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Jun 11, 2022 · 15m · top-founders

How he used community to raise $1m for his Backend as a Service SaaS

Umit Chokmok · 8m spoken Nathan Latka · 4m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

Altogic founder and CEO Umit Chokmok joins Nathan Latka to discuss building a backend-as-a-service platform, growing a developer community of 1,000 beta users, and raising a $1 million seed round at a $5 million valuation ahead of commercial launch.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 33.9% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.5 Guest teaching 2.5 Guest disagreement 1.3 Nathan pushing back 3.3
05100:0010:000:43–6:06 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Introducing Umit Chokmok and Altogic's No-Code Backend Platform Nathan digs into product positioning, metrics, and community acquisition strategies, even asking for specific staff names like Mert. The guest patiently explains the no-code backend concept and how they grew their Discord and Twitter community without confrontation.6:06–8:35 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Product Development Timeline and $1M Seed Round Nathan inquires about the timeline, tech milestones, and funding details from Scalix and 500 Istanbul. The guest provides direct, factual responses about the $1M seed round and upcoming July launch.8:38–13:13 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Bootstrapping Origins, Equity Split, and Full-Time Team Structure Nathan pushes into equity distribution, team roles, and specific freelancer platforms like Bionluk. Nathan deduces the post-money valuation at $5M based on standard 20% dilution, which Umit confirms.13:14–15:23 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions with Umit Chokmok In the standard Famous Five section, Nathan keeps the pace rapid after Umit gives a lengthy reflection on introversion and Myers-Briggs personality types. A humorous misunderstanding occurs over child vs. founder age.0:43–6:06 · Guest teaching 3/10 Introducing Umit Chokmok and Altogic's No-Code Backend Platform Nathan digs into product positioning, metrics, and community acquisition strategies, even asking for specific staff names like Mert. The guest patiently explains the no-code backend concept and how they grew their Discord and Twitter community without confrontation.6:06–8:35 · Guest teaching 2/10 Product Development Timeline and $1M Seed Round Nathan inquires about the timeline, tech milestones, and funding details from Scalix and 500 Istanbul. The guest provides direct, factual responses about the $1M seed round and upcoming July launch.8:38–13:13 · Guest teaching 3/10 Bootstrapping Origins, Equity Split, and Full-Time Team Structure Nathan pushes into equity distribution, team roles, and specific freelancer platforms like Bionluk. Nathan deduces the post-money valuation at $5M based on standard 20% dilution, which Umit confirms.13:14–15:23 · Guest teaching 2/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions with Umit Chokmok In the standard Famous Five section, Nathan keeps the pace rapid after Umit gives a lengthy reflection on introversion and Myers-Briggs personality types. A humorous misunderstanding occurs over child vs. founder age.0:43–6:06 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Introducing Umit Chokmok and Altogic's No-Code Backend Platform Nathan digs into product positioning, metrics, and community acquisition strategies, even asking for specific staff names like Mert. The guest patiently explains the no-code backend concept and how they grew their Discord and Twitter community without confrontation.6:06–8:35 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Product Development Timeline and $1M Seed Round Nathan inquires about the timeline, tech milestones, and funding details from Scalix and 500 Istanbul. The guest provides direct, factual responses about the $1M seed round and upcoming July launch.8:38–13:13 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Bootstrapping Origins, Equity Split, and Full-Time Team Structure Nathan pushes into equity distribution, team roles, and specific freelancer platforms like Bionluk. Nathan deduces the post-money valuation at $5M based on standard 20% dilution, which Umit confirms.13:14–15:23 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions with Umit Chokmok In the standard Famous Five section, Nathan keeps the pace rapid after Umit gives a lengthy reflection on introversion and Myers-Briggs personality types. A humorous misunderstanding occurs over child vs. founder age.0:43–6:06 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Introducing Umit Chokmok and Altogic's No-Code Backend Platform Nathan digs into product positioning, metrics, and community acquisition strategies, even asking for specific staff names like Mert. The guest patiently explains the no-code backend concept and how they grew their Discord and Twitter community without confrontation.6:06–8:35 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Product Development Timeline and $1M Seed Round Nathan inquires about the timeline, tech milestones, and funding details from Scalix and 500 Istanbul. The guest provides direct, factual responses about the $1M seed round and upcoming July launch.8:38–13:13 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Bootstrapping Origins, Equity Split, and Full-Time Team Structure Nathan pushes into equity distribution, team roles, and specific freelancer platforms like Bionluk. Nathan deduces the post-money valuation at $5M based on standard 20% dilution, which Umit confirms.13:14–15:23 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions with Umit Chokmok In the standard Famous Five section, Nathan keeps the pace rapid after Umit gives a lengthy reflection on introversion and Myers-Briggs personality types. A humorous misunderstanding occurs over child vs. founder age.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 43.2% · guest 56.8%0:00 · Nathan 43.2% · guest 56.8%3:00 · Nathan 19.8% · guest 80.2%3:00 · Nathan 19.8% · guest 80.2%6:00 · Nathan 51% · guest 49%6:00 · Nathan 51% · guest 49%9:00 · Nathan 22.4% · guest 77.6%9:00 · Nathan 22.4% · guest 77.6%12:00 · Nathan 20.9% · guest 79.1%12:00 · Nathan 20.9% · guest 79.1%15:00 · Nathan 77.6% · guest 22.4%15:00 · Nathan 77.6% · guest 22.4%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 4:37 Clarifying Twitter community usage

When Nathan expresses doubt that 1,000 beta signups could come from personal networks, Umit firmly insists it is driven by active developer communities on Twitter.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 4:25 Challenging beta user acquisition claims

Nathan directly challenges Umit's explanation of community growth, stating that one cannot simply have a thousand friends and family members.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 1:06 Explaining backend-as-a-service architecture

Umit breaks down backend vs frontend architecture and explains how Altogic eliminates traditional backend coding via no-code abstractions.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 13:00 Calculating valuation from dilution norms

Nathan demonstrates VC deal math expertise by accurately backing out Altogic's $5M seed valuation from typical 20% equity dilution benchmarks.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Introducing Umit Chokmok and Altogic's No-Code Backend Platform 5314 Nathan digs into product positioning, metrics, and community acquisition strategies, even asking for specific staff names like Mert. The guest patiently explains the no-code backend concept and how they grew their Discord and Twitter community without confrontation.
Product Development Timeline and $1M Seed Round 4213 Nathan inquires about the timeline, tech milestones, and funding details from Scalix and 500 Istanbul. The guest provides direct, factual responses about the $1M seed round and upcoming July launch.
Bootstrapping Origins, Equity Split, and Full-Time Team Structure 6324 Nathan pushes into equity distribution, team roles, and specific freelancer platforms like Bionluk. Nathan deduces the post-money valuation at $5M based on standard 20% dilution, which Umit confirms.
Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions with Umit Chokmok 3212 In the standard Famous Five section, Nathan keeps the pace rapid after Umit gives a lengthy reflection on introversion and Myers-Briggs personality types. A humorous misunderstanding occurs over child vs. founder age.

Statements from this episode (6)

Assertion Supported
Altogic operates as a drag-and-drop no-code backend platform
“Autogic is a no code platform. So you doesn't, you don't need to code in order to develop backend applications in Autogic with simple drag and drop operations. You can model your data. You can define your services and endpoints and so on.”
Umit Chokmok Jun 11, 2022 ▶ 2:09
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Altogic has close to 1,000 users in its public beta
“Right now we have about close to 1000.”
Umit Chokmok Jun 11, 2022 ▶ 3:10
Disclosure
Altogic raised a $1M seed round led by ScaleX
“We only had the one round, this is the seed round, which is one million dollars. And they are basically majority of them is from Scalix.”
Umit Chokmok Jun 11, 2022 ▶ 7:30
Disclosure
Chokmok bootstrapped Altogic from personal savings until seed funding
“Well, it was my personal personal, let's say budget or personal spending After the seed funding, we started to hire people.”
Umit Chokmok Jun 11, 2022 ▶ 8:49
Disclosure
Chokmok took majority equity over co-founder based on capital and effort
“My share is much higher and so on. So depending on how much money effort you put in and how much time you spend on that one, that was my agreement with my co-founder. So the share that I have on the company is much higher than him.”
Umit Chokmok Jun 11, 2022 ▶ 9:23
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Altogic employs eight full-time staff, including six engineers
“Right now, eight people full-time. Okay. How many engineers? All of them, almost, except one people, all of them are engineers, sorry, two people, except two people, all of them are engineers.”
Umit Chokmok Jun 11, 2022 ▶ 9:39
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