A Product Hunt launch, treated as a low-effort, unmeasured tactic rather than a core growth lever.

“I did do a Product Hunt launch a while back but I didn't even measure how well that did.”

A single tweet inviting replies turned directly into a permanent product feature: Ben asked people to reply with what they wanted to build, got an overwhelming response, and built "Idea Requests" (a comment-and-tutorial-matching feature) out of it within days.

“The other day I tweeted "reply with what you want to build and I'll suggest ways to do it without code "”

Ben's own explanation is simply that the reply-prompt format generated an unusually large, immediate response, which he then converted into product.

“It went crazy! So many people replied.”

A newsletter of about 6,500 subscribers as of the June 2019 interview, used to surface new things he'd built.

“I have a newsletter which is at around 6,500 subscriptions.”

Ben frames the newsletter's value as coming from restraint: sending only when there is something genuinely new, not on a cadence.

“I want the emails to be quality over quantity.”

A marketplace section recommending tools, expanded into paid company pages and co-produced educational content for brands wanting to reach Makerpad's non-technical-builder audience.

“the marketplace where I list tools I recommend for certain types of things people may want to build”

A reply from another Twitter user to one of Ben's own tweets is what put the acquisition idea directly in front of Zapier's CEO, Wade Foster, who then initiated contact.

“Off the back of this tweet saying “Zapier should buy Makerpad ASAP”, Wade (CEO and co-founder of Zapier) reached out”