HUGE Announcement + No-Code Bonanza
Three episodes of The Deep End in a single week!? ODX details & two no-code episodes in this week's newsletter.
The Deep End is a podcast where visionary builders, creators, and experts discuss world-changing ideas. We skip the surface level and go in-depth into ideas that matter.
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Announcements
Live episodes:
We’re having Abe Choi come on the show to talk about launching an Africa-focused venture fund. It will be on 11/16 at noon EST. Reserve your spot at lu.ma/abe - should be a great episode!
From the larger On Deck Community:
This is a big one. So big, in fact, that we dedicated an entire bonus episode to this announcement, which you can find by scrolling down to Episode #29. We had both co-CEOs of On Deck join The Deep End to discuss our new $100 million community-backed fund. Details below :)
🎧 Episode #27 | Building in Public with Karthik Puvvada
Listen on Apple, YouTube or Spotify
Karthik Puvvada (known online and by his friends as “KP”) is the Program Director for On Deck’s No-Code Fellowship and the author of the Build in Public newsletter.
Today’s conversation takes place at the intersections of two momentous online movements: Building in Public & Creating No-Code Tools
When KP thinks about building in public, he encourages his audience to use content as a lighthouse to attract other people to your circle. These content pieces help to signal that you're serious about a certain niche and help prevent you from being washed away by the "Internet Content Stream." Stories are how you stand out in a crowded digital world.
KP's stories have elevated his no-code platform. He's excited about how the builders of today don't need coding skills to create tools because they can use drag & drop solutions. We talk about projects in the no-code space that are fresh and exciting, as well as classics that have proven real staying power.
KP's enthusiasm, humility, and charisma all come oozing out in this conversation. It's hard to imagine walking away from this conversation and not having fun creating something. He makes you excited to trust the process and to go out there and build.
Mentioned in this Episode
KP mentions how one guy once built a startup live on Twitch. Watch it for yourself here.
KP’s two tools that he calls out (one new, one that has been around for a bit) are the.com and Bubble.
If you want to start your own no-code journey, there is no better place to start than with On Deck No Code.
🎧 Episode #28 | E-Commerce Engineering with Sara Du
Listen on Apple, YouTube, or Spotify.
Sara Du is cofounder & CEO of Alloy Automation - a no-code tool for automating e-commerce stores. She is also a Harvard dropout, streetwear enthusiast, and design savant. Sara has an uncanny knack for identifying brands that have successfully achieved story-aesthetic match.
D2C brands are beginning to rely on automation platforms to improve loyalty with their customers.
Our conversation begins by discussing how the line between commerce and e-commerce is blurring as e-commerce penetration continues to accelerate across the consumer economy. This trend was certainly quickened by the pandemic, but Sara notes that Black Friday shopping patterns and other indicators suggest that such a shift was inevitable anyways.
Our discussion then moved to the power of no-code tools, and their potential applications to helping unlock value for small businesses without engineering teams. Sara thinks that Alloy can be for commerce what Zapier has been for tech.
Finally, we discussed the implications of automation itself. Does it replace jobs or augment current ones?
Mentioned in this Episode
Sara mentions this Tech Crunch article on Alloy’s fundraise.
Read more about Alloy on their website.
🎧 Episode #29 | Special Announcement: Funding the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs with David Booth & Erik Torenberg
Listen on Apple, YouTube, or Spotify.
David & Erik are the two co-CEOs of On Deck. They join the show to discuss the exciting details of our new community-backed fund.
Announcing ODX - a $100 million community-backed fund to put the next generation of founders in business.
At On Deck, we believe that startups are the building blocks of a better future. Startups drive global economic growth by creating jobs, improving quality of life, and making meaningful progress to solving society's biggest problems. We also believe that the the biggest constraint on startup creation is the number of founders - for each person starting a company today, there are hundreds more sitting on the sidelines. This is an enormous waste of human potential.
That's why we are excited to announce ODX - a $100 million community-backed fund to put the next generation of founders in business.
ODX backs founders with a check for $125,000 and unlimited access to the On Deck network, which includes thousands of companies, founders, operators, and investors that builders can tap into for talent, capital, and distribution. Many of those investors & operators are also participants in the community-backed fund, meaning that they are personally incentivized to help ODX participants succeed.
ODF - our original founders fellowship - will continue to exist under the On Deck umbrella, but will now be free for those accepted. ODF and ODX are interlinked programs, separated by a key difference: conviction. ODF is for prospective founders who are in more of an exploratory phase. They are likely researching markets, validating an idea, hunting for a cofounder, or leveling up founder skills. ODX will be for those 100% ready to take the plunge and start a company.
Both programs will exist as part of On Deck's global network of networks. Erik & David join the show to discuss their belief that Silicon Valley is no longer a physical location, but a mindset. On Deck captures the essence of Silicon Valley - an abundant system of talent, capital, & ideas, and makes it available for an internet-native era. Our conversation today speaks to these big ideas and dives into the exciting details of ODX and the many other programs & communities that make up the On Deck ecosystem.
Mentioned in this episode:
That’s all for now! If you haven’t yet, subscribe to get future issues in your inbox every Thursday.
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See you next week!
- Jackson (Producer of The Deep End)
The Deep End is hosted by Marshall Kosloff and produced by On Deck—where top talent go to accelerate their ideas and careers.