David McNeill talks through bootstrapping content, physical and digital goods, services and software businesses without needing to touch the code in this presentation from the Berlin Bootstrappers meetup on February 20, 2018.

1. No Code Required
Bootstrapping Without Developers
David McNeill

2. … who is David McNeill?

3. No Code Businesses
Building a digital business without touching code
I

4. Why no code?
● “I can’t code” is not a good excuse
● Tools and services with intuitive UI can take you far
● Starting with no code works for both developers and
non-developers

5. No code businesses
Content Goods / Services Tech

6. Content Businesses
Evaluations of Content-Based Business Opportunities
II

7. Podcasts

8. Podcast Evaluation
● Very low initial investment
● Talk about what you love
● Audio is more immersive than images
Pros Cons
● Difficult without a brand name or
distribution company
● Advertising is growing but still in the
early stages

9. Newsletters

10. Newsletter Tools

11. Newsletter Evaluation
● Very easy to set up
● Curating content or creating your own
Pros Cons
● Need to acquire a significant scale of
dedicated readers to make money

12. eBooks

13. eBook Evaluation
● Easy to do by yourself, on your own
time, with free tools
● Put the work in once and get sales for
years
Pros Cons
● Easy to get lost in thousands of
self-published titles on Amazon
● Overly reliant on platforms (mostly
Amazon) for distribution

14. Online Courses

15. Online Course Evaluation
● Easy to become considered an “expert”
these days
● Put the work in once and get sales for
years
Pros Cons
● Requires time putting the course together,
recording and editing the video and
marketing it
● Crowded and competitive marketplace

16. Selling Goods
Evaluations of Physical and Digital Good Sales Business Opportunities
III

17. Discount Marketplaces

18. Discount Marketplace Evaluation
● As simple as bundling products together
and selling them at a discount
● Don’t have to hold onto inventory of
digital goods
Pros Cons
● Requires an audience to sell to
● Negotiating deals becomes your
business model

19. Subscription Boxes

20. Start Your Own Subscription Box

21. Subscription Box Evaluation
● High customer retention
● Once logistics, systems and processes
are put in place, relatively easy to scale
Pros Cons
● High upfront capital costs
● High degree of product curation

22. Sell Your Items Online

23. Build Your Online Store

24. Online Store Evaluation
● Easy to list your products and get
started
● Discovery benefits through being on a
larger marketplace
Pros Cons
● Competitive marketplaces or build your
own audience
● Business becomes tied to the platform

25. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)
1 2 3
4 5 6

26. FBA Evaluation
● Turn-key solution with global distribution
● Don’t have to hold the inventory yourself
Pros Cons
● Tied extremely closely to Amazon
● High working capital requirements
● Might be challenging to find products
that will be a success on Amazon with
an attractive profit margin

27. Selling Services
Evaluations of Service Business Opportunities
IV

28. Selling Your Services

29. Productized Services
Providing a very specific
service in a way that can be
automated through scalable,
repeatable processes

30. Productized Service Evaluation
● Can be built around your area of
expertise
● Can eventually scale it to the point that
you do not need to be involved in it
day-to-day
Pros Cons
● Essentially requires running an agency
focused on a single key business
process

31. Building Tech Products
Without Touching Code
Building more complex tech products without writing a line of code
V

32. Quick Websites
Simplicity Design-Focused

33. Spreadsheet Sites

34. CMS / Databases

35. Connecting Services

36. Closer Look at Zapier
Example Workflow How it Works

37. No Code Product Tutorials
go.codefree.co

38. Visual Programming

39. Closer Look at Bubble
Drag and Drop UI Workflow Editor Plugins

40. Summary
VI

41. Summary

42. Thanks for Listening!
Questions?
Where you can find me
E: me@davidemcneill.com
W: davidemcneill.com
L: linkedin.com/in/davidemcneill/