❝Story08:00
The Two Problems That Sparked Base 44
Maor explains that Base 44 grew out of two real problems he was trying to solve, not a top-down market bet. His girlfriend, an artist, needed a lead-capture website and the existing drag-and-drop tools were painful, and separately he was volunteering IT help for a huge Israeli scouts organization that kept getting quoted a million bucks by agencies for software he knew LLMs could write. Both convinced him that models could already write the code — they just lacked the right infrastructure (database, user management) to do it.
- His girlfriend needed a lead-capture website; non-AI website builders were a pain, especially on mobile
- He volunteered software help for a huge Israeli scouts org (tens of thousands of people) with constant software needs and no internal devs
- Agencies quoted the scouts ~a million bucks for tools he knew could be built cheaply
- His insight: LLMs can write the code, they just need the right infrastructure — database access, user management — set up for them
“I know models can write the code to do exactly what I'm trying to do right now”
“they didn't have any internal devs, you know, any software engineers. So they'd reach out to other agencies and agencies usually would quote them like…”
#origin-story#idea-validation#ai-coding#founder
❝Story17:30
The 'Crypto Scam' Panic at His Brother's Wedding
Maor tells a story about the stress of running production solo. During his brother's wedding photo shoot — where he was also meant to run the ceremony — a friend from MIT called saying someone had hacked Base 44 with a crypto scam. He made an excuse, opened a laptop for two terrifying hours, and discovered it was just the LLM using a Node.js package literally called 'cryptography', which a non-technical user mistook for a crypto hack.
- The scare happened at his brother's wedding, the one night he couldn't open a laptop
- A friend warned that Base 44 had apparently been hacked in a crypto scam with user data at risk
- It turned out the LLM used a Node.js package called 'cryptography' — unrelated to crypto
- A non-technical user saw the word and assumed a crypto scammer had hacked their app
- Being solo means you can't share the burden or hand it off to anyone
“spend two hours, two very scary hours of my life. It ended up being just the LLM. Tried using a package called cryptography which is…”
#solo-founder#stress#story#ops
❝Story40:00
First 10 Users: Beg Friends and Sit With Them
Maor got his first users by begging close friends to use the tool — starting with three, two of whom were unemployed at the time. He had them sit down with him every other day; they'd try to build something, it would break, and he'd fix it live and push to production. His signal to scale wasn't enjoyment but sharing: when users started showing the tool to their friends, he knew it was working. He kept doing in-person feedback sessions even past 100k users.
- He started with 3 really close friends, two of them unemployed at the time
- They sat down every other day; it would break, he'd read the logs, fix it, push to production
- Don't scale until users show value — the key metric is that they start sharing it with someone
- Only once strangers (the 11th user) appeared did he invest in marketing
- He kept running in-person 'focus group' sessions of 20-30 people even at 20k/50k/100k users
“Just begging people close to me that I feel like that they have uh that I have really good connections with uh to use it.…”
“the best metric to to seeing them enjoying it or or at least making value out of it even if they're not enjoying because there…”
#growth#early-users#product-feedback
❝Story46:30
Building in Public + Paying Users in Credits to Share
The growth unlock was building in public on LinkedIn, suggested by a founder friend, because Maor's audience were builders who resonated with his honest journey. He noticed people loved sharing what they built on Base 44, so he created a program: share anything about the app or the building process on social, and get extra build credits. Building in public plus the credits incentive worked extremely well together.
- A founder friend suggested he share his journey since his audience were builders
- Building in public on LinkedIn created a strong synergy with his builder audience
- People naturally loved posting about what they built on top of Base 44
- He launched a program giving extra build credits for sharing on social — even not about Base 44 itself
- Building in public plus the credits program worked extremely well
“dude, how much are you paying those people to to like write posts about space 45? I was like, I'm not paying anyone”
“if you share just about the process of building the app or the app itself, it doesn't even have to be about B 44. If…”
#growth#building-in-public#incentives#community
❝Story1:04:00
The 'For Good' Hackathon That Drew 3,000 Teams
With Base 44 around 5-10k users and no budget, Maor ran a hackathon for apps that do good in the world, funding a 5k prize out of Base 44's own profits. It exploded to ~3,000 teams — possibly the largest 'for good' hackathon ever — and spread across social, attracting sponsor requests from Amazon, Google, MongoDB and others who opened their offices globally. He calls it one of the top moments of his career, citing an app built to help a grandmother with Alzheimer's memorize family members.
- He ran the hackathon with no budget, funding a 5k prize from Base 44's own profits
- It grew to ~3,000 teams, possibly the largest 'for good' hackathon so far
- Sponsor requests came in from Amazon, Google, MongoDB and others, who opened offices globally
- Scaling software cheaply lets nonprofits and neglected domains build tools they couldn't afford
- A memorable app: a game helping a grandmother with Alzheimer's memorize family members by photo and name
“It ended up being 3,000 teams. Uh so like really big I think like the largest I think it's the largest for good hackathon uh…”
#growth#hackathon#community#partnerships
❝Story1:23:30
War Broke Out the Night Before Signing
Maor recounts that the deal — life-changing for him and his kids — was set to sign Thursday night. The lawyers finished at 2 a.m. but decided to fix wording in the morning rather than rush it while exhausted. At 4 a.m. he woke to news that war had broken out between Israel and Iran. He couldn't believe the timing, but everything went fine — they woke up and signed the papers, making it, in his words, the least boring month of his life.
- The deal was hard-set to sign Thursday night; due diligence was fast with little baggage
- Lawyers finished at 2 a.m. but chose to fix wording in the morning rather than rush
- At 4 a.m. he woke to news that war had broken out between Israel and Iran
- Despite the shock, everything went fine and they signed the papers the next morning
“4:00 a.m. waking up like this announcement like hey a war broke out between and I was like again this is so classic”
#acquisition#story#israel
❝Story1:28:30
The Silly Reason It's Called Base 44
Maor admits the name has the stupidest reason behind it. He wanted 'base' because it'd be the base where people start building software, but base.com wasn't available and he had no money for a fancy domain. His birthday is February 2nd, so base22 was the instinct — but it was taken, so he doubled it to base44. He liked that it sounded like base64, the encoding scheme, and the nerd in him saw Base 44 as encoding natural language into software.
- He wanted 'base' as the base where people start building software
- base.com was unavailable and he had no money for a fancy domain
- His birthday is February 2nd, so base22 — but it was taken, so he doubled it to base44
- He liked that it echoed base64, the data-encoding scheme
- The metaphor: Base 44 encodes natural language into software
“base 44 is going to do the same. It's like encode natural language into software”
#branding#naming#story