Dear Non-tech founders, how do you build MVPs?

Honestly here is what I would recommend:

1) if your app is more of an "app" - use a low code platform like bubble to develop the app. This will help you learn technical concepts and work out some of your idea.

2) if your idea is more "content based" (like blog or directory with filters), use Webflow

3) if your idea is a game, learn unity or unreal.

You basically have to become much more technical to be helpful to your startup at the beginning. I think "learning to code" is a good answer, but realistically if you want to sort of figure things out in the next 1-2 years, these other approaches are the best ones to work.

I also think you will have a dramatically easier time getting a technical co founder of you have a prototype, can share your vision, and also be a better product manager. It's very hard for completely non technical people to contribute to technical development.

One option you might consider is learning to code yourself. I understand you may not have the time or desire to but if you did it would be much cheaper (and possibly faster. It's hard to hire devs right now, especially good ones)

As a founder you'll also have to give up coding eventually, so it's not like you have to become a shaolin master. Just good enough to make an MVP+

"Which one is easy?"

None of them.

I am sure you are an industrious hard worker. And to do this successfully, you need to expand your determination, resourcefulness, and sheer visceral grit far beyond what you have ever done before.

It is not easy. AND, you can do it, if you decide to.

Allow me to advise you: for each of these three options, write out all steps in the process of building an MVP through that method. As much detail as you can. Get to the point where you can imagine being successful using ANY of them. Then you will have clarity to choose.

And then: follow it to the end, regardless of what it asks of you. Then you will change your HN username. You will see yourself as a true entrepreneur; not because you want to be one, but because you KNOW you are.

Best of luck building your MVP. Keep at it, and you will be successful.

(Source: I am an entrepreneur who bootstrapped my company to 6-figs revenue while retaining 100% equity, expecting to break 7-figs in 2022, and believe I will reach 8 figs by 2023 or earlier.)

Depends on the scope of your MVP, but nowadays I would start in Bubble.io if it’s a web app or Adalo if going native.

Use the prototype you create there for validation and early traction, and then consider bringing that to a tech co-founder. It’s far easier to find a tech co-founder if you have shown the initiative to build a prototype and have early traction.

Note that none of your options are ‘easy’ per se - all three entail a lot of work…

I use Newsy to test things out initially. Newsy (https://www.newsy.co) is a tool that converts a domain name into a content-aggregator (i.e. Reddit clone). Here's what I've been doing.

1. I have an idea for an app. I buy a domain name.

2. Usually, I don't have much time to develop the domain. And while I'm doing all the market research, I plug my domain to Newsy. Newsy asks me to fill in some niche keywords which are related to my idea or startup I'm thinking of. So I type in "workout", "weight training", "workout training exercises".

3. Newsy will automatically find contents and create it (here's an example - security related - https://www.getinfosec.news)

4. It comes with sitemap, newsletter, Twitter integration to regularly post tweets. I also let a few of my colleagues know. Over the next few weeks, it builds traffic. It even gets some people sign up as a newsletter subscriber or member on my Newsy site. Sometimes, I post links on Reddit just to kickstart some traffic driving to my site. It works from time to time.

5. I let it run for about 2-3 months. By this time, I have ~30-50 users signed up with real email address. Now I can actually start emailing these users to find out more about the problem space that I want to solve.

Above process has been super interesting - if anything other than to make sure my newly bought domain is being used, not just sitting there idle. Hope that helps someone.

I had the same question.

So I learned to develop web apps. Now I realize I wouldn't want a non-tech co-founder unless they have significant business experience.

I would focus on what you bring to the table. If you’re able to drive sales for this idea, or come up with a compelling marketing plan to drive user acquisition, then you should have no trouble finding someone to make the app for you.

Would learn enough to code my mvp, getting a co-founder with tech experience is very tough if you have no leverage or ideas scratched out already.

No code is a way to achieve this but again i would recommend being a part of the process.

Why do you want the easy option instead of the correct option considering long-term...which people here can provide you insight toward?

Hi, we are a development team with a broad experience in building MVPs. If you are interested you can reach out through my email on my profile page.

Depends on what it is.

In order:

3 if your background is sales.

2. no

1. otherwise

I understand that English may be your second language, but note that you are using a male pronoun (“him”), whereas presumably you would consider female technical cofounders. You could write that as “ask them to code”.

If it’s a web site you could make a start creating wireframes with balsamiq or mockups with figma.

What "No-code" platform? It makes no sense at all! First, you're extremely limited in what you can do. Second, in all these limitations, you are completely dependent on what someone else decides to create for you (or not). Just forget it.

It all depends on what you want to create. If your idea is relatively simple, like CRUD-based, you will do yourself a favor by trying to implement it yourself in something like Laravel or Django. These projects have huge communities with tons of modules. You don't have to be that "technical" to use them. Creating an MVP will give you a rough idea of the level of complexity and effort needed, and this will help you to make a decision about the actual implementation.

Besides, an experience you get while working on this MVP will make your next projects much easier. You will also understand your coding colleagues better and it will be difficult for you to be ripped off when outsourcing to another team.