It's time we start treating them as such.

I think we can all agree: NoCode is still in its infancy. The potential is clear. Thousands of aspiring, non-coding founders have taken the plunge and started to build. The tools are that powerful. They narrow the gap between imagination and product in a way that Photoshop once did to traditional art. What's more, the first NoCode millionaires are starting to emerge. We have definite proof of concept. So it begs the question: what's next for this exciting new space?

Today, NoCode is a playground without a kindergarten teacher.

Current NoCode builders are still playing around. Exploring the boundaries of what is possible with existing NoCode tools.

Source: Tenor

While this is a great approach for experimentation, it is less of one for startup building. If a product has Traction, it is often the result of serendipity.

Early startup ecosystems faced the same problem. Until accelerators and incubators came along to formalize the process.

NoCode has the potential to become the single biggest enabler of indie founders.

It's no surprise the NoCode movement is building up such momentum. Everything about it, from the tools to the culture, is set up for fast adoption.

It Invites Tinkering – The barrier to entry is just low enough, and learning curve just steep enough to create the optimal effort/reward balance for non-programmers. The Lego Effect.
It Increases Building Speed – You can build a NoCode MVP with the cost and half the effort of running an Ad. This allows for multiple releases in a short window of time.
It Rewards Sharing – The Community is eager to engage with and promote fellow builders. Every hour 6000 acres of rainforest disappear, and someone starts a NoCode curation list.
It Builds Traction – The attraction generated by building in public, which is accelerated by the engaged NoCode community, results in a serious chance at traction for good products.

A setup like this is special. It fits the Zeitgeist to a T. And if it plays out right, it could be the biggest accelerator of indie entrepreneurship since the internet.

To get there, a Paradigm Shift is needed.

From my observation, current NoCode founders fit in to two general categories:

For the most part, NoCoders model themselves after the traditional model startup. They build one thing, then grind and grind and grind, chasing profitability.
Then there are those who Just Build™a million things hoping something sticks. No model. No strategy.

Source: Tenor

To grow beyond these modi operandi, NoCode can learn from it's more mature siblings: The Silicon Valley startup playbook, and the Bootstrapping community.

First by adopting existing startup frameworks and guidelines, and later by creating its own.

That second step is essential. To bring NoCode to the next level we have to become our own space. We have to create our own model.

NoCode builders need to look at themselves less as Founders, more as Startup Studios

In fighting, there is this concept of 'chasing the knock-out'. If you are swinging for the fences trying to force it, the K.O. will never come. You'll just tire yourself out.

Source: Tenor

You're skipping the most important part: Spending time executing the gameplan that sets up the K.O. in the first place. It's process over output. It's the accumulation of punches that leads to that one, highlight-reel, K.O.-shot. The NoCode-community faces a similar bias: Many NoCoders try to create one big hit. Whether it's through a single all-in bet, or multiple scattered ones, the fallacy is the same. At Venturism we propose a different paradigm.

As a NoCode builder, you are not a single-startup-founder. You are a startup studio, looking to create a portfolio of profitable ventures.

What your profitability breakdown should look like: A portfolio of profitable ventures.

Funnily enough, you are more likely to land your big hit that way. Just like in boxing.

Enter the Launch Funnel

The more ideas these single player startup studios will explore, the bigger the need to structure prioritization and progression of those ideas.

No structure means overwhelm.

Corporate incubators and accelerators faced this exact problem roughly a decade ago. Their solution was twofold:

They worked towards a clear outcome. Often a single target vertical.
They set up a startup funnel, with clear conditions to progress from each stage to the next.

We will see a similar evolution in the NoCode market. Expect to see Single Founder Funnels. Human accelerators crunching out multiple products per year. Portfolios of assets that make builders money while they sleep.

The only thing we need to create get there is the underlying structure. A quantifiable method. An interactive funnel to progress ideas, step by step, and the tools, insights and resources to accelerate the process. This is what we're building at Venturism.

A funnel of ideas, with clearly defined stages, and conditions to progress to the next.

Why now? The outside landscape is already starting to shape up: You can find your crowd on Twitter, Reddit, or IndieHackers. You can get to profitability with capital from funds like TinySeed. You can sell assets on sites like MicroAcquire and IndieMaker.

It's the missing puzzle piece.

NoCode Thinking

This new, more methodical approach to building NoCode my co-founder Marcus and I like to call NoCode Thinking. An exciting new framework akin to Startup Thinking and Design Thinking, that helps NoCode builders get to profit. Make no mistake – the power of NoCode is in its invitation to Act. But if we want to evolve, some thinking is definitely needed.

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