#24: In Frankfurt, Yaokai Jiang tells how a sports card collector built an $800K business on Momen
DISPATCH 24 · FRANKFURT
Yaokai Jiang, founder, Momen
FRANKFURT — A software engineer who started coding in 1998 sets out to build a no-code tool. He doesn't know Bubble exists. Six years later, his users are running businesses with 60,000 customers. I sat down with Yaokai Jiang at No-Code Week to talk databases, DSLs, and why AI needs tools — not prompts — to write reliable backends.
On the ground with
Yaokai Jiang is the founder of Momen, a no-code platform for data-intensive applications. A former early engineer at Medallia, he built large-scale real-time analytics engines before turning his attention to a question: why should you need four years of university to build a SaaS?
What we covered
00:00 The itch: why a coder builds a no-code tool
02:09 Full-stack from day one — and never abandoning the front end
08:04 Transactional semantics, types, and replacing Hasura
11:02 AI meets DSL: why tool use beats prompt engineering for backends
20:32 The sports card collector: 60K users, $800K revenue, one builder
29:51 China vs US: two AI worlds, one regulatory chasm
From the notebook
Momen — momen.app (https://momen.app)
Medallia — medallia.com (https://www.medallia.com)
Hasura — hasura.io (https://hasura.io)
Bubble — bubble.io (https://bubble.io)
Xano — xano.com (https://www.xano.com)
FlutterFlow — flutterflow.io (https://flutterflow.io)
Supabase — supabase.com (https://supabase.com)
Figma — figma.com (https://www.figma.com)
Lovable — lovable.dev (https://lovable.dev)
GraphQL — graphql.org (https://graphql.org)
Postgres
Stripe
Find Yaokai
LinkedIn — linkedin.com/in/yaokai-jiang-21894924 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/yaokai-jiang-21894924)
Next stop
A dispatch from another builder reshaping how software gets made.
No-Code World Radio is hosted by Alex. New dispatches from a new city, wherever you listen.
20 Jul 2026
#23: In Frankfurt, Artur Mkrtchyan breaks down Softr's approach to AI-powered app building
DISPATCH 23 · FRANKFURT
Artur Mkrtchyan, co-founder, Softr
FRANKFURT — A platform that started as a visual front end for Airtable is now a full-stack builder with its own database, workflow engine, and AI layer. Artur Mkrtchyan sat down at No-Code Week to trace that arc — and explain why business teams need platforms, not just prompts.
On the ground with
Artur Mkrtchyan is co-founder of Softr, the no-code platform he and Mariam Hakobyan launched in 2020. With 15-plus years as a software engineer, Artur built Softr for the teams engineering departments never had time to serve: marketing, sales, HR. The platform now powers internal and client-facing tools at companies from TED to MIT.
What we covered
00:00 The repeating patterns of software engineering
03:30 Why Softr: the Zalando origin story
10:56 From interface builder to full-stack platform
23:53 AI meets no-code: the Softr approach
26:13 Why vibe coding alone fails business teams
35:37 What's next: MCP, agents, and the roadmap
From the notebook
Softr — https://www.softr.io/ (https://www.softr.io/)
Airtable — https://airtable.com/ (https://airtable.com/)
Make — https://www.make.com/ (https://www.make.com/)
Zapier — https://zapier.com/ (https://zapier.com/)
HubSpot — https://www.hubspot.com/ (https://www.hubspot.com/)
Notion — https://www.notion.so/ (https://www.notion.so/)
Salesforce — https://www.salesforce.com/ (https://www.salesforce.com/)
Snowflake — https://www.snowflake.com/ (https://www.snowflake.com/)
Cursor — https://cursor.com/ (https://cursor.com/)
Claude — https://claude.ai/ (https://claude.ai/)
Stripe — https://stripe.com/ (https://stripe.com/)
Shopify — https://www.shopify.com/ (https://www.shopify.com/)
TED — https://www.ted.com/ (https://www.ted.com/)
MIT — https://www.mit.edu/ (https://www.mit.edu/)
No-Code Week — https://nocodeweek.com/ (https://nocodeweek.com/)
MCP (Model Context Protocol)
REST API, SQL databases, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Excel
Google Tables, AppSheet (both discontinued/acquired by Google)
Find Artur
LinkedIn — https://de.linkedin.com/in/artur-mkrtchyan-27282b256 (https://de.linkedin.com/in/artur-mkrtchyan-27282b256)
Softr — https://www.softr.io/ (https://www.softr.io/)
Next stop
Another city, another builder. Next dispatch drops soon.
No-Code World Radio is hosted by Alex. New dispatches from a new city, wherever you listen.
Get in touch with Alex on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexiskovalenko/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexiskovalenko/)) or by email at alex@hosakka.studio (mailto:alex@hosakka.studio).
20 Jul 2026
#22: In Frankfurt, Darragh McKay walks through the five-year arc of building Noloco
DISPATCH 22 · FRANKFURT
Darragh McKay, CEO and founder, Noloco
FRANKFURT — At No-Code Week, Noloco's founder traces an arc from 2021 to today: five years of building internal tools on top of other people's data. Along the way, the word "no-code" started to fray at the edges.
On the ground with
Darragh McKay founded Noloco in 2021 after working as a software engineer at HubSpot and a Dublin startup. He saw small and mid-sized teams drowning in spreadsheets and disconnected SaaS tools, unable to assemble the systems they actually needed. Noloco gives them an interface layer on top of existing databases — Airtable, Postgres, MySQL, Google Sheets — without writing code.
What we covered
00:00 Introductions at No-Code Week Frankfurt
01:19 From HubSpot engineer to founder: the thesis behind Noloco
05:46 How Noloco turns spreadsheets and databases into working apps
11:19 A US construction firm that runs CRM, ERP, and project management on one Noloco app
17:58 Five years of evolution — from web app builder, to data-first platform, to AI
23:25 NOLA, the AI agent that helps builders create apps from natural language
32:58 Why "no-code" doesn't hold up anymore, and what might replace it
From the notebook
Noloco (https://noloco.com (https://noloco.com))
Airtable (https://airtable.com (https://airtable.com))
HubSpot (https://hubspot.com (https://hubspot.com))
Lovable (https://lovable.dev (https://lovable.dev))
Make (https://make.com (https://make.com))
Zapier (https://zapier.com (https://zapier.com))
n8n (https://n8n.io (https://n8n.io))
WeWeb (https://weweb.io (https://weweb.io))
Bubble (https://bubble.io (https://bubble.io))
Glide (https://glideapps.com (https://glideapps.com))
Softr (https://softr.io (https://softr.io))
Claude (https://claude.ai (https://claude.ai))
Cursor (https://cursor.com (https://cursor.com))
Retool (https://retool.com (https://retool.com))
GitBook (https://gitbook.com (https://gitbook.com))
Find Darragh
LinkedIn: https://ie.linkedin.com/in/darraghmckay (https://ie.linkedin.com/in/darraghmckay)
Next stop
No-Code Week returns next year — whatever it ends up being called.
No-Code World Radio is hosted by Alex. New dispatches from a new city, wherever you listen.
—
Get in touch with Alex on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexiskovalenko/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexiskovalenko/)) or by email at alex@hosakka.studio (mailto:alex@hosakka.studio).
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