Modern Makers is a weekly newsletter where I share with you a selection of the best available content about no-code and productivity tools.
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Hi makers,
This week in the agenda:
💰A new funding round for Hevo
📅 An online no-code conference in October
🤖 How to automate your tasks with Integromat
Enjoy!
This week I've spent several hours on Webflow. It's really one of the tools I enjoy building on the most. To me, Webflow is like the Rolls Royce of no-code tools. The interface and the site are great, it doesn't crash and the Webflow Academy is a model of its kind. But Webflow is not easy. It's far from a Wix or Squarespace experience where you can drag and drop your elements and choose their location on your page. Without some basic understanding of HTML and CSS, the first steps on Webflow will probably be very tricky. After all, this is a tool primarily built for professional designers.
At the same time, I can't count the no-code articles I've seen on my Twitter feed in the last few weeks. Almost every media outlet is creating content about no-code. There's clearly a momentum around no-code, and the main promise of this movement, "being able to create a website or app without knowing how to code" is obviously attractive. I just hope that people discovering no-code through these articles don't think that everything will be easy. No-code does not mean no-learning. No-code doesn’t mean that you will be able to create all your projects without working, without training, without having to learn anything.
Some tools (I'm thinking of Glide in particular) really have a wow effect. If you have a well-structured Google Sheet, you upload it to Glide and in a few seconds you have an app. Of course, you'll have to make some modifications to customise the app but the basis is there and the promise is kept: an app in a few seconds.
For other tools like Webflow or Bubble, you'll probably have to start with a blank page. You may be able to easily create a first page but you will have to invest a lot of time before you can start mastering these tools and really exploit their incredible potential. Documentation, tutorials on Youtube, paid courses, you just have to get started!
With so many tools available on the market, my advice would be to choose a short list of tools you really want to learn. Once this list is created, you should make sure to invest your time (and maybe some of your money) in order to learn as much as possible.
In any case, the most important thing remains to have a thirst for learning, to always be curious and above all to have fun while learning all these new tools.
💰 Funding
Hevo announced this week an $8M Serie A, less than a year after a $4M seed round. At the beginning of this journey, as often, one observation: on average, medium sized businesses use about 40 tools within their different teams: Sales / Marketing / HR / Engineering / Customer Service / Finance…
Hevo offers a platform to easily gather datas from more than 150 services and applications (including Salesforce, Facebook and Intercom) within a single interface. Thanks to Hevo, all the teams can now have a more global vision of the business data and make better decisions.
With this new funding round, Hevo wants to add new integrations to its catalogue and accelerate its commercial development, especially in the United States and Singapore. The company is currently based in Bangalore and San Francisco.
🧰 Product
Notion has a new login option on its platform: Apple ID.
Notion users can now access their workspace using their Apple ID and log in via Touch ID or Face ID. It is of course mandatory that your Notion email is the same email as your Apple account in order to benefit from this feature.
Notion also announced a new setting for its Enterprise customers. When you turn on this option, workspace members won't be able to create, move, re-order, or delete top-level pages in the Workspace section. This is particularly helpful for larger teams!
![Twitter avatar for @NotionHQ](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/NotionHQ.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FEeCcNsuUcAA33kP.png)
📅 Events
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9aac8dae-4cd2-4d4a-930c-29f55bb7fa76_594x404.png)
The Zero Code Conference 2020 will take place on October 7th and 8th. This online conference organised by Zeroqode wants to allow you to discover how it is possible in 2020 to create a business without knowing how to code. You will have the opportunity to hear feedback from multiple entrepreneurs, to better understand how they have been able to launch their business thanks to no-code tools. These tools will be at the heart of this event with the presence of founders such as Bubble, Adalo, Bildr or Stacker.
On the agenda: tool demos, networking, Q&A sessions and panel discussions.
You can get your free ticket this week (places are limited so hurry if you're interested) on the conference’s official website. Please note that the ticket price will then increase to $19 as of August 8th.
Attend: Zero Code Conference 2020
As part of its Virtual World Tour 2020, Webflow will also organise the Global Maker Day on Thursday, September 3rd. This 12-hour design-a-thon event will allow several designers to collaborate in order to present their best creations, of course made on Webflow. The projects will be grouped into several categories, including: "best e-commerce site, best portfolio or best social impact project". There will be rewards for the winning projects, including Webflow subscriptions, an iPad Pro or a $1,000 donation to a charity.
The winners will be announced on Twitter on September 9th.
Participate: Webflow Virtual World Tour 2020 Global Maker Day
⚒ Tutorials
Integromat is part of these tools that I would like to try and learn. It’s a tool that allows you to connect several apps and tools together in order to automate as many tasks as possible. I've often heard very good feedback about Integromat, especially for its higher potential and a more interesting pricing plan than its main competitor: Zapier.
Integromat has just published a two-part content listing 50 tasks that can be performed with its platform. Among these 50 automation scenarios:
Receive a Slack notification when you receive a certain type of emails
Automatically add a Shopify order within a Google Sheet
Adding a new Stripe client on a MailChimp mailing list
Publish all your new Facebook posts on Twitter
For each scenario in this list, a link allows you to set up this automation within your own Integromat account.
Learn: 50 Tasks You Can Automate With Integromat – Part 1 & 50 Tasks You Can Automate With Integromat – Part 2
Pory.io is a tool that allows you to easily create a site from an Airtable database. With Pory, creating a job board is child's play. This very complete "How to" guide will explain you step by step how you can create your own job board with Pory and Airtable. You can see a live demo here.
Learn: How to create a job board using Airtable
📦 In other news
-25% on all E-commerce templates on Webflow’s marketplace until August 5th with the promo code OPENUPSHOP
Dorik has launched its forum, allowing its community of users to help each other on their projects
NotionMetrics allows you to integrate your data from external tools (including Stripe and MailChimp) directly into your Notion pages
Your Figma designs and models can now be uploaded directly to Bubble, considerably reducing the development time of your projects
Fonts in the Wild allows you to find a new font for your next project
Adalo is about to introduce new components to its marketplace, including a Tinder swipe component and a calendar
📖 No-code in the news
What’s ahead for no-code and low-code startups? - TechCrunch
The age of the software development novice: how no-code tools can inspire innovation in businesses - ITProPortal
How Low Code Apps Can Help Address Racial And Economic Inequality - Forbes
Top 5 reasons companies are turning to no-code platform - TheNextTech
How No-Code Apps Can Help You Launch A Mobile First Business - Forbes
Stacker-The tool that turns your spreadsheets into applications with No Code - NoCode
How to Build a No Code Startup Around Your MVP - Joe Procopio
As a Web Developer, why am I interested in no-code tools? - Coralie Delpha
That’s all for this week. If you like the content, don't hesitate to share it with your friends or colleagues.
I also invite you to send me your feedback on this content by leaving a comment below.
Have a great week,
Martin,