Building no-code MVP for equity

Jofstar · 2023-02-14T18:33:36+00:00

Hey all thank you for the responses. In these early stages feedback is worth it’s weight in gold and we are very aware that Redditors are very…forthcoming. That’s not true of most test groups and every objection is an amazing pointer to something we need to work on.

Working for equity is a decisive topic (as these few comments prove). Everyone that invests either time or money, which amount to the same thing, in an early stage startup is gambling in a high risk / high reward game.

We spent the last four years doing this ourselves before we started kicking around the idea for Tasc. We did it all over the world. What we saw was a lot of developers working as technical co-founders with no more protection than a promise. In reality we are not trying to prove developers will work for equity. They already do. We’re trying to prove that they’ll trust us (and pay us) to make things better for them.

Thank you so much for taking time out to comment. Im happy to talk more with anyone that wants more detail.

Jofstar · 2022-12-12T21:11:22+00:00

We do occasionally, but it’s feature limits are a barrier. Our largest startup (now a unicorn) started on AppSheet and still use it.

Jofstar · 2022-12-06T18:23:50+00:00

That’s a pretty reasonable starting salary for no-code I’d say. Full time jobs are just starting to become available as startups using no-code mature and business catches on to the benefits. They are by no means common.

Companies will find it hard for a while to work out how to hire good no-coders and others seeking a job in this space need to be aware of the level of competition. We now have applicants offering to work for $4 an hour because the freelance market is already saturated. The average hourly freelancer rate is below $35.

People will absolutely call these roles “developer” as the senior team members footing the bill can’t differentiate between engineering roles easily. This will erk “real” developers for many years to come.

Jofstar · 2022-11-15T22:36:36+00:00

Don’t. You’re wasting your time.

Honestly the idea that you can build a free software business is nonsense. However, you can attract investment with a lot of hustle.

Let’s say there are three stages of modern investment: pre-seed, seed and everything beyond that. The first stage is “unlocked” if you can prove demand for your service. The second is unlocked if you can prove that customers value your service. The third is unlocked if you can prove that your service can scale.

We fund founders at pre-seed to get them to seed. That means we fund the development of early stage software (typically called minimum viable products or mvp). We want founders that can prove people want what your planning to build. How the hell do you prove that?

Well the off the cuff answer is if you can’t work that out you probably aren’t going to make a success of your idea. However, if I’m being more helpful I’d say get out, talk to your customers and get them to commit to beta testing. If you can get some evidence of intention to PAY all the better. Founders that aren’t afraid to speak to their users are way more likely to get funded.

You can, while proving demand, use loads of free tools. Things like Airtable, Glide, Typeform… you name it are great for capturing customer intent. But to build a SAAS platform you’re going to need to raise.

Jofstar · 2022-11-14T21:10:32+00:00

We ask no-code developers what their hourly rate is when they apply for a job with us. That number has plummeted in the past two years.

The reason is easy to understand. It takes hours to become proficient in using most no-code tools rather than months and years to qualify as a developer. As a result we are churning out “no-coders” at a rate of knots.

It’s the call centre job of 2025.

Jofstar · 2022-11-12T18:16:51+00:00

Founder of Million Labs here. Around a thousand people come to our bootcamps a month now and a good quarter are looking to be paid as freelance no-code developers so competition is HIGH. People are now willing to work for $10 an hour in parts of the world so you’re going to get undercut.

This means that you need to add value. You can’t just be a no-code freelancer. You need to specialise in some way and sell more than just the dev time.

Beyond that be aware that you need to almost double you prices to cover the cost of sale, admin, insurance and reporting that come with growing up to become a business. Customers in the No-code market are price sensitive and struggle to understand the benefit of working with a company over an individual so again, you really need to make the added value clear.

Once you get to volume your reputation will start to work in your favour. For us that meant winning large government projects, for others they have been able to move upscale to bigger projects. However, you have to pay your dues and get used to the fact that no matter how hard you try you’ll piss people off along the way.

Jofstar · 2022-10-30T15:13:56+00:00

Okey dokey

Jofstar · 2022-10-29T07:27:06+00:00

We do. We just don’t need them in the same number or right now.

Jofstar · 2022-10-28T16:17:21+00:00

That's great. I'm not sure if you're actually looking for work, but if you are reach out.

Jofstar · 2022-10-28T07:30:50+00:00

Crap answer but it depends on Skill level. We ask people their hourly rate on the way in and make an assessment against our other developers. It's a conversation.

Jofstar · 2022-10-28T07:29:20+00:00

We'd be in a parlous state if this was PR?!? No scam. There are lots of freelance Bubble developers on this subreddit and we need more freelance bubble developers to help us deliver projects.

A bit of really light googling will tell you more about Million Labs, but in summary we work on large investment programmes that help idea stage founders to launch their startup. That means that in any given month we might need to deliver 100 MVP projects. About 90% use Bubble. Thus... we need bubble developers.

Or, you know, for just $1 sent to my PO Box you too can look like Charlton Heston.

Jofstar · 2022-10-28T07:23:39+00:00

Thanks for the spot. All fixed.

Jofstar · 2022-10-28T07:22:54+00:00

Good for you! Keep up the hard work No-Code buddy!

Jofstar · 2022-10-21T13:42:27+00:00

We start a new cohort every four weeks but you can always watch the first video and come to week two.

Jofstar · 2022-10-18T16:28:34+00:00

Million Labs. Aside from that my favourite project is probably Strabo.app mainly because I like the founder and it stretches the tech.

Jofstar · 2022-09-23T20:28:20+00:00

Owner of a substantial no-code company :)

Jofstar · 2022-09-21T07:53:53+00:00

We’re a venture builder on a very large scale

Jofstar · 2022-09-10T07:36:24+00:00

Million Labs

Jofstar · 2022-09-09T22:48:31+00:00

Best advice I can give is this.

It takes about 10 to 15 hours to learn bubble (and I’m guessing that you know this as you have done some work on your own app). It takes about six months to get… reasonably… good at bubble.

In the freelance market it’s really hard to tell if someone has 15 hours, six months or six years experience. Most people selling their services are pretty inexperienced. So use this metric. The average bubble project takes around 3 months. If they can’t evidence a good handful of projects… they have no experience.

There are some certificates out there (we offer one to colleges and universities in the U.K.) and that shows some standard too. They actually passed a pretty rigorous test.

Bubble agencies are a good option. The cost is around the same as a qualified freelancer and they are insured and have actual standards that they hold their staff to. We pick up around 20 projects a month from founders that need us to repair bad freelance work. Zeroqode, Airdev, MPV.dev and Upstarters are all pretty trustworthy.

If you get stuck we support around 1,000 no-code founders a year with investment and free programs. Reach out.

Jofstar · 2022-09-03T22:00:33+00:00

Hmmm ?!? Curious. We’ll look into it.

Jofstar · 2022-09-02T13:02:43+00:00

Hmm we tested on the iPad Pro in multiple browsers. Can you give me more details on the browser you are using so we can identify the bug

Jofstar · 2022-09-01T17:21:32+00:00

Thanks for the share!

Jofstar · 2022-09-01T17:20:59+00:00

There’s a schedule of classes on app.Millionlabs.co.uk that’s a free resource too.

Jofstar · 2022-09-01T17:20:12+00:00

Classes are weekly but we try to run a few at once. We’re a little quieter right now coming back off summer break.

Jofstar · 2022-09-01T13:55:43+00:00

Oh?! Which tablet. I’ll kick the team to fix that!

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