MakerPad founder Ben Tossell reflects on building and teaching workflows using no-code platforms like Zapier, Webflow, and Airtable.
0:00 / 0:38exact quote · 38.4s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“The thing I didn't realize until, I don't know whether it was within the MakerPad life or after it, was like, I'm still teaching programming, but in a different format. Like, there's different, the tools just look different. Like, they don't look like a code base or a code file or GitHub or anything like that. It looks like You've got issues. Okay, your Zapier connection didn't work, and you've got to debug that, and actually, you've got to fill in all these different forms, form fields in Zapier to, like, do that and test it, and then, like, oh, let's run it again. Did that work? No, it didn't. Let's try a different thing. Do it again. Like, that's bug fixing. It's the same kind of thing”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard
(the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Ben Tossell
Insight
Tossell: Developer relations mirrors founder roles in community and product ownership
“The developer relations feels very similar to like a founder role where you need to be on top of your community. You're the person that everyone reaches out to. You've got to build a product or understand the products in and out. You've got to grow the product…”
Ben TossellDec 8, 2025▶ 1:06#2287 AI made a “no code” founder into a coder
PredictionNot checkable as stated
Tossell: AI Agents Will Worsen Founder Context Switching and Productivity Anxiety
“Like, it feels like it's actually, you can work on even more stuff now, so actually people are going to get worse off feeling like they should be really productive, but actually feeling like, I've done absolutely nothing this week except for I tried to do thes…”
Ben TossellDec 8, 2025▶ 6:38#2287 AI made a “no code” founder into a coder
Insight
Tossell: AI coding tools will not turn everyday consumers into software builders
“My mum still won't build an app even though you can use something like Lovable. It's, because I think it's still, you've got to want to do the building bit. Like, that's still the issue. It's either someone like my mother wants the app built, doesn't want to s…”
Ben TossellDec 8, 2025▶ 10:35#2287 AI made a “no code” founder into a coder
Opinion
Tossell: AI-powered email search is awful across all existing tools
“AI search on email is awful. Whichever tool and like wrapper you use, I've tried a lot of them. It's just, it doesn't work.”
Ben TossellDec 8, 2025▶ 33:49#2287 AI made a “no code” founder into a coder
Opinion
Tossell: Solo billion-dollar companies are unlikely because building alone is boring
“We hear this all the time. It's going to be one person, ten billion dollar company. Like, okay, well, it's boring by yourself. Like, if people want to have other people around them, I think it's natural to, oh, I just, I could just do, use some help with just …”
Ben TossellDec 8, 2025▶ 50:53#2287 AI made a “no code” founder into a coder
Disclosure
Makerpad founder Ben Tossell no longer uses Zapier, preferring to code
“Because I have a very high threshold for pain and I want to code it.”
Ben TossellDec 8, 2025▶ 11:41#2287 AI made a “no code” founder into a coder
Made with StarZero
Turn any episode into a week of clips.
This entire site, about 40 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable,
runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the
moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.
We use essential cookies to make the site work. With your permission we
also use analytics cookies (Google Analytics and Mixpanel) to understand
usage and improve StarZero. See our Cookie Policy.