Episode 642 | The Pros and Cons of Building a No-Code MVP

Startups For the Rest of Us

Rob Walling

Management, Entrepreneurship, Business, Marketing

4.8 • 792 Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2023

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In episode 642, Rob Walling chats with Tara Reed, who is the founder of Apps Without Code. We talk about her journey getting into no-code, bootstrapping Apps Without Code to $5M ARR, and the decision she made last year to throttle growth to become more profitable. In our conversation, we also cover some of the pros and cons of no-code tools, along with some entrepreneurial mindset shifts that new entrepreneurs need to make. Topics we cover: 1:46 - How Tara came up with the idea for Apps Without Code 3:56 - Why Tara deliberately scaled the business back from $5M to $3M in ARR 5:35 - Tara’s approach to building the Apps Without Code Team 6:04 - Two ways that Apps Without Code makes money 10:50 - The biggest no-code limitations today 16:29 - Using no-code tools to build MVPs and internal apps 19:07 - Tara’s preferred no-code platform 20:24 - The biggest positives of building with no-code tools 22:40 - The biggest drawbacks of building with no-code tools 26:56 - 3 entrepreneurial mindset shifts that new founders need to make Links from the Show: Tara Reed (@tarareed_) I Twitter Apps without Code MicroConf 2023 Accountability Challenge MicroConf Connect State of Independent SaaS Report Glide Episode 14 I Overcoming Fear If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you. Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher

Transcript

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0:00.0	Happy New Year. It's another episode of Startups for the rest of us. This is the 13th calendar year in which an episode of this show has been published. It's great to have you listening today. In this episode, I talk with Tara Reid of Apps Without Code. We have a great conversation. We talk about her journey getting into no code, then starting apps without code, growing it to a $5 million
0:23.0	bootstrap company, actually pulling it back to between $3 and $4 million to make it more profitable.
0:29.1	We talk about entrepreneurial mindset. She deals with a lot of early stage founders trying to get
0:34.4	off the ground by building an MVP or an app in no code. And she sees
0:38.6	some patterns and some anti-patterns. And then we spend a good bit of time talking about the pros
0:43.4	and cons of no code, the amazing things it can do, and a handful of things that it struggles with.
0:49.1	Before we dive into that, if you want to get a head start on your 2023 goals, join us for the MicroConf Accountability Challenge.
0:56.8	The difference between crushing your goals and falling short often lies in the tiny habits and wins along the way.
1:02.8	And sticking with those habits can be tough while you're working solo.
1:05.7	So we're running our second annual January accountability challenge inside MicroConfConnect. You can head to
1:12.0	microcomf.com slash accountability dash challenge. That's microcom slash accountability dash challenge to
1:19.0	sign up and get your 2023 off to an amazing start. And with that, let's dive into our conversation.
1:34.8	Tara Reid, thanks for joining me on the show.
1:37.0	Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
1:38.8	It's great to finally meet you.
1:39.8	I've heard a lot about you.
1:41.0	We have mutual friends.
1:44.9	And I've been hearing about apps without code for at least a couple years now. To get listeners on the same page, your H1 of apps without code is finally launch
1:51.4	your app idea, come up with a strong app idea, build it without writing code, and make real
1:55.7	money with your business. So you've been public about the revenue. Three to four million this year. You help people
2:03.4	build web and mobile apps. I think I got to kick it off with the question of, you know,
2:08.2	what made you decide to start it. I wasn't really intentionally trying to start this business.
	...

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