What I've learned after making 180 no code apps in 2020

As founder of LowCode.Agency, this year I’ve had the opportunity to work with dozens of founders, business owners and entrepreneurs in order to build a custom app for them. We’ve been lucky enough to work with huge companies, but our bread and butter are SMB’s and entrepreneurs. I wanted to take this opportunity to share these learnings.

1. Good original ideas are very scarce

I can't tell you how many bad ideas we've built. People thinking they are making the next uber, doordash or yelp, without disrupting the current process big time are mistaken (IMHO). Too many people think they can do the same, but lack an original idea. Just adding screens for ads to ubers won't make your business a unicorn or interesting for investors. With VC throwing money around, you'll have a hard time competing against the behemoths in the industry that have unlimited pockets.

2. Riches 💵 are in the niches

Focus on a specific pain in an industry you know. Companies are willing to spend money on software to fix those pains that large software companies are overlooking.

Think very specific:

Help undocumented cleaning personnel to manage their clients, payments and quotations, for example, for 29/mo including access to a community to share resources, ideas, etc.
An app for trucking companies trying to manage drivers and expenses in a simple way for drivers and an efficient way for the HQ to keep track of everything.
An app for companies to help their employees track their health, self report their symptoms and track covid cases, for $1/user/mo.

3. B2B vs B2C

Oh my, so many people want to do the B2C tortuous road. It's so hard and it requires so much money. We've built a bunch of MVPs, (because I know no code isn't yet ready for hundreds of thousands of users per app, so we develop an MVP to validate the idea, get hundreds of users and afterwards, the client can get some funding to spend 6 figures to build a coded app) but I've yet to see a successful company building a business on top of a b2c app.

While I'm not saying b2b is a walk in the prairie, there are so many specific needs that can be fixed with custom software, for companies willing to spend money on it.

4. Starting is cheap, growing 📈 is hard

For less than 10k you can get a fully functional app, landing page, domain, emailing platform, and the whole shebang. It's cheaper than ever to start an online business. Growth is a whole other monster, though. Marketing, SEO, ads, and customer acquisition are expensive. That's why I think the opportunity is in niches.

5. Launch v1 but provide a lot of value

I know I shouldn’t be saying this because it is obvious, but your idea, app or business should provide SO MUCH VALUE that it’s a no brainer for your customer. However, your business doesn’t have to be complex, and it doesn’t have to do everything. Just fix one thing, that you can quantify in money or time, and you’ll get the clients. You don’t need all the bells and whistles. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve shown our clients v1 of Facebook, Airbnb or Google. Don’t spend on things you think your client wants. Just build v1, get a bunch of customers, and then define the roadmap.

I hope you guys enjoyed this! Want to share your thoughts?