Organic Growth Loops, Customer-Led Product Development, Raising a $13.5M Series A, and the No-Code Landscape, with Mariam Hakobyan of Softr

The VITALIZE Podcast: Venture Capital | Startups | Angel Investing

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Mariam Hakobyan (@mariam_hakobyan), Co-Founder and CEO of Softr, the easiest no-code platform for building custom apps and portals, in minutes. With Softr, you can build client portals, internal tools, marketplaces, online communities, resource directories, websites and more. They believe the world is missing out on some of the most creative minds, ideas and innovation (99.7% to be exact), and have set out to change that with Softr by democratizing software building so anyone can build businesses without tech skills.

Softr grew from 0 to 50K+ users in <1 year, with $0 marketing, all driven by WOM, virality and a passionate community. In January 2022, they closed their $13.5M Series A to build the largest ecosystem of no-code apps.

Mariam is an engineer turned entrepreneur, mother of two, and lover of all things technology, product & design. She built and led products & engineering teams for more than a decade, and is now making tech accessible to everyone by building the future of no-code.

Website: Softr

Slack: Softr Community

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mariamhakobyan/

Twitter: @mariam_hakobyan

Show Notes:

• What is Softr?
• Softr’s origin story, their MVP, and how they’ve evolved
• Deciding to price Softr higher than other website builders from the beginning
• The timeline from idea generation to launching MVP
• The journey to full-time for each Softr founder
• Softr’s Product Hunt launch and getting their first paying customers
• Finding and leveraging a community of Twitter no-code enthusiasts
• How they’ve maintained growth momentum post- Product Hunt
• How they landed on Softr’s growth strategy
• Launching their mobile app and letting their customers guide their product development
• The process of raising VC for Softr
• How they screened for right-fit investors
• The importance of empathy, trust, and conflict management skills in a co-founder relationship
• Married co-founders: the value of setting clear role and responsibility boundaries and finding work-life balance
• Mariam’s view on the landscape of the no-code industry
• The range of Softr’s use-cases

More about the show:

The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 300+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.

Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series.

The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors.

The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital.

More about us:

Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The Vitalize Team:

Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVC
Caroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_
Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:
https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/