#14: How a no-code side project got acquired for 4 figures

One of the benefits of side hustles is that you can explore your interests with low risk until you are confident enough to dive full-time into your interest area. Our hustler today had a similar path. She started with small projects and recently resigned from her job to focus on her interest in No-code.

💸Got her first no-code side project acquired for four figures

🤩Built an audience of 3K on Twitter in six months

💰Made $2,410 in 2 months from her newsletter

Katt built a side hustle that got acquired for 4 figures and made way for another hustle generating $1000/month

Katt Risen lives in Belgium with two kids. A digital marketing graduate, she has been working for nine years in different roles in the e-commerce and innovation department of a big European tourism company.

Since 2016, she has been observing different products being launched on Product Hunt, Indie Hackers and Twitter and always dreamt of building her product. But she could never start with building on her product ideas since she lacked coding skills.

Discovering the No-code world changed her life

When COVID-19 hit the world, tourism was the worst-hit sector. Katt’s company faced considerable challenges in communicating regulation updates to the guests. There was a need for some digital solution to get the correct information to the guests as quickly as possible. But the engineering team was occupied and could only release something eight months later.

Katt always had a hustler spirit and did not want to give up.

She started looking for other solutions and discovered No-Code. With Airtable and Softr, she built a solution. She learnt to build the no-code application with YouTube tutorials. The ease of these tools also made it easy for her. The solution was an instant hit where all the correct information was live in eight languages in just a few clicks. It was a side project that her company used for the whole duration of the pandemic.

It also gave Katt the confidence to come out of the shadows and become a builder. She joined the 100 Days of No Code Bootcamp to learn more. During the BootCamp, she observed that many people needed help finding the right no-code tool to build their ideas.

“The No-Code Tool landscape is pretty complex if you get started, so I decided to build a chatbot that could guide new people to identify the right No-Code tool for their use case.”

She built No code Guru, a site that helps you select the right tool based on your answers to the questions. It was a chatbot powered by a database; all built without a line of code! And she made it in the evenings and weekends after office work while also taking care of the two kids.

Katt was now a true builder, and her launch in April was greeted with lots of appreciation. She ended up in the Top 10 on Product Hunt, connected with many makers and received valuable feedback.

Getting her project acquired for four figures

Katt was promoting No Code Guru on Twitter, listing on directories and sharing her stories in some newsletters. But it was a free product and was not making any money. One day, a podcast interview gave her a new idea to work on. She wanted to build a Notion template that would make the transfer of information between buyer and seller during acquisition easier. To do some research, she listed No Code Guru for sale on Microacquire & Tiny acquisitions.

In the listing, she focused on the opportunities that were still possible for No Code Guru and defined a price by calculating the time she spent on it (4-figures). It was not an easy decision to sell because it was her first project. But she was not working on it anymore, and the monthly price to keep it running was pretty steep for a small side project that didn’t bring in any money.

“I received some information requests here and there and then forgot about it. A few months later, I got contacted by a potential buyer via Twitter, and after thinking it through, we sealed the deal on MicroAcquire.”

So when the acquisition happened, it was a win-win situation. The buyer was happy to pay a fair price, and Katt was glad to free the bandwidth to work on new projects.

Taking the bet to go full time

In June, Katt took parental leave and decided to give herself time to explore making a living through building projects with No Code. She started freelancing and building small niche products. She also kept talking about her experience on Twitter. Her tweet about the acquisition experience had a lot of engagement, and her inbox flooded with questions.

The engagement on the story prompted Katt to start a newsletter where she would share the stories of how No-Code makers went from 0 to being acquired. Before even writing the first issue, she announced it on Twitter to validate the idea.

That first tweet resulted in 240 subscribers. The first issue of No-code Exits was her own story; within the next two weeks, she had 600 subscribers. Today, the newsletter has more than 2200 subscribers and made $2,410 in the last two months from sponsorships.

The newsletter’s success and Katt’s willingness to keep building projects prompted her to resign and go full-time in no-code. She plans to expand her product portfolio and freelance to build a sustainable lifestyle.

“I truly believe in learning by doing. I’m amazed by how much I learned in 9 months by building side projects and figuring everything out. It’s the best feeling in the world.”

Hustlers insights of the week

Katt’s story has all the ingredients of a great side hustle recipe. Our world has evolved to empower anyone to become a builder; one only needs to get started.

Be a problem solver: Starting a side hustle can happen in any form, but you need to be able to identify a problem and take an initiative to solve it. Katt took an initiative to solve a problem at her office and that lead her to build another no-code project.

Have keen observation: Observing your environment is extremely important to get ideas to work on. Katt’s first project was formed on observation and even her newsletter started as she observed the popularity of her exit story.

Be open to change/ pivots: When you build something, it may or may not become very successful. To keep the hustler spirit alive, some projects need to be let go of, so that you can focus on the next thing. Katt’s first project was doing good but it was sustainable and she took a wise decision to sell it and make an exit.

Hustlers Recommendation: Getting started with No Code

The no-code revolution started a few years back and has changed many things. Today, you don’t have to know coding to build ideas; you can do it with No-code. If you want to get started with your no-code journey, here are some resources recommended by Katt:

• Honest Guide to Indie Making

• No-Code Bootcamp

• No Code Saas Podcast

Did you learn something new about side hustles reading this? If yes, share it with a friend to increase the surface area of knowledge so that more people can know how to make money. You will also unlock a special discount by referring a friend.

Also, know anyone (who is making money from their side hustle while having a full-time job) we should feature? Let us know by replying, and we will get chatting!

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