Rob Walling

And if, oh, in a week or two we could build it in Bubble, then this really should probably be down more around SendGrid, you know, the number two, right? SendGrid SMS providers are where it's a commodity and it's easy to switch. That's more of how I would feel about it.

And if, oh, in a week or two we could build it in Bubble, then this really should probably be down more around SendGrid, you know, the number two, right? SendGrid SMS providers are where it's a commodity and it's easy to switch. That's more of how I would feel about it.

But if your business is a $2 billion business that completely relies on the plugin ecosystem and you're at the mercy of WordPress, then I do think that there is a significant level of platform risk. So level five is high switching cost, but there are replacements. And there's no lead flow or customer concentration. The best examples I can think of here are no code.

But if your business is a $2 billion business that completely relies on the plugin ecosystem and you're at the mercy of WordPress, then I do think that there is a significant level of platform risk. So level five is high switching cost, but there are replacements. And there's no lead flow or customer concentration. The best examples I can think of here are no code.

It's building on air table bubble. I was putting Stripe in there. I don't know if I don't know that Stripe fits or doesn't. I guess switching from Stripe is kind of a pain. And I guess it depends on, you know, are you in their subscription ecosystem as to whether it's like a medium or, you know, a high switching cost.

It's building on air table bubble. I was putting Stripe in there. I don't know if I don't know that Stripe fits or doesn't. I guess switching from Stripe is kind of a pain. And I guess it depends on, you know, are you in their subscription ecosystem as to whether it's like a medium or, you know, a high switching cost.

But in any case, this is where in order to switch, you kind of have to rebuild everything from scratch, right? There is no export your code from any no-code platform I've heard of. And if you could, how do you import it into a different platform where it's all just proprietary tech, right?

But in any case, this is where in order to switch, you kind of have to rebuild everything from scratch, right? There is no export your code from any no-code platform I've heard of. And if you could, how do you import it into a different platform where it's all just proprietary tech, right?

And this, again, is where the argument that some no-coders make or just some people make is like, everything has platform risk. And it's like, Yeah, but they're not all the same. It gets worse. If you're a Shopify app, it's a super aggressive platform. That's worse than all the ones I've mentioned so far, you know, and we'll get to that one in a minute.

And this, again, is where the argument that some no-coders make or just some people make is like, everything has platform risk. And it's like, Yeah, but they're not all the same. It gets worse. If you're a Shopify app, it's a super aggressive platform. That's worse than all the ones I've mentioned so far, you know, and we'll get to that one in a minute.

And so the idea here is that if you've built a million dollar business and it's a bubble app, how long would it take you to completely rebuild that in another platform? if Bubble 10x their pricing, if Bubble went out of business, if Bubble had two weeks of outages. And one might say, well, couldn't AWS 10x their pricing? Yeah, highly, highly unlikely. I just don't see it.

And so the idea here is that if you've built a million dollar business and it's a bubble app, how long would it take you to completely rebuild that in another platform? if Bubble 10x their pricing, if Bubble went out of business, if Bubble had two weeks of outages. And one might say, well, couldn't AWS 10x their pricing? Yeah, highly, highly unlikely. I just don't see it.

That's not been the pattern. But what about AWS going out of business? Highly, highly unlikely. And that's why I put them down at the two level. And is AWS going to have a two-week outage? Again, highly, highly unlikely. A small no-code startup is more likely to have any of those, you know, black swan-ish events happen. And that's why I have them at number five.

That's not been the pattern. But what about AWS going out of business? Highly, highly unlikely. And that's why I put them down at the two level. And is AWS going to have a two-week outage? Again, highly, highly unlikely. A small no-code startup is more likely to have any of those, you know, black swan-ish events happen. And that's why I have them at number five.

Coming in at number six, I have all your leads coming from a single marketing channel such as Google. So basically it's 100% lead flow risk. Now, I'm not including app stores in this, like app marketplaces. I will get to those. Those are seven and eight. But in this case, I'm thinking of being solely reliant on a single flow of leads. And I think, is that a platform risk?

Coming in at number six, I have all your leads coming from a single marketing channel such as Google. So basically it's 100% lead flow risk. Now, I'm not including app stores in this, like app marketplaces. I will get to those. Those are seven and eight. But in this case, I'm thinking of being solely reliant on a single flow of leads. And I think, is that a platform risk?

I do think there is risk there. There is no replacement. usually, right? There's no direct replacement. If you rank in Google and you get amazing organic search, trying to replace that with something else, switching costs is irrelevant because you just can't do it, right?

I do think there is risk there. There is no replacement. usually, right? There's no direct replacement. If you rank in Google and you get amazing organic search, trying to replace that with something else, switching costs is irrelevant because you just can't do it, right?

Customer concentration is irrelevant because they're not reliant on Google, you know, once they come through SEO, but your lead flow and your growth plateauing feasibly, it could kill the business. And here's what's interesting is you'll notice in these eight levels, the lower end ones are all kind of technology based.

Customer concentration is irrelevant because they're not reliant on Google, you know, once they come through SEO, but your lead flow and your growth plateauing feasibly, it could kill the business. And here's what's interesting is you'll notice in these eight levels, the lower end ones are all kind of technology based.