🚀 Sold to Zapier 12mo ago! 12 thoughts on getting acquired + 🤩 Get paid to make TikToks!

📚 On the blog

⚡ Zapier launches National No-Code Day

No-code has exploded in popularity over the past few years—Gartner predicts it will account for more than 65% of app development activity by 2024.

We've been lucky to see this growth firsthand. For years, Zapier's customers—regardless of their technical ability—have been building incredible things and growing their businesses with no-code tools like Zapier.

To celebrate the no-code movement, Zapier is launching the first National No-Code Day, an annual celebration of the people and technology that move us forward.

Zapier has also launched The No-Code Contest and is opening a call for entries: tell them what you've built using no-code!

The grand prize winner will receive:

• A $25,000 cash prize from Zapier.
• A one-hour strategy call with Wade Foster, co-founder and CEO of Zapier.
• A one-hour strategy call with Ben Tossell, founder of Makerpad.

To nominate yourself, please complete this short entry form by April 13.

​Read the full post.

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👋 Get customers before worrying about scalability (by Ben Tossell)

Get customers before worrying about scalability.

My revenue got to $35k/mo, before I went full-time on Makerpad.

That's $420k per year, for a one-person business. Who cannot code at all.

It's better to start small and be profitable than to build for scale.

When you're ready, you'll:

• Understand your best customers
• Know your value to them
• Know what's missing

99% of #nocode tools can handle 10,000 customers very easily.

If any of that has been your excuse, you can consider that solved. Go for it.

​View this post on Indie Hackers.

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💡 Sold my company to Zapier 12 months ago today! 12 thoughts on getting acquired (by Ben Tossell)

Zapier acquired Makerpad 12 months ago today.

12 thoughts on selling a company:

1. The Outcome

It's impossible to not think about it. So just get it out of the way. Make a shortlist of your big wants (just don't keep staring at it!)

Mine were:

• dream car
• wedding abroad w/ friends & family
• buy a house together
• full-body health assessment

2. THE number

Don’t say your number first.

Plot out some scenarios and valuations - ask advisors if you can.

Be prepared that their offer may be anywhere in or out of your range.

Practice not visibly reacting when a number is said to you and what your response should be.

3. Significance

This is likely the most important thing to happen in your working life.

It’s not the same level for the acquiring company.

Just know that and set your expectations accordingly.

4. Time

You’re in a rush. We always are.

The acquiring company aren’t in the same rush as you.

It’s good if there are external factors that give a deadline.

For me, the potential UK Capital Gains Increase on 3rd March 2021 gave us a deadline.

5. Valuation ranges wildly. A few easy frameworks to use:

• 3-5x your revenue for a SaaS co
• existing + new customers worth to the acquiring company
• see what public tech valuations are for similar companies
• look at funding announcements for similar companies

6. Types of acquisition

Team + tech = Acquihire. Valuations are lower.

Team + tech + traction = Sweet spot. Higher valuations.

7. My deal is different

No. It. Isn’t.

I researched other acquisitions and naively thought ours would be much simpler.

Most deals have the same experiences. Be prepared.

8. Emotions

It will be stressful. I don’t deal with stress very well.

I have an assistant (training to be a therapist). I wish I had her through the deal process.

Get the bad stuff out with someone independent, away from your personal life.

9. Don’t stop working

Acquisitions are all-consuming. It takes up every moment in your brain.

Let work distract you. You need to keep the business growing.

You don’t want a revised offer or the deal to fall through last minute while you’ve been planning your dream vacation.

10. Get a good lawyer

They are expensive but worth it.

You won’t be able to even think of all the things they’ll have to deal with.

My dad is a lawyer too so I ran lots of things by him.

11. Curveballs happen

Deals fall through and an offer can change. Remember why you're doing this. And if the number changes, does it still meet the goals you had before you started the process?

Try to prepare for some curveball scenarios and write them down.

12. Your company is your baby

But this is a business deal. Yes, make sure your baby is happy but leave your ego out of it.

I’m lucky, I hired my best friend who advises companies through acquisitions & he explained everything like I was 5 years old. He mediated the whole deal.

(if you want to read about the deal it was covered here)

🙏 Cheers for reading.

​View this post on Indie Hackers.

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🚀 Community Projects

​How to (Instantly) Send Webflow Form Submissions to the CMS, by Matthew Busel.

"Hey everyone! We wanted our Webflow form submissions to appear directly in the Webflow CMS (b/c it's kind of crazy that doesn't happen automatically yet). We figured out a way to do that and wanted to share! Here's a quick video of it working in action..."

​No-Code Group Mentoring Meetup 3/9 5p EST, by Ray Deck.

"We're having our next No-Code Group Mentoring meetup this coming Wednesday at 5pm EST. We have been at this for over two months of excellent meetups. The previous ones have been a blast with tons of learning from each others' challenges and tool selections. We learn from and support each other. People from all levels of experienced have joined in previous weeks, and I've learned from every participant at every meetup. All are welcome!"

​Rates for No-Code Specialists, by Apurva Adit.

"Hi everyone! Our company is trying to hire a no-code specialist freelancer in order to take up a project that our team is a little too stretched to work on. While we try to get budget approval I wanted to check what the standard hourly rates are for a project that involves working with Airtable and other tools such as Virtually."

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💼 Jobs

​Systems Builder/No-Code Entrepreneur – For Them

​Head of Product Marketing – Stacker

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🐦 Tweet of the Week

Makerpad @makerpad ✨ Want to get paid to make TikTok videos about no-code? ✨ We just launched a challenge looking for a @makerpad TikTok creator! Winner will also get a new iPad! 🚀🚀 vm.tiktok.com/ZMLDr1hfs/ Entry details here: notion.so/makerpad/Maker… Just launched our TikTok Creator Challenge to fi... Watch it now and discover more trending videos on TikTok! vm.tiktok.com March 3rd 2022 3 Retweets 5 Likes

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

If you have a great story to tell that you think the no-code community would be inspired to read, we'll publish it on our blog and feature it in this newsletter. Send us an outline.

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Cheers!
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Ben & the Makerpad team ✌️