Should we learn Code or No code to touch Billions of people with that great Idea?

[monishkumar]

Hello Fastlane community members, I have a question for you.

A friend and I have come up with an idea for a totally original application. It already exists, but we're revolutionizing it. And in That way it can reach BILLIONS of people.

The thing is, we plan to launch it initially on IOS and Android. But here's the catch.

The two of us don't know a thing about coding, and although my friend has put forward the idea of making our App on Bubble in no code, I'm still skeptical.

Skeptical because this app, while stylish and bringing a lot of value that could touch billions of people. But it's still complex.

Which is a good thing, because the barriers to entry will be in our favor. But we don't know how much this application will cost us in terms of effort and investment of time and money.
And we don't know where to start either. Should we learn coding? Or do it in no-code on Bubble?

Any coders out there who might be able to point us in the right direction? Or people who have been in this situation long before us? Or who are in the middle of it?

Anyway, thanks for your attention, and see you soon.

As someone who is building apps right now, I'd say focus ONLY on the core part of the app and test it with a few potential users through TestFlight on iOS (Apple's way to test apps before launching on App Store).

The thing with app ideas is that they change significantly once you hit the market. I built my web app in isolation for 6months and launched too late. I spent 3 months on what I thought was a killer differentiating. Only after launching, I realized what a waste that was - people totally ignored it. What we think people will do and what people will do are wildly different. My biggest takeaway from that was to launch fast with only the core feature and then iterate based on feedback.

Regarding building the app on Bubble, I would recommend against it. Any app that doesn't use native development code will likely have performance issues and you wouldn't be able to tell if your app failed because the app was slow or if the idea was bad.

Apple's latest SwiftUI makes it super easy & fast to build and test app ideas. To test any app idea, you need to distill the big idea to an MVP that still does the job. This is the most challenging part. Once you do this, you can hire an iOS developer (preferably SwiftUI) so they can quickly build & release the app to validate your idea.

Beware of anyone who says this should take more than 6 months (Ideally, it shouldn't take them even 3months since you are just going to build an MVP). You don't need to write tests, or anything.

If you are in the US, testing only on iOS would be a good idea since iOS has the bigger marketshare. Can't speak to other countries as I have no knowledge about that.

 

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[jokul]

Programmers change the world

 

[Andy Black]

The thing with app ideas is that they change significantly once you hit the market. I built my web app in isolation for 6months and launched too late. I spent 3 months on what I thought was a killer differentiating. Only after launching, I realized what a waste that was - people totally ignored it. What we think people will do and what people will do are wildly different. My biggest takeaway from that was to launch fast with only the core feature and then iterate based on feedback.

^^^ This!

 

[StrikingViper69]

Felix Dennis said, "Did you ever hear of a billionaire cameraman? No. Did you ever hear of a billionaire movie producer? Yes."

Do you think Mark Zuckerberg is a coder who made billions? No. He's an owner of an Internet company.
Do you think Bill Gates is a coder who made billions? No. He's an owner of a software company.
Although Elon Musk did a lot of coding for his first company (where he got his first millions), he did said that he can only either be a CEO or a CTO. Not both.

You're an entrepreneur first, and a coder, second. Remember: The labels that we put on ourselves can make a lot of impact on how we think and make decisions.

Didn’t Zuckerberg code the original Facebook?

And Bill Gates is a talented programmer, I think he actually came up with some ground breaking solutions to algorithms.

The people you mentioned were great programmers who transitioned to being owners.

 

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[Consolation]

Didn’t Zuckerberg code the original Facebook?

And Bill Gates is a talented programmer, I think he actually came up with some ground breaking solutions to algorithms.

The people you mentioned were great programmers who transitioned to being owners.

Of which validates what I said. Entrepreneur first, programmer/coder, second.

People always confused with 'what' and 'why'. 'What' Zuckerberg did? Follow it. The 'why' behind it? You think people have the patience to figure it out?

I was a fan of Myspace. Why do you think Zuckerberg created FB?
IBM ruled the hardware-software industry. Why do you think Bill Gates created Microsoft after his failed Traf-O-Data business?

The iPhone wouldn't have even exists by now if Steve Wozniak, kept tinkering in his basement. Steve Jobs was just a so-so programmer.

Oh God. I have to quote Felix Dennis once again (maybe too much):

1. "And so I became a magazine publisher. That was OK, but I forgot to keep my eye on the ball. The ball was to get rich. Instead, I decided to become one of the world’s best magazine publishers. Not smart."
2. "The truth is I led myself to believe I had fallen in love with publishing. That wasn’t a tragedy in itself, but I allowed my liking for the magazine publishing business to blinker me from so many other avenues where I could have coined cash."

 

[ZackerySprague]

Some no code apps like Bubble have become extremely powerful, but they also have somewhat of a learning curve. You, at a basic level, need to know a lot of programmatic jargon.

Jargon, lol.

Try out Laracasts.com absolutely love their platform.

 

[Consolation]

Nobody's going to point out the few gold threads this gentleman desperately needs?

What I Learned Spending $40k And One Year Launching My App​

How I Went From Financial App Failure To Finding Success On The App Store​

I Sold My App For $65,000. I Learned To Code Last May.​

 

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[Wael]

If you need to build websites you can invest the 50 or so hours learning web design using something like elementor, and using wordpress, but realistically I would recommend you NOT learn to code. It will take too much time away from business, and entrepreneurship.

But spending 50 hours or more learning to code is part of the process, isn't it?

 

[Fit Tech Goat]

Hello Fastlane community members, I have a question for you.

A friend and I have come up with an idea for a totally original application. It already exists, but we're revolutionizing it. And in That way it can reach BILLIONS of people.

The thing is, we plan to launch it initially on IOS and Android. But here's the catch.

The two of us don't know a thing about coding, and although my friend has put forward the idea of making our App on Bubble in no code, I'm still skeptical.

Skeptical because this app, while stylish and bringing a lot of value that could touch billions of people. But it's still complex.

Which is a good thing, because the barriers to entry will be in our favor. But we don't know how much this application will cost us in terms of effort and investment of time and money.
And we don't know where to start either. Should we learn coding? Or do it in no-code on Bubble?

Any coders out there who might be able to point us in the right direction? Or people who have been in this situation long before us? Or who are in the middle of it?

Anyway, thanks for your attention, and see you soon.

As someone who knows how to code, but also uses no-code tools.

Here's my advice:

If your app has complicated features, a large database, and is complex to build, then use code.

But if your app is quite simple, there are no-code templates you can use to speed up the process.

 

[Mister]

In my opinion, the answer broardly on two things.

1. What is your budget?
2. Is learning the skill valuable for your journey?

First of the budget.
When you make 100k/y and can hire a freelancer to create the code, do it, very likely you will waste a lot of time trying to figure it out.

When you have some budget, I would go for the no-code app, I never used Bubble but am familiar with similar solutions in the web space.

Often the cost of learning to code is much higher than just using a no code tool for it.

But when you are dead broke and coding it yourself would be the only option to make it happen, then you know your answer.

Is learning the skill valuable for your journey?
When you know that you want to make future projects in the tech space and will very likely use code again to create them, then it can be helpful to learn to code.

When it's just a one of project, just use a no code tool.


Also, why not just try to make it work? Idk anything about your app and the concept behind it.

But I'm sure you are a smart guy or girl. So why not just make your hands dirty and try out what works?

I'm sure you will figure out what works best yourself.

 

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