I’m standing at a crossroads: I can either use no-code platforms to swiftly get my MVP off the ground, or I can invest time in learning the code stack for long-term scalability. My startup is in the real estate tech sector, and it appears that no-code solutions could handle most of my initial requirements.
Pros of No-Code:
- Quick to market
- No vendor lock-in with the platforms I want to use, so I can transition to a fully coded base like React with Next.js and Supabase for the backend later.
Pros of Learning to Code:
- Valuable skills for future scaling.
- Skill acquisition that will be useful even if this startup doesn’t take off.
- Knowledge base when working with future developers
- I really enjoy learning to code and don’t find it bothersome
The timeline with using no code would probably be 1-2 months and around 3-6 months if I learn the tech stacks needed. I am come from mobile app development so it will take me some time to understand web dev fully.
So, should I prioritize speed to market with no-code solutions, or invest in coding skills for the long run? What advice would you give me?
When thinking about what to do in this situation, analyze the ROI from the company perspective and consider yourself an employee of the company.
What’s the priority of the company right now? If you hired yourself right now to accomplish that goal, what would you want that employee to do?
In this case, the priority is proving demand and proving product market fit. I’d say: use whatever means at your disposal to get an MVP out that you can use to test your hypotheses with and talk to users. As you make progress and raise money/get revenue, you can hire an engineer to slowly replace that MVP with a more scalable solution.
I previously used No code to build an MVP and I seriously had a hard time implementing the feedback from the users. I spent more time trying to get the thing to work that it made it so difficult to complete user journeys.
It could have been the platform that I used that required so many work arounds. It could have been just the nature of the platform that we built. I’m not sure.
Perhaps if you intend to build something while using the nocode, your situation might turn out better. I wish I would have done things differently though.
No code! So quick and easy to learn and use, and it will give you everything you need for an MVP (and beyond imo).
You’re overthinking this. Prioritize first paying customer since your no-code option can fullfill the initial business.
You’ll learn a lot more about the market and what you’re actually “scaling”. For e.g. collecting user feedback and then trying to implement it manually. This will then tell you whether it improves user acquisition and should it be build.
You’re asking if you’re going to become a real estate mogul, should you try to sell an actual house or should you learn how to build a house and sell that instead first.
A good read by PG: Do things that don’t scale
Do version one (the MVP) fast then do version two (production) right.
You want to test the market, learn from it and iterate as much and as quickly as necessary. No matter what you think the market wants and will resonate to, you are most likely off by a wide margin.
Now, to build a platform that scales well requires years of education and experience. You can’t learn all of that in a few months. It is a good idea to learn a bit about software development so you can have a meaningful conversation with developers, but don’t fool yourself you can become a great one in weeks.
How much time do you expect that you’ll need to learn to code and build the MVP?
Build something you can validate with, then iterate and build it right.