Women In The NoCode Space – Edition 1

Every March marks the celebration of International Women’s Month. Do you want to hear good news? According to womentech network, As of 2024, women make up about 28% of the tech workforce. Isn’t that great?!
This is a significant improvement from the early 2000s when women only made up 9%. It’s remarkable to see an increasing number of women entering the tech industry, despite its known gender bias.

The connection between NoCode and Women underscores the empowerment and inclusion of women in the technology sector. NoCode platforms offer a democratized approach to technology, enabling individuals to create and innovate regardless of their technical background.

NoCodeJournal believes that as NoCode continues to evolve, it will encourage the emergence of more Women Founders and Makers. NoCode democratizes the industry by eliminating the need for technical expertise, thereby allowing anyone, regardless of background, to establish a successful company, whether it’s technology-focused or relies heavily on technology for its operations. It highlights their achievements and fostering gender diversity and inclusion within the tech industry.

Additionally, Women’s Month provides an opportunity to amplify the voices of women in NoCode, showcasing their talents, NoCode Projects and inspiring others to pursue careers in technology.
In this edition, here are the powerful women we discovered in the NoCode space:

• Anita Kirkovska – Ampstor
• Mariam Hakobyan – Softr
• ‍Samantha Lloyd – Skeleton Krew
• Joyeeta Das – Gyana
• Lacey Kesler – Visual Dev School and Visual Dev FM
• Paula Selvidge – PerfectForms
• Grace Schroeder – Slingr
• Claudia Sin – ChatCampaign
• Derya Sousa – Kianda

In celebration of Women’s Month, we wanted to shout out to a few of the amazing makers and builders we have had the pleasure of interacting with or are known faces of NoCode companies. 

‍Anita Kirkovska – Co-Founder and Growth Engineer of Ampstor

Anita holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Central Florida. She dedicates her time to volunteering as a Co-Organizer and WomenTechmaker Ambassador at Google Developers Group Skopje, as well as a Co-Organizer at Google Developers Group Central Florida, and serves as a Marketing Tech Volunteer at We Talk IT. With a passion for organizing and managing people and projects, Anita co-founded Ampstor, a NoCode digital storytelling tool for bold brands, in February 2019.
We featured in our blog Ampstor as one of the Five NoCode Web Stories Creation Tools.

Mariam Hakobyan is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Softr

Mariam is a proactive leader boasting 11 years of technical prowess in crafting and implementing highly scalable distributed systems featuring event-driven architectures to facilitate the delivery of top-tier products. Armed with a Master’s Degree in Faculty Science from Yerevan State University, Mariam’s expertise spans a multitude of technologies including Java, Scala, Akka, Kafka, Elastic Search, among others. In 2019, she co-founded Softr, a NoCode technology firm headquartered in Berlin. Backed by a seasoned team with backgrounds in software engineering at esteemed companies such as Paypal, Zalando, Awin, and ImmobilienScout24, Softr pioneers the creation of tailored building blocks at a fraction of the cost compared to hiring engineers. The platform enables non-technical entrepreneurs and startups to visually construct marketplaces and SaaS applications without writing a single line of code, with the overarching mission of liberating startups from the burden of reinventing the wheel.

‍Samantha Lloyd – co-founder and Managing Director of Skeleton Krew

She graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Digital Marketing Management. Her expertise spans various areas including Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and writing about topics such as Web Content, Web Design, Web Development, Search Engine Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization. Additionally, she has a background in Wedding and Event Planning.

Previously, Samantha served as the CEO of Metaranx, a drag-and-drop platform enabling the creation of Artificial Intelligence tools and applications without requiring coding skills. However, she has since embarked on a new business venture.

Currently, her focus is on Skeleton Krew Agency, a B2B SaaS marketing agency renowned for propelling startups from $0 to $50M and beyond.

Joyeeta Das – Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Gyan

Joyeeta is an innovative UK-based entrepreneur, an innovation campaign ambassador, and a mentor to young female entrepreneurs. Gyana is the creator of the NoCode tool VAYU which allows anyone to do anything a data scientist can do without writing code and become a citizen-data scientist. 

She had a career as an engineer in Silicon Valley, after which she moved to England. She pursued a Master of Business Administration at Oxford University and was awarded the Said Scholarship in 2014. Luckily received a Fellowship from the Entrepreneurship Centre and holds a degree in Electronics Engineering and a degree in Physics. Aside from the excellence in her education, she is in FT’s top 100 BAME leaders, top 100 in UK tech, and ambassador for Innovate United Kingdom’s’ Women in Innovation“. 

Also volunteer with numerous charitable and spiritual organizations such as Anahata Life, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, and the World Health Organization. Joyeeta got the idea for Gyana while managing the startup incubator program at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford.
Gyana shut down last July 2022. Read more from their blog.

Lacey Kesler – Co-Founder of Visual Dev School and co-host of Visual Dev FM

Lacey comes from a diverse background encompassing web and software development, mobile app development, product management, and education. At Visual Dev School, individuals can master the art of building without code, whether it’s a website, mobile app, or web app. Additionally, Lacey co-hosts Visual Dev FM, a podcast that delves into various topics ranging from maker interviews to tutorials, all revolving around visual development or NoCode. Apart from her passion for technology, she is also deeply involved in the field.

Paula Selvidge – Chief Executive Officer of PerfectForms

Paula brings a wealth of experience in Information Technology and User-Centered Design. Her passion and drive are dedicated to maintaining a culture centered on delivering features and exceptional customer service. Joining PerfectForms in 2008 as a User Researcher and Product Manager, Paula has remained with the company for over 11 years. Since mid-2013, she has held the position of CEO. PerfectForms is a web-based application development platform empowering both IT professionals and business users to create online forms or workflow applications effortlessly, without the need to write any code.

Grace Schroeder – founder and Chief Executive Officer of Slingr

Grace holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. As revealed in her interview with Women Who Startup, her fascination with Technology and Data Science has been longstanding. With her extensive experience spanning both large corporations and startups, she was inspired to embark on building an application from the ground up. Slingr, her brainchild, serves as a LowCode solution catering to Entrepreneurs and enterprises, facilitating the swift development of new applications and workflows. Slingr boasts integration with multiple third-party services and data sources. Now in its 10th year, the platform is dedicated to crafting integrated business solutions that leverage over 50 top-tier technologies, including Slack, Twilio, Sparkpost, AWS Connect, Lex, Lambda, Kinesis, SNS, and Ethereum, to deliver highly scalable automation.

Claudia Sin – Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of ChatCampaign

She holds a Master of Science in Engineering Enterprise from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. ChatCampaign specializes in loyalty programs for messaging apps and offers online-to-offline customer engagement via chat loyalty programs. Their proprietary SaaS platform revolutionizes traditional digital marketing approaches. ChatCampaign emerged as the winner at Hong Kong Techathon in 2018 and was among the Top 5 Global Startups sponsored by StartupLeague at RiseHK in 2017.

Derya Sousa – Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer of Kianda

Derya began her career as a web developer and later transitioned into an Information Technology consultant. In this role, she collaborated closely with executive management and Technology departments to offer guidance and assist in developing customized technical solutions tailored to various industries. Together with her husband, Osvaldo Sousa, they recognized the need to put an end to the constant cycle of reinvention. Four years ago, they established Kianda Technologies with the aim of pioneering NoCode automation technology to enhance business agility. Kianda offers a cloud-based Enterprise Process Automation Platform designed for organizations seeking to streamline business tasks by automating digital forms, workflows, and dashboards.

Happy Women’s Month! 

Currently, we would like to highlight these brilliant women making significant strides in the NoCode space. Their achievements and contributions are not only advancing technology but also inspiring future generations. We are truly proud to see more women being empowered in the tech industry, breaking barriers, and driving innovation. These success stories demonstrate the growing inclusivity and diversity within the tech community, and we celebrate their impact and leadership. The list is in no way complete, so if anyone else needs to be here, do let us know!