How Teal raised $5M with a no-code tech stack

If you have ever considered using a career coach or are dissatisfied with your current job search, then Teal may be the tool for you. David Fano, the Founder & CEO of Teal, and his team built a platform that compassionately helps people navigate and organize their career search, from job tracking to a content library of resume writing tips and interview training.

Teal recently raised $5 million from investors like Flybridge Capital, with a small team and a product that has pivoted rapidly in less than two years toward helping people unsure of their career direction. The secret to their success? For one, they use no-code tools like Bubble to iterate fast on ideas and empower their entire team to work on the product, not just their engineers.

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We’re taking a deeper look into the tech behind the “digital career companion” and how no-code tools work behind the scenes to help make Teal’s all-in-one career platform ambitions come true.

Want to harness the power of no-code? Try Bubble for free and build a digital product without engineers.

“No-code was in our DNA”

David is a former architect who became a designer and tech entrepreneur after he realized he loved “building, more than ‘buildings.’” He sold his first company to WeWork and has always used visual tools in his work – from 3D modeling platforms in architecture to developing on Wordpress and Drupal in the early 2000s.

Today, with the help of no-code tools, he feels more empowered than ever to create tech products, despite not being an engineer himself.

“As long as I’ve been building technology, it’s as easy as it’s ever been,” he says. He explains that Teal’s platform is a combination of a user management and content management system built on Bubble, with a proprietary job tracking Chrome extension (built with code) and a community platform on Circle. Bubble's no-code web app builder also lets them integrate with other services such as Typeform for surveys, Hubspot for CRM, Zapier for workflow automation, Airtable for additional database management, and Webflow for their front-end website.

“No-code was in our DNA,” David explains, “because we needed to get a product out in front of people and we wanted to iterate quickly.”

David’s team knew that speed to market and faster iteration would be key to cracking the challenge of offering people a personalized digital career coach. For anyone looking to succeed as an entrepreneur, David believes that getting something real into the hands of potential customers is the most important step.

“You have to put things in front of them: the more usable the better. Mockups can only do so much,” he says. “That’s where something like Bubble is invaluable.”

Bubble allows you to design and launch an app with full functionality, without needing to hand your product off to an engineer.

How Teal works from tech to team

When you login to Teal’s member platform, you are taken to an app built using Bubble, where you can access personalized professional events, career classes, and job tools.

While David says they could have bought an off-the-shelf learning management system or events management software, they wanted more control over the design and product at every step, iterating rapidly based on feedback from their users. Bubble apps come with built-in account management systems and simple user authentication and payment integrations (Stripe). Bubble allowed Teal to create a custom dashboard and content management system for all their job tools and career education offerings.

One key benefit to building their tech product with no-code was that their team of twelve (at the time of their fundraising announcement) could all contribute to the product in different ways.

“We have people on our team not trained as engineers doing very sophisticated data manipulations,” David says, from his Chief Community Officer Erik Martin to  VP, Operations Lara Perlstein. Especially Head of Engineering, Keith Gould, recognizes the value of no-code tools in moving quickly.

Fast iteration was another key aspect to their team’s success. With Bubble, David himself is even able to get his hands dirty updating the product, beyond just simple design, allowing Teal to pivot from their “Career Assist” product to their new Tech focused products aimed at helping job seekers take control of their job search.

The Future of Career Growth

Teal’s goal is to help every professional land a job they love. With more than 11,000 users on their platform and growing everyday, Teal is aiming to expand their reach and offer people both the human and the technological guidance to empower them throughout their job search.

Thanks to their no-code tech stack, the Teal team was able to move fast, iterate quickly, and get a product in front of both users and investors that offered better tools for career discovery and growth.