LocalTown

Michael Novotny was a product manager by day and no-code enthusiast by night. He noticed a personal pain point: he was spending 50% of his time trying to figure out which tools to use when building something, rather than talking to users about their actual needs. Excited to jump into entrepreneurship, he decided to build LocalTown—an online marketplace to help makers launch side projects—without first validating whether the market actually needed it.

In 2016, Michael launched LocalTown using Sharetribe, a no-code marketplace platform. He found Sharetribe excellent for getting 80% of what he wanted—it handled payments, authentication, admin controls, and permission management without requiring custom code. However, he later realized that using no-code tools was actually the easiest part of launching a business. What he got wrong was everything else: he spent a year building without validation, without an audience, and without the foundational work necessary before launch.

When LocalTown launched, Michael earned some revenue and got press coverage in local news, but couldn't sustain the momentum. He realized, as Justin Kahn (founder of Twitch) once said, "first time makers focus on the product. Second-time makers focus on the distribution." Michael had done the opposite.

After LocalTown's failure, Michael started documenting makers building with no-code on Twitter. This led to GetStackd, a simple form-based tool that helped makers discover which tools to use based on their idea, skill level, and project complexity. Built with Typeform and Airtable, and using Zapier to send automated recommendations via Gmail, GetStackd became Product of the Day on Product Hunt and generated tremendous feedback. The key difference: this time, Michael focused on building an audience on Twitter first, getting feedback through DMs from engaged followers, and iterating based on what he learned. He tweeted about the project and got his biggest tweet yet at the time (30 likes and retweets). When he stopped trying to do everything at once and stayed focused on what was working, the project started growing on its own.

Michael transitioned from LocalTown to building products around the no-code ecosystem, including Side Project Stack and a pre-order book called The Lean Side Project. His biggest realization: find an audience first, then build a product. Instead of trying to polish everything before launch, he now embraces micro-launches—announcing small updates and sharing teardowns on Twitter every day. He's learned that momentum and consistency matter far more than perfection, and that the universe responds when you create something, no matter how small.