The importance of community is not to be underestimated; for many, it can be the make or break factor for their business or idea. But cultivating and sustaining community can be a challenge for even the most dedicated of folks. That’s why Arfah Farooq created Levelupo: a platform for the Muslim community to skill-share and learn from one another as they take on the tech industry. We spoke with her to understand how her Muslim community inspired her to create the platform, and why Bubble was her stack of choice.
Tell us about your app and what it does.
Muslims are a minority in the UK, and it can sometimes be hard to speak with non-Muslims about the challenges we face. We built Levelupo to create a platform to learn, upskill and share across the diverse Muslim community. Knowledge is power, and one conversation with somebody can change someone's life!
Everyone who signs up can reach out to mentors, or mentor others, by booking a meeting with them directly or by messaging them. They can search for mentors by skills or goals, such that if someone has a mock-interview coming up and they want to practice with an expert, they know exactly who can help them.
How does your app work?
Our onboarding requests various details, such as who you are, what you do, what you need help with, and what you can bring to the community. Then we have public profile pages and a search dashboard with many filters for folks to find who or what they’re looking for (check it out for yourself via our Explore page).
Tell us a little about your background and how you discovered no-code tools like Bubble.
We were introduced to Bubble and the concept of no-code through Zubair Lutfullah Kakakhelof, the founder of AZKY Tech Labs.
When Zubair joined the “Muslamic Makers” Slack community in March 2020, he was only in the beginning stages of launching his own Bubble consultancy. (He actually found his first Bubble project through a conversation in this Slack community!).
A year later we had our official introduction to a no-code event that Zubair spoke at. By this point, we had a very barebones MVP. By this point, we were familiar with Zubair via our Slack community, so when it was time to get a proper product built, we reached out to him for assistance on it.
Why did you build your app on Bubble?
We wanted to be able to take over ownership after the initial build without having to rely on external forces. It was a natural choice given that we are fairly technical people, but not coders. Even though we worked with Zubair’s agency to build our product, it’s been amazing to be able to login to the backend and be able to make quick changes without any additional assistance. I’ve even made changes myself, like changing the copy or expanding on current filters, without having to go back to the agency, and that’s been pretty awesome. I can already see the potential of being able to instantly iterate on feedback as we continue to grow.
What have been your milestones or successes so far?
We’ve just launched, and so far have received some lovely feedback. We currently have over 100 people on the platform, with 50 visible profiles. We’ve only shared this all with our Muslamic Makers community, and are excited about now publicly sharing it and onboarding people beyond just our current community.
What are your future plans for your app?
There are various ideas. At the moment it’s a free app, but we'd like it to be self-sustaining at some point. We are also exploring options around corporate sponsorships as there are active Muslim societies or communities in these businesses.
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