SOLD: Maker Demos

How Mark sold his No-Code resource directory

Mar 15, 2023

Hello everyone 👋

Harold here, the No-Code enthusiast from Holland.

While we’re preparing for the next No-Code Garage Sale, we really enjoy hearing the stories from the sellers and buyers of the products that are sold already. How did the makers came up with the idea initially? And why did the new owners acquire this? 👀

Sharing today: Maker Demos, created by Mark Bowley

We’re celebrating all sales here, but this is a special one - as Mark created the logo and lovely hero image with the boxes when we started 😃

Always polite and modest, Mark Bowley is one the stable factors in the No-Code Space. Being around for years now, he’s known for his smooth designs and is a great No-Code developer: the product he pitched was the most popular product of our first event in January.

Time for an interview with Mark and Imanie, the new owner of Maker Demos 🎉

Talking about makers:

Last week we started with our Build to sell challenge,
where participants build a No-Code product for our next sale at March 29 🚀

In addition to that, we also partnered with No Code Weekend,
to give participants the opportunity to sell their product afterwards 💰

More about this after the interview 👀

Congrats with selling Maker Demos Mark 🎉
Can you tell us how you started with this product?

Thanks! And also for the opportunity to pitch it at the No-Code Garage Sale, it was fun 😃

I found and bought the domain first, back in 2020. The domain sounded good to me, it was a nice short dot-com and I expected I could use it someday. Gradually from then on I tried to think of ways I could use it. I left it as a holding page for quite some time, and even listed it for sale for a while. Then in 2022 I decided to build an MVP of a resource directory on the domain, af first mainly because I think that’s a good way of selling a domain - by showing its potential.

Once I started building, however, I started to imagine potential longer term options, beyond the MVP. Most obviously I imagined it as a large content directory, which could be monetised with sponsors or ads. Or it could be grown into a wider education platform, with exclusive content and even match-making for No-Code coaching.

What made you you decide to sell it then?

I think I could have continued with it myself, but felt it would be better with someone who had a good use for it, beyond experimenting. To grow a content site really takes time and effort, so having a purpose for it is important. Personally, I didn't have that kind of clear goal.

In addition to that I’m quite occupied with client work these days and my Carrd resource sites (Deck of Carrd and Starrt). I want to try and grow these over a longer period. So to focus on that, I was happy to list Maker Demos for sale when I saw the announcement of the No-Code Garage Sale.

That’s where you discovered this gem Imanie 😃

Haha, yes! I’m really happy with it 🥳
I had previously been tinkering with a few of my own ideas, but recently got interested in the possibility of acquiring a product that is already built and grow that. I read about the No-Code Garage Sale in the newsletter of Katt Risen (No-Code Exits) and decided this was a nice opportunity for me. I came to the event with an open mind about what I could possibly purchase: a good idea is a good idea, no matter what space it's in.

And honestly it was hard to choose 😅
There were a lot of interesting pitches, and the selling prices are very tempting, but Maker Demos stood out for me 😃

What made you so excited about Maker Demos?

When I saw Mark demonstrating the product I immediately got excited about the immense value of a big directory with how to videos about all the No-Code tools 🤩

I believe this could be interesting for beginners, to introduce them to the No-Code eco-system, as well as No-Coders themselves. So there’s a large market to attract to the site. With some work on the database of demos and pivoting the main page, I can see Maker Demos becoming a one stop shop, or search engine, that helps No-Code beginners to get started while also being useful to more experienced No-Coder makers.

That sounds great 😃
What are the next steps for you, now you are the new owner?

First I want to add more demos. Building the curated database that I'm envisioning will be a hill to climb for the time it will take, but I'm excited for the challenge. Once I finished that, I’m going to re-launch the directory and would love to hear what the No-Code community thinks about it.

Marketing wise then, I will work to build the twitter presence of Maker Demos, and organically get more involved in the No-Code community. I can’t wait and will keep you posted 🤗

Rooting for you 🙌
What is your own experience with No-Code so far?

I learned a lot about No-Code tools when I started my job in ops at a startup, where speed and flexibility is key. With these tools it’s so easy to experiment and automate things between different tools, so that’s super helpful. That’s what got me interested in pushing the limits of the No-Code products I used at work, and learning more about them in my own time. I’m an entrepreneur at heart, so being able to build out ideas/projects on my own, so rapidly, is a match made in heaven 🤩

Awesome! Have fun with your new product 🔥

Follow Imanie on Twitter if you want to be the first to know when Maker Demos is ready to launch again.

And also give Mark a follow (@markbowley), especially when you’re interested in all things about No-Code and design.

Challenge update 💡🚀💰

Last week we started with our new challenge, where makers build No-Code products especially for our next sale.

Curious what’s coming up for sale soon? 👀

Charles is building a marketplace for startup communities
Eric is going to make a directory of product requests from Twitter
Jackie is working on a directory of ChatGPT books, courses and videos
Lee is making a calculator to tell you how much your No-Code project is worth
William is creating AudioTweet which transforms your voice notes to tweets
Zach’s product is a Notion template for sport teams

Partnership No-Code Sale and No Code Weekend

Partnership with No-Code Weekend

Block your calendar for next weekend if you love to build with No-Code,
because it’s time for the No-Code Weekend 🎉

As a previous participant (and winner), I’m proud to announce that No-Code Sale is an official partner of this weekend. This way we want to give participants to opportunity to monetize their build time, and offer makers that hate marketing and sales an alternative.

About the weekend (March 17-19)
No Code Weekend is a hackathon that challenges participants to build and ship a No-Code project in just a weekend. You will start building at 9:30 PM in your own timezone on Friday, and submit your project by 9:30 PM in your own timezone on Sunday. Blocking this time to build is a lot of fun, and in addition to that there are exciting prizes to win too.

You can join here, and list your product for sale afterwards.