✍️ Building a writers' Behance on Bubble + 📱 Create an app with Jotform!

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📚 On the blog

✍️ How a project manager built a Behance for content writers on Bubble

This is the story of Raimundo Ladron de Guevara, founder of Escri and a former Project Manager and Scrum Master in the Innovation Department of a large retail store.

"Escri started last August, and after a couple of pivots, it has become a marketplace where businesses connect with freelance content writers.

We’ve reached 1000 users, most of them writers in Spanish-speaking countries looking for writing gigs."

Building with Bubble

"I built Escri as a web app using Bubble.

I came to know about Bubble nearly six years ago after realizing that I could bring my ideas to life in a faster and cheaper way than what other friends were doing—some of them even hiring a development agency.

Bubble offered all the functionalities that I needed to build my platform and I could estimate how much time it would take me to develop it. It’s also so much cheaper than other options to build platforms like Escri.

And if you know how to connect APIs, then you can build something quite powerful."

Landing on an idea

"My idea started as a platform for freelance content writers to display their published work.

I wanted to replicate for them what Dribbble or Behance does for designers. Honestly, I didn't have any feedback about why I should build it, or even about who specifically would use it.

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It took about a month to finish, but the next phase proved to be challenging! I found some users, but I struggled to get them to keep coming to the platform.

I also didn't have a sound business model. That's when I realized I had built something that I wasn’t sure anyone wanted."

Finding that ever-elusive product-market fit

"I once read that product-market fit feels like your product is getting pulled by its users.

But I was pushing my product to them to get validation where I should've been going deeper into their needs and pain points. What job were they trying to get done? What was slowing or stopping them from achieving it?

"At this point, I was tired of working on my own. So I started searching for co-founders who could help me either on the business side or the tech side (they had to be proficient at Bubble).

Luckily, two weeks ago I found one of each—business and tech!

Now we are working on a new platform and a new business model using feedback from customers, and working very closely with them."

Advice to others building with no-code

"No-code tools like Bubble are amazing, but it can also be tempting to go on a developing frenzy without any clear idea of whose problem you are trying to solve and why.

When building something, be sure of what you want to test. If it helps, make a hypothesis. Spending 1-2 weeks to get a real sense of the problem you want to solve is an investment.

Unfortunately, most founders don't commit to this early enough and their startups fail. It happened to me as well."

​Read the full story.

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📚 More from the blog

📈 Building a no-code platform that powers eCommerce growth

Content creators, eCommerce store owners, and anyone interested in building a no-code tool: this story is for you. Learn how Kausambi built Mason, a no-code platform designed to power eCommerce content for all channels. We hope that her learnings as an entrepreneur, her motivation for building Mason, and the highlights of her journey, will inspire you with new ideas!

​Read the full story.

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📺 Tutorials

👍 Tool-path: How to build an app with Jotform

Jotform enables you to build fully customized apps with forms, links, and widgets that can work across devices. In this tool-path, you will learn how to make an app from an existing form template in Jotform.

​View this tool-path.

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🧑‍🏫 Courses

Enrollment for No-Code Fundamentals cohort 5 is now OPEN 👏👏. Onboarding week kicks off January 17th 2022. Early birds get $400 off!

>> Get your seat <<

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🚀 Community Projects

​Is there a no-code tool for implementing chat / messaging function?, by Yee Hung.

"I am working on a P2P business focused around people directly chatting with each other anonymously through usernames. Have not found a no-code tool that does this - any recommendations?"​
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​I scaled 3 products from launch -> 1000+ users in less than 1 month. I made this free interactive guide to help you quickly launch and scale products!, by Trustin Yoon.

"As a serial maker myself, I launch multiple products or side projects every year. I am so stoked to be sharing the First 1000 Users Guide for founders that I have been working on for a couple months now synthesizing my learnings from thought leaders like Paul Graham, Lenny Rachitsky, and others as well as from my own experiences building and scaling products!"
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​What is your favourite community on the internet, and why? :), by Pier.

"And what is one thing they could do to improve?"

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💼 Jobs

​Operations Manager – Apollo Scooters

​Senior Product Manager – Mason

​Nocode Video Instructors – RecreateApp

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😍 Want to see your own story featured in this newsletter?

We're looking for more stories from our own community and beyond—tales of success (and failure) you've had using no-code tools. Whether you're building a business, forging a community, writing a newsletter, running a non-profit, or anything in between, we want to share it

​Read more.

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Cheers!
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Ben & the Makerpad team ✌️