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No-code startup Bubble raises $100M

reuters.com

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Re: No-code startup Bubble raises $100M

#221

Post by knightofmars »

foxbee wrote: post #82

Credit to Bubble for raising such a large amount after years of hard work and dedication. I admire their tenacity, community and product but I don't agree with the sentiment 'make tech cofounders obsolete'. Why do you want to make a highly skilled individual obsolete? I feel, in many ways, this sentimentalism is what negatively affects the no-code / low-code industry. We need developers and non-developers to work tog…

Because it is exactly what their target customer base wants to hear. A non-technical person with an idea doesn't want to go into debt or give up significant ownership of their company just to see if their product idea is worth anything.

I agree that when this type of sentiment crosses over into an "us vs them" (non-tech vs tech) mentality it's problematic. Having a confrontational mindset towards any integral part of a business is a recipe for disaster. However, if you look in the Bubble forums you'll see there are a number of posts reaching out for a cofounder/technical person or advising to find a technical cofounder when scaling becomes a reality (successful proof of concept).

Personally, I find products like Bubble to be a great opportunity to reduce risk in the startup phase for all parties involved. New ideas can be tested in the wild for a lot less time and money. After a market has been shown to exist then a focus on scaling and technical architecture can happen. It's also easier to attract a talented CTO when you can prove that a market for the product exists.

https://bubble.io/blog/about-bubble/

Re: No-code startup Bubble raises $100M

#223

Post by eljimmy »

robfitz wrote: post #123
eljimmy wrote: post #37

I had to use this for a client project once (per their request) a few years ago and as a developer it was an absolute nightmare. But I guess it's not meant for developers... There were so many quirks and limitations that I wouldn't ever recommend it to anyone. It's to app development what Macromedia Dreamweaver was to web development back in the day, except worse because you can't edit the code. I don't want to be ov…

You definitely can edit the code, but it's hidden within their plugin system. If you're willing to spend 4-8 hours going through tutorials to understand their metaphors & setup, then you can find plenty of interesting ways to use it that are faster than "normal" coding. But if you just jump right in on the assumption that your coding knowledge will carry you through (which is what I did the first time I looked at it…

They had only just introduced plugins when I used it so I guess they weren’t as advanced back then. I can see they’ve added in many new features since.

Can’t say I’ll use it again but good on them for continuing to improve it.

Re: No-code startup Bubble raises $100M

#224

Post by narrator »

mrspeaker wrote: post #48
deeviant wrote: post #10

I think the biggest problem with this approach is at some point, they necessarily reach a level of complexity that it takes the same amount of time to learn how to use their "no-code" tools than it does to just learn how to code.

It works best for prototyping and rapidly testing ideas. I joined a startup that didn't have any deep coding skills - but had a great idea and vision for a product. They had made a pretty decent prototype with Bubble and could quickly implement suggestions from the beta testers. When I joined I instantly suggested re-writing it in a "real" stack. But when I dived into it, there was a lot of built in features of Bubbl…

The area where most no code solutions tend to break is performance. There's some sort of black box that has o(n^2) time and nobody can fix it.

Re: No-code startup Bubble raises $100M

#225

Post by rattray »

zubairlk wrote: post #198

It seems like all the comments here are from non bubble users. We have worked on over 20 client projects in the past 1.5 years using bubble. Specialising exclusively in bubble now. A way to describe the platform would be WordPress for Web Apps. There was a census recently. ~75% clients are startup/MVPs ~25% SME making business tooling Out client portfolio is similar. I've hired fresh graduates in Pakistan, trained th…

At what point do your clients typically need to go from the Bubble app to a coded app?

Re: No-code startup Bubble raises $100M

#226

Post by rattray »

zubairlk wrote: post #198

It seems like all the comments here are from non bubble users. We have worked on over 20 client projects in the past 1.5 years using bubble. Specialising exclusively in bubble now. A way to describe the platform would be WordPress for Web Apps. There was a census recently. ~75% clients are startup/MVPs ~25% SME making business tooling Out client portfolio is similar. I've hired fresh graduates in Pakistan, trained th…

What tools did your agency use before Bubble?

Re: No-code startup Bubble raises $100M

#227

Post by rattray »

zubairlk wrote: post #198

It seems like all the comments here are from non bubble users. We have worked on over 20 client projects in the past 1.5 years using bubble. Specialising exclusively in bubble now. A way to describe the platform would be WordPress for Web Apps. There was a census recently. ~75% clients are startup/MVPs ~25% SME making business tooling Out client portfolio is similar. I've hired fresh graduates in Pakistan, trained th…

What is your most complex Bubble app? How hard is it to make changes to it?

Re: No-code startup Bubble raises $100M

#228

Post by bencollier49 »

zubairlk wrote: post #198

It seems like all the comments here are from non bubble users. We have worked on over 20 client projects in the past 1.5 years using bubble. Specialising exclusively in bubble now. A way to describe the platform would be WordPress for Web Apps. There was a census recently. ~75% clients are startup/MVPs ~25% SME making business tooling Out client portfolio is similar. I've hired fresh graduates in Pakistan, trained th…

Can you give us an example of one of the 30 apps (as per your website) so we can look at it?

Re: No-code startup Bubble raises $100M

#229

Post by jollybean »

redsymbol wrote: post #139

Some people here are giving examples of using Bubble a few years ago, and found it too limited to be useful. Have any developers here used it recently ? When I first looked at Zapier about 2.5 years ago, as a developer I found it limiting and just not useful compared to writing custom webhooks that I sometimes glued together with cron jobs, etc. But since late last year, Zapier has matured so much I am able to use it…

Zapier is mostly targetted at non marketing people and I wouldn't even think to write my own hooks otherwise.

You want something pushed into a spreadsheet when you receive an email? That's Zapier.

Re: No-code startup Bubble raises $100M

#230

Post by rattray »

mrspeaker wrote: post #48
deeviant wrote: post #10

I think the biggest problem with this approach is at some point, they necessarily reach a level of complexity that it takes the same amount of time to learn how to use their "no-code" tools than it does to just learn how to code.

It works best for prototyping and rapidly testing ideas. I joined a startup that didn't have any deep coding skills - but had a great idea and vision for a product. They had made a pretty decent prototype with Bubble and could quickly implement suggestions from the beta testers. When I joined I instantly suggested re-writing it in a "real" stack. But when I dived into it, there was a lot of built in features of Bubbl…

> "spaghetti no-code", slow loading times, crazy hacks, giant bundles

Can you say more about these problems? I'm curious what they're like in practice, if/how companies using Bubble can work around them, and whether Bubble might be able to fix these kinds of issues in the future.

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