BuildShip is redefining 'no-code' in the age of AI 💻

CV Deep Dive

Today, we’re talking with Harini Janakiraman, founder of BuildShip.

BuildShip is a low-code platform for building backend workflows with by AI. The startup aims to help builders go from natural language to a shipped API, chatbot, scheduled job or backend function by abstracting away much of the backend logic via their visual builder. By combining no-code ease with full code access, they enable builders to build backend use cases flexibly without typical no-code limitations. Since their public launch in November 2023, BuildShip has grown to over 50,000 low-code/no-code builders using their platform.

BuildShip has received funding from Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross of AI Grant, notably as the only company from the APAC region to be funded by the accelerator. They’ve also raised from Guillermo Rauche (CEO, Vercel), Balaji Srinivasan (ex-CTO, Coinbase), Austen Allred (CEO, BloomTech), Brianne Kimmel (Worklife VC) and Aarthi Ramamurthy, among others.

In this conversation, Harini walks us through their vision for BuildShip, the problems with current backend workflows, and how no-code will empower every AI builder.

Let’s dive in ⚡️

Read time: 8 mins

Our Chat with Harini 💬

Harini - welcome to Cerebral Valley! First off, introduce yourself and give us some background on your work, and what led you to start BuildShip? 

Hey! I’m Harini Janakiraman - co-founder and CEO of BuildShip, a low-code visual backend and AI workflow builder. Before founding BuildShip, I was an early-stage VC where I collaborated with thousands of founders during their initial product-building phase. Before that, I was VP of Engineering at BlackRock, where I led a large engineering team that scaled a data product on a platform that now manages trillions of USD.

The problem we’re solving with BuildShip is that many aspiring founders have great ideas but lack the technical skills to build them. Backend development today is unnecessarily complicated, and no-code and workflow automation tools are great for building an idea up to the MVP stage - beyond that, they lack flexibility, scalability, and extensibility.

My co-founder and I saw this problem often when working with early-stage founders - who started building their ideas on a no-code stack as it helped them move fast. However, as soon as they hit any meaningful traction - it all started to fall apart, and they had to hire engineers and redo much of their work with code deployed to cloud platforms.

With BuildShip, we are changing that by creating a happy medium for anyone to build fast with the ease of no-code, but with the power and flexibility of low-code and AI.

How would you describe BuildShip to a new no-code developer?

BuildShip is the easiest way for an AI builder to create powerful backend and AI workflows fully visually. You can go from plain English to a shipped API, chatbot, scheduled job or backend function, and integrate with any of your favorite tools, databases, or AI models. If any integrations are missing, you can also create your own custom nodes with AI to build your ideas exactly the way you want without hitting roadblocks.

Walk us through the journey of BuildShip from the early days of Rowy.io. How has the initial vision evolved into today’s product?

We started our journey by creating a simple way to create backends on a UI everyone is already familiar with - spreadsheets. Rowy was this first iteration with a spreadsheet UI connected to the user’s database on Firestore. This allowed users to not only manage their database, but also create cloud functions without needing to leave their spreadsheets. You can see this first exploration here:

However, we soon realized that no-coders needed a better way to visualize and build their app’s logic, with an AI native experience to help them along the way - similar to a workflow builder, but without the rigidness of a workflow builder. 

Enter BuildShip - where you can visually tell our AI what you’d like to build step-by-step, and it will help you find a prebuilt node or create a custom node for you. You can connect to your tools, any database or any integration you want and test out your workflow. Then, in one click, you can ship it as an API, or as a scheduled job to run periodically, or even as a chatbot or backend cloud run job.

Since our launch, we’ve seen an explosion in the types of use-cases and possibilities that BuildShip has opened up for our users. We’ve been receiving tons of positive feedback and users are loving building their product backend with this new approach. 

There are a number of AI no-code tools available to AI developers. What makes BuildShip different from a developer’s perspective? Is it your focus on backend? 

While most no-code AI tools cater to frontend developers to help them with designing apps, building websites, web-apps, mobile apps, and internal tools UI, there is a lack of focus on the backend and AI workflow space for no-coders. Many of the popular AI workflow tools and open-source projects are geared toward developers - with complex setup and deployment processes.

BuildShip is focused on a AI-powered low-code backend platform that enables users to build applications quickly and efficiently. Even developers love using BuildShip because our platform is not a black-box experience - code is accessible and highly extensible in JS/Typescript. Also, our pricing model works for companies of all sizes, as we have a unique scale plan allowing companies to bring their own cloud projects to operate at a compute cost - something not typically offered in no-code platforms.

Who are your current users? Who finds the most value in what you’re building with BuildShip? 

Our users include founders, indie-makers, and AI builders from companies of all sizes. One of the key benefits of using BuildShip is that it can integrate seamlessly into existing stacks and databases, which has made it a popular choice even for large companies looking to quickly experiment and launch their AI products. 

For instance, a very large global health organization is currently using BuildShip to power up its admin users, with AI workflows across more than 100 countries. We also have a large construction tech company leveraging BuildShip to connect with their legacy API - as BuildShips allows flexibility that other no-code tools are unable to provide. We’re also seeing several developer agencies hired by different companies creating their backend workflows using BuildShip as it’s easy to maintain, collaborate and scale on. 

Since our public launch at the end of 2023, we’ve experienced rapid growth and have built a community of over 50K low-code / no-coders.

What’s the most exciting feature BuildShip has?

We recently released an AI Assistant Builder on BuildShip which allows for the easy creation of OpenAI Assistant API - connected to tools and databases to take action - all without writing a single line of code. Imagine: a restaurant app’s AI assistant waiter that can not only help users with the menu to figure out allergies, but then take orders, pass it to an orders table on postgres, take payment, and complete the transaction end to end. We have a bunch of ready-made AI Assistant templates and are seeing interesting use cases emerging of AI Assistant directly plugged into user’s apps as chatbot or used as an API.

What’s BuildShip’s internal approach to prioritizing what to build? 

We take a combined approach of product-led growth and user-led growth. We frequently launch new product features and experiences, and then quickly iterate them based on the user feedback. We’re closely connected to our users, and we prioritize features that will help them successfully build their ideas. Plus, having a large community on Discord helps, as we can simply DM and tap into users for valuable early feedback - and this has helped us shape the product in a meaningful way for real-world backend building use cases beyond AI workflows.

What are some of the technical challenges that you’ve faced when working on a no code tool like BuildShip?

BuildShip's goal is to simplify complex backend concepts and make them understandable and accessible, even for those without software engineering experience. However, this comes with a set of technical challenges - for example, typically deploying a complex workflow to a cloud project requires running command line tools, going to the cloud console, and installing certain packages, which all takes time. At BuildShip, we’ve achieved all of this via a single button you can click to ship instantly.  We had to rethink the UX of several devtools to create a unique experience for no-coders.

How does your team ingest and apply the latest in AI when research is evolving at such a fast pace every week?

Our team enjoys building and experimenting to create interesting demo apps, which we share during our Friday demo nights. This helps us stay up-to-date with the latest in AI and also sparks ideas on how we can meaningfully incorporate as a product experience. For instance, when OpenAI launched its Text-to-Speech API, we were able to natively integrate it into BuildShip as a node using the AI-powered nodegen in just a few minutes after its launch. This means that whenever a new AI model or API is launched, our users do not have to wait for us to create an integration for them, as they can create it themselves!

How do you see BuildShip progressing in the next 6-12 months? How do you see the product evolving?

With new AI models emerging every day, we are going to see a whole new wave of AI-enabled builders who can think like a developer without necessarily knowing how to code or remember syntax, and without needing to have learned software engineering. AI will enable anyone to become a developer, and BuildShip is already at the forefront of this exciting movement. We’ll continue to invest in product features and improvements to offer AI-native experiences that will help no-code/low-code builders power up like never before. The future seems exciting where you can just imagine, build, and ship!

How would you describe the culture at BuildShip? Are you hiring, and what do you look for in prospective team members?

We’re a fully remote, global team with a culture of launching fast, learning, and collaborating. We select for self-motivated individuals who enjoy tackling complex problems, experimenting and taking initiative. Open-source contributors have this core ethos and we have hired many of our early employees from our open-source community. We’re currently hiring for a few roles in engineering and product marketing - if you are interested, please feel free to send us a note at [email protected]. 

Anything else you want readers to know?

We're thrilled to witness the incredible things that builders are creating when their boundaries are lifted. We are backed by amazing investors who resonate with what we are building. We are also the only company from the APAC region to be part of AI Grant program, alongside remarkable companies like Perplexity and Replicate building native AI product experiences. Give BuildShip a try, we have a bunch of backend templates for you to get started with, and join the conversation on our Discord to collaborate with other low-code/no-code builders!

Conclusion

To stay up to date on the latest with Buildship, follow them on X(@BuildShipApp) and learn more at BuildShip.

Read our past few Deep Dives below:

• 3/15: Baseten is pushing the boundaries of AI Inference ⚡️

• 3/11: Martian's interpretable alternative to the Transformer 🔌

• 3/8: Our chat with Groq's Chief Evangelist, Mark Heaps

• 2/26: MultiOn is building software with a brain 🧠

• 2/23: Galileo AI's groundbreaking prompt-to-UI tool ✨

• 2/19: Our chat with OpenAI’s Logan Kilpatrick

If you would like us to ‘Deep Dive’ a founder, team or product launch, please reply to this email ([email protected]) or DM us on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Join Slack | All Events | Jobs | Home