Excerpts from Charlie Perreau's article published in Les Echos on 28 /07/2021:
"18 months. On average, that's how often a start-up raises funds. At Bubble, we're well above this average. This American start-up, which enables users to create applications without needing to code, has only completed two rounds of financing since it was founded in 2012. The first took place in 2019 for $6.25 million. And the second has just been completed for $100 million with, among others,Insight Partners .
"We didn't raise any money for the first seven years of our existence, because we believe that raising money too early forces you to have strong growth within two years," explains Bubble co-founder Emmanuel Straschnov, who in fact didn't pay himself a salary for five years. Faced with the massive influx of money into the world of venture capital, Bubble would have been wrong to do without it. Above all, the start-up was one of the lucky winners of the crisis, with revenues tripling over the past 12 months. "Companies have sought to reinvent themselves with Covid. And they had to do it cheaply", says the French manager.
To use Bubble, you pay a monthly subscription starting at $29. Far less expensive than a developer's salary or the services of an outside firm. In addition to being inexpensive, this "no code" platform is also quick to learn: between 5 and 20 hours, according to Emmanuel Straschnov. After three weeks of use, a person will have the same powers as a web developer", sums up the boss, who deplores the massive hiring of developers within large start-ups like Uber or Airbnb. Positions that are often difficult to recruit for due to a lack of talent. Nor is Bubble seeking to do away with the developer profession so sought-after by start-ups. It estimates that around 90% of an application's code doesn't need to be written. "There will always be 10% of the code that engineers will focus on. But it will be to create innovative products", says the co-CEO.
A total of 11,000 companies worldwide use Bubble, mainly start-ups. "One of our users cloned Twitter in just a few days," says the Frenchman. Around 70% of the applications developed via the platform are start-ups. But for some time now, major companies have been in discussions with Bubble. The $100 million will enable the company to be better equipped to respond to major accounts, and above all to invest in engineering. Today, the New York-based start-up has just 15 engineers in its ranks. The aim is to increase this to 35-40 by the end of the year, for a total workforce of 70. By the end of 2022, the start-up will have 150 employees. "I'd also like to quickly have between 7 and 10 people in Paris," explains Emmanuel, who will be visiting his home country in the autumn.
Bubble also wants to educate the younger generation more about "no code". It already organizes training courses and has signed partnerships with universities. "For us, students are an ideal target who want to learn skills that will inevitably be useful later on," observes Emmanuel Straschnov, who adds that he is currently in test with the Essec business school.
