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Is Low Code The Future? How I built and shipped my revenue-ready MVP in 4 hours

bethanvincent.com

21–30 of 53 posts

Re: Is Low Code The Future? How I built and shipped my revenue-ready MVP in 4 hours

#21
post #4

As with all titles that starts with a question, the answer is probably no. Sure it may work for some easy cases but most products aren't that simple and as soon as you want to add some extra functionality you basically have to rewrite the application from scratch. I'm happy that it worked for this guy but if I was a betting man I wouldn't bet on "low code".

she is right, but this a terrible example because her idea is weak but her marketing is strong.. the future will likely see apps being built in collaboration with AI.

> apps being built in collaboration with AI

Oh please no, that's just so unnecessary.

Re: Is Low Code The Future? How I built and shipped my revenue-ready MVP in 4 hours

#22
Don't think so.

I'd say easy code (think python and garbage collectors) plus easy scale (think cloud and apps and serverless) is where the easy wins are.

People have been trying to do point and click IDEs for ever. It's always a shit show and I see no reason to believe it'll change shortly

Re: Is Low Code The Future? How I built and shipped my revenue-ready MVP in 4 hours

#23

"I literally built a business in an afternoon and so can you." Are you charging money and have customers actually paying you? If not, it's not a business yet. It's a website. This barely functions as a website and looks like a few components thrown together using a bootstrap template.

Shit it takes me about four hours just to get a few basic services set up & configured for a new business idea, before any kind of product work can start. Could throw up an experiment without doing that but it wouldn't really be ready for customers, just faux-ready enough to prove demand (which is still nice and all). Having done that one would not yet have "literally built a business", though.

Re: Is Low Code The Future? How I built and shipped my revenue-ready MVP in 4 hours

#24

"I literally built a business in an afternoon and so can you." Are you charging money and have customers actually paying you? If not, it's not a business yet. It's a website. This barely functions as a website and looks like a few components thrown together using a bootstrap template.

If they were charging for it, they would have called it "revenue-earning" instead of "revenue-ready". What does "revenue-ready" even mean? They're willing to accept money for it? Really high bar to clear /s

I'm revenue-ready because I'm capable of holding my pockets open.

Re: Is Low Code The Future? How I built and shipped my revenue-ready MVP in 4 hours

#25
So, this is where the founder of a "low-code" startup pops up to confirm it: "Low code" is mostly a false promise.

We have been programming computers for most of a century: 71 years this year. And in all that time, nobody has come up with a better way of telling a computer what to do than writing text in a programming language. People keep trying, of course, with endless permutations of flow-charts and rules. But sooner or later, you'll find yourself either:

(a) unable to express what you need to express, or

(b) tangled up in Cthulu's own flow-chart, barely accomplishing something that you know is a three-line `for` loop in Python.

And the thing is, anyone calling their system "low code" (rather than "no code") knows this. They know that the shiny demo can't actually do all you need. The moment you want to build something they haven't already imagined, you fall off the edge of the world. That's why they hedge, and say "sure, you might write a little code". Then the trap-door opens underneath you, and you go straight from a click'n'drag flowchart to writing a React component (or worse). Not fun.

I cofounded Anvil (https://anvil.works), and if you squint hard you could call it a low-code platform for web apps. But many valuable apps are a fifteen-line Python script surrounded by fifteen tons of JS framework. The problem here isn't the application logic - it's everything else! So build a drag'n'drop designer, and a VB/Delphi-like component UI, then get out of the way and let the author write their app logic in peace. When your users try to do something you haven't thought of (and they will!), they'll have an industrial-strength toolbox to deal with it.

But to tell someone that they can build substantial apps without writing code is to invite them to drive at speed up a blind alley.

Re: Is Low Code The Future? How I built and shipped my revenue-ready MVP in 4 hours

#27

Being the critical HN person, I would say that "revenue ready" is a fancy term for "I built this website/app and now need to get clients". So revenue ready = just a website/app.

Yes, and it's most definitely a long way away from being something that could be properly called a "business".

Re: Is Low Code The Future? How I built and shipped my revenue-ready MVP in 4 hours

#28
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they were charging for it, they would have called it "revenue-earning" instead of "revenue-ready". What does "revenue-ready" even mean? They're willing to accept money for it? Really high bar to clear /s

I'm revenue-ready because I'm capable of holding my pockets open.

I honestly feel like these comments are quite elitist.

I can programme if i need to but will often use convenience tools to quickly test ideas. Thats kind of the spirit of (many not all) startups right now.

Isn't the magic in figuring out what people are willing to pay for? That's definitely PGs message, along with speak to customers and do things that don't scale. And now someones getting flamed for attempting to do all three (whether it's worth blogging about is another thing).

I believe i'm ok to comment here as I have worked at both ends of the scale (B2C super fast and dirty vs super deep scientific medical software with long time line to market).

Re: Is Low Code The Future? How I built and shipped my revenue-ready MVP in 4 hours

#29

The criticism -- almost all the other comments at this point -- focuses on one aspect of the low-code app: It has to be re-written once it grows. * While this is true, I don't think Bethan or any other low code advocate would dispute that. The question is: can you get test an idea with low code. The answer to that might be a trivial yes, but if you had asked me what that means, I would guess a team of 3 people could…

Low code already happens. Now I think it’s just getting popular .

“Groupon was originally run on WordPress because they only needed to test one thing: will local small businesses provide discounts in exchange for being introduced to potential new customers.”

And yes it is an example of that it has to be rewritten.

From https://bigthinking.io/the-mindset-for-innovation-everything...

Re: Is Low Code The Future? How I built and shipped my revenue-ready MVP in 4 hours

#30
If it's possible to prototype or test a potential new product or feature with little to no engineering effort... that is the only responsible thing to do.

I've seen many cases where their were easy non custom solutions to test a first version of a product/feature I have refused to custom build until tested...where then shown ineffective.

Buy over build until it cannot scale (often the scale is cost not growth).

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