When HubSpot acquired The Hustle last month, we installed an alarm system in our office that goes off whenever a software company acquires a content or community service.
On Monday, the alarm went haywire when a leading no-code company (Zapier) acquired a leading no-code community (Makerpad), per TechCrunch.
Wait, what’s ‘no-code’?
Not to be confused with “bro code,” no-code is a movement in the software community to create tools that allow non-programmers to do programmer stuff.
Instead of “writing code,” regular folk can do software development via graphical user interfaces like drag-and-drop.
With a few clicks, Zapier lets you connect and automate functionality between different web apps (e.g., create a Slack channel that buzzes every time @elonmusk tweets).
Other no-code tools include:
- Webflow, for responsive websites
- Shopify, for ecommerce
- Bubble, for web apps
- Thunkable, for mobile apps
- Substacks, for making newsletters…which are like this text-based medium that gets delivered by email
Makerpad’s Ben Tossell has been teaching people…
… how to create apps and services with zero coding knowledge for years (check out his no-code Airbnb clone).
Zapier’s CEO Wade Foster says Makerpad will stay largely independent and “remain focused on teaching and inspiring people about what’s possible” with no-code.
For Zapier — which has hit a $140m run rate and a $5B valuation per Forbes) — the acquisition makes a world of sense.
The more people take up no-code, the better for its business… no question.
