Thinking about going no code..
As a software developer in my day job, I've always thought of my technical abilities as an unfair advantage when it comes to starting a company. Recently, I'm starting to wonder if it's a weakness.
When I think about the reasons I'm likely to fail, I see a few risks that are unique to the fact that I'm a developer:
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I want to learn new languages and technologies (Elm, anyone?), so I take a long time to make something even as simple as a landing page
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I focus more on development and less on product and traction
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I don't spend enough time ON the business, instead spending time IN the business.
Today I signed up for Makerpad, considering going to the pro tier as well. I wonder if it's a constraint I should put on myself to get a successful product out there with no code.
Who here has experience with the no code solutions? Has it worked for you? What are the biggest difficulties of going the 'no code' path?
Kevin,
I believe you are making a good decision on considering No-Code. However being a Developer by trade puts you in the driver seat to adopt no-code. A good approach for you would be to prototype your ideas with no-code to obtain market validation, conceptual workflows, etc. being a developer you could then scale your product with traditional code.
I’m not a developer but have hacked things together in the past. No-Code has been amazing and the industry is gaining traction rapidly. I myself use Bubble.io. It’s pretty amazing on what you can build. I’m currently building a product with it now. Also check out Adalo.com for more mobile based as Bubble is still web app driven but has a really good responsive engine.
I use Gaby at coachingnocodeapps.com for bubble training and she is amazing with tutorials.
Hope this helps.
Neil
Thanks for mentioning Adalo. I haven't seen it before! I'm going to tinker with connecting a Bubble backend to the Adalo frontend and see how they play together!
Let me know how that goes. I’m wanting to give it a try too.
I signed up for a thirty minute chat with one of their cofounders this Friday. Will report back.
Awesome stuff.
Hey Neil, this is great. I think that starting with no-code and moving to custom solutions after proving value is the right call.
What does that mean? What are you developing if not the product?
Generally, it's lack of flexibility and slower pace of iteration. That's why I learned to code (as an entrepreneur running a non-tech business)
By product I mean defining the features and value of the business - what makes it useful. Development is the implementation of product, and I think it’s important to note the difference.
Thanks for your feedback! I’ve heard many people suggest that no-code can be quicker, but I’m curious how many people have experience similar to yours (slower iteration)
At least in my experience, no code meant that every time I wanted to make a change...
Even though everything was doable, it was a huge amount of additional friction that slowed down and even stopped experiments from every happening at all.
A few years later with significant dev experience, it's completely different:
I'm curious what the actual number is too, but I sure have seen a lot of others on online business forums talking about the same things I did above!
Thanks for this. What no code solutions did you try? Were some better than others?
@Kevcon80 it's been about 1 year since you posted this. I would to hear a follow up. Did you try creating products with No Code?
Hey Chris,
Sorry to disappoint, but I never did end up committing to no-code. As a developer in my day-job, I've had the incentive to pick up code languages instead of going this route, since it ends up benefiting my professional career, plus it's fun for me (why I went into the field in the first place!)
Wish I could be more helpful
I think you just build with what you know best. Its more about speed and validation to me vs what tool set you use. So my thought would be to not learn something new - go validate and build :)
Thinking about this in the same way today. I love doing software development, but at times I see it as a hindrance as I get caught up in things that don't matter that much.
My opinion is bias as I am a huge no-code evangelist.
I think in your particular case it is a unique opportunity for you to take your day job out the equation. It will allow your brain to think differently by implementing something fast and not up to your usual developer standard. This in-turn will free up time to focus on the other side of what makes a product successful. Validation, Marketing, Sales, Design to name a few.
I would say having more time to focus on other aspects other than the one you already know how to do can only be a good thing.
I use only no-code solutions.
I have to say that I have no alternatives considering the fact that I can't code, but it has worked extremely well for me.
I have had a product acquired and am currently running two profitable companies. Every month, I launch at least a side-project because I have lots of ideas and honestly enjoy it. With no-code it takes my just a couple of days.
I used bubble, Webflow, Zapier, landen, carrd, and adalo in my projects and tried many more. I would say that except for Webflow, all the products I used are very, very simple and you don't need courses to get started.
I would argue that in the beginning courses can slow down your shipping because you will start adding things that are nice-to-haves, but you don't need now.
The temptation to "just add a feature" before launching is often strong, at least for me, and that feature can become three weeks for a product that ends up flopping.
My advice is to launch first and then evaluate if you need courses and additional features (you probably won't).
The advantage of no-code is that you can learn and implement complex functionalities in literally hours, so you will can keep up with your eventual users' demand.
It is better to be in a bit of a hurry later, than postponing the launch and ending up with a flop.
This comment was deleted a year ago.