Honeycode uses a spreadsheet view as its core data interface. Users can work with standard spreadsheet-style formulas to manipulate the data. Although this might change, currently users will not be able to bring in any outside data sources. First users include SmugMug and Slack. Learn more in TechCrunch or watch the short intro video below.
😺 Products of the Day
June 24, 2020
🥇 CodeStream Code Review: Fast and easy code reviews you'll love, in your IDE.
🥈 REVEAL: Helping Shopify merchants monitor & nurture their customers.
🥉 Font in Logo: Search the logo, find the font.
🚀 Maker News
Startup Idea Evaluation
Lenny Rachitsky provides us with an insightful glimpse of his latest newsletter in what to look for when evaluating a startup idea. Below he lists his seven points, going into more detail for each one further down. Some argue that #1 is itself an incredible challenge, with many startups raising money before reaching PMF. View the full thread or subscribe to Lenny’s Newsletter and get the in-depth report.
Referral Programs
Packy McCormick has given us some insights into his upcoming newsletter on referral programs. He shares six of the best with us. These include PayPal, Dropbox, Airbnb, Uber, $Holla and Harry’s. He provides further reading on all six programs. Lenny Rachitsky adds a useful link to his newsletter from March on building a referral program. The thread ends with Austin Rief recommending the successful Morning Brew newsletter referral program as an addition to the list. It seems it might make the cut 😎 Read the thread or signup to the not boring newsletter to get the in-depth analysis by email today.
$83k MRR in 12 Months
Sabba Keynejad shares with us the progress of his startup VEED, a video editing platform. 12 months ago they applied to Y Combinator and were rejected. They had 3 months of runway left. They have now reached $83k MRR. This was achieved 100% bootstrapped. It shows all Makers and NoCoders what’s possible. Congratulations!!! Read Tweet.
1500 Subscribers in 6 Months
Arvid Kahl announces the next milestone of the Bootstrapped Founder Newsletter. He launched his first episode on November 15, 2020. Yesterday he announced he had reached 1500 subscribers. He has a 50,47% open rate and a 12,92% click rate. View stats or read more.
Portfolio Tracker
Zoe Chew builds micro tools to solve her own problems. Last year she created a Portfolio Tracker using Notion to track her work and share it with others more easily. She has now built Version 2. It displays her bio, her work, her blog posts and her book list. Her post explains how she built the template so you can rebuild. Alternatively, you can just duplicate to your Notion workspace and amend. Learn more.
🖥️ NoCode & Automate
Women in Automation
UiPath is holding its first event on Women in Automation on June 30, 2020. Three of their global MVPs will share their journeys. They will discuss: Where to start and how to accelerate a career in automation; Overcoming barriers in the tech space; and Challenges, milestones, lessons learned & best practices. Learn more and sign up.
Airtable Update
Airtable have released a few new features for power users. You can now integrate Jira and Airtable with the Jira Cloud block. This allows you to import data from Jira directly into your Airtable base. They have also released a Vega-lite block beta, which lets you make sophisticated charts, visualizations, and interactive graphics. Lastly, if you’re storing JSON in Airtable, the JSON editor block now displays your JSON with coloured syntax, indentation, and warnings for malformed JSON. Read thread.
💰 Funding
New Weekend Fund
Ryan Hoover, the founder of Product Hunt, has raised a new fund. After selling Product Hunt to AngelList in 2017, he established the $3m Weekend Fund, backing early-stage startups. Now its a $10m fund, and he wants to “invest in products that are operational things and that can really add value longer-term.” The Fund will look to write $100k to $200k first checks and will focus on two themes: “consumer behavior shifts” and “platform shifts”. Read more.
Growth Capital for SaaS
Harry Hurst from Pipe announces that they have raised a further $60m in funding. Pipe is a subscription financing platform. They help SaaS companies turn their monthly or quarterly subscriptions into upfront cash flow. This offers them a way to grow without diluting their current cap table, or in simple terms, “growth capital without dilution or debt.” Learn more.
💭 Afterthought
To finish the day, a great tweet by Ryan Holiday in ways to find stillness in your life. My personal favourites are journaling, long walks through the woods, getting rid of stuff (very liberating) and building routines. What works for you? Take care of each other and see you tomorrow!
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