Bubble Startups

Teacher Finder was a two-sided marketplace connecting language teachers with students in European cities, launched in 2016. Though it generated £67,000 in total revenue and peaked at $3,000-$5,000/month, Andrew ultimately struggled with the fundamental marketplace challenge of balancing supply and demand across different cities. The business was eventually scaled back to 10 core cities and now operates as a minimal-effort side project generating $500-$1,000/month, teaching Andrew valuable lessons about the complexities of two-sided marketplaces.

Refolo was a meal-planning app for plant-based eating founded by Lola Ojabowale after her father's cancer diagnosis required major dietary changes. Despite building community through meetups and virtual events with influencers, the startup failed because people weren't willing to pay for meal planning when free alternatives existed, and Lola didn't have a repeatable process for finding paying customers.

Apps Without Code is an online bootcamp teaching non-technical entrepreneurs how to build profitable apps and businesses using no-code tools. Founded by Tara Reid in 2019, the company has grown to $5M ARR by charging $1,900 per student for an 8-week program with lifetime access. Growth came from free webinars, influencer partnerships, affiliate marketing, and eventually paid social advertising, with emphasis on teaching sales and business model first before product building.

Community Coders was a marketplace that connected high school students seeking work experience with local businesses needing web development and digital marketing services. Founded by Kaito Cunningham in 2018, the company generated approximately $20,000 in revenue against $35,000 in expenses before shutting down after 2 years (1 year full-time, 1 year part-time). The business failed due to lack of product-market fit, inability to sustainably acquire customers, team misalignment, and Kaito's inexperience in leading the venture.

Makerpad is a no-code education platform founded by Ben Tossell that teaches users how to build apps and websites without coding. The platform leverages popular no-code tools like Bubble, Webflow, Airtable, and Zapier to provide tutorials and hands-on learning for aspiring makers.

Autto.in was an on-demand doorstep car maintenance service operating in Hyderabad, India, founded by Deepak Murthy in 2017. The startup acquired customers through guerrilla marketing at apartment complexes but faced unsustainable unit economics with a $12 customer acquisition cost and long 10-12 month retention cycles. The business failed after burning $15,000 in initial investment against only $5,000 in revenue, eventually shutting down due to high burn rates and concern about the Indian government's announcement to phase out gasoline vehicles by 2030.