Christian Peverelli thinks enterprise software companies can be successfully built by entrepreneurs like himself, without any technical skills.
The co-founder and chief executive officer of WeAreNoCode, Peverelli started his Los Angeles-based company to teach founders digital skills to launch a company without writing a line of code.
"This is what's gonna really change the future of not only entrepreneurship, but also product development overall," Peverelli said. He was inspired after watching other non-tech entrepreneurs like himself fail or dole out tons of cash on expensive programmers.
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WeAreNoCode is an online bootcamp for entrepreneurs that combines the teaching of traditional skills that accelerators show founders, such as how to build a pitch deck, structure financials and raise capital, with the hard skills of front-end development using no code programs.
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"(There) is a whole other generation of tools, which are super powerful — you can build SaaS platforms, you can even bring in AI, marketplaces, messaging apps, productivity tools," he said.
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As part of a course example, Peverelli and his co-founder Eddy Widerker built a SaaS platform in 10 days for only $40, just to show their students that it could be done all using no code.
</p><h2>Non-Tech Founders
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<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDgwNzc0OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMDM3NjMzM30.d-dCZPIKxG8IwbE0HwJVLMsVghIzDwtx_QUawNFglSA/img.jpg?width=980" id="f14ec" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="83592c3a749d5795677d67fae3902e86" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="624" data-height="903" />
WeAreNoCode co-founder Christian Peverelli
<p>A serial entrepreneur, Peverelli started several companies, including influencer live video platform Howl Media Limited and the marketing firm Chapeau Agency. He eventually found his way to the Santa Monica-based, pre-accelerator program Startup Boost, where he helped others launch their companies.</p><p>There, he noticed a shift from the past few decades — fewer companies were being funded, and projects now needed months of revenue to even raise capital. Investors increasingly sought a track record from tech-focused founders. That left many entrepreneurs out in the cold.</p><p>"I realized that in many cases, the people who were spending the most money and seeing the least progress, were essentially non-technical," he said. "And the problem there was that they were faced with a couple of options, and none of them are really good."</p><p><span style="background-color: initial;">Non-technical founders bypass this problem by paying for local, expensive contract work or cheaper overseas engineering, or they need to find a technical co-founder, a task that's as hard as finding your future spouse at a speed dating night.</span><br></p><p><span style="background-color: initial;"><br></span></p>
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<span style="background-color: initial;">Paul Orlando, a professor at the USC Marshall School of Business and director of USC's Incubator, said that the dilemma can distract startups. And a technical background, he points out, often doesn't determine success.</span>
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"For most businesses, the big risk is not 'could someone build this?' but rather 'who needs this, how do we reach them, and how do we build a sustainable business model?'" said Paul Orlando, a professor at the USC Marshall School of Business and director of USC's Incubator.
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"Using no code lets founders spend more time on the riskier parts of their business, like validating customer demand."
</p><h2>No Code</h2><p>
Peverelli got lucky — while at Startup Boost, he met WeAreNoCode's future co-founder Widerker.
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"He had essentially started showing me this way of building products, leveraging no code. And he had used that to, at the time, build a company within three months that was generating $10,000 in monthly recurring revenue, all without coding or hiring developers," said Peverelli.
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The programs allow users to code visually — a step up from website builders like Squarespace or Wix. This type of visual programming speeds up the development cycle, and allows companies to have a product in a matter of days, rather than in months. And it's the basis of their company.
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Together, the pair launched WeAreNoCode earlier this year. The company has already had 70 students complete its program. Applicants can make a one time payment of $2,000 online to access courses, receive weekly coaching and get discounts on no code programs and softwares.
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"Back in the day, if you want to start a business, you didn't need to do any kind of coding, right? The best skill to have was sales. And so I think we're it to a certain extent, we are coming full circle," said Peverelli. "This is just a shift, and it's going to continue to happen, because these platforms are allowing more and more complex things to be built. And they're also becoming simpler and simpler to use."
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