🗞 What's New: Is no-code actually a viable option?

Can no-code tools actually build a legit product?

• With no-code, it all depends on what you're trying to create. While it can be used to build beautiful, high-quality apps in certain categories, more complex tasks will reveal no-code's limitations.
• Kraft Heinz, owner of Philadelphia Cream Cheese, offered money for customers to not buy its product, in a creative response to the supply chain shortage. Check out this strategy, and two more below, for lessons that you can implement into your own business.
• Founder Bryan Hales quit his job at Amazon to pursue his lifelong dream of indie hacking, and recently hit $15,000 in monthly revenue with Geoflip, his Google Ads agency. Here's why he left Amazon, how he got his spouse onboard with his startup dream, and how he dealt with burnout.

Want to share something with over 85,000 indie hackers? Submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter. —Channing

🔐 Is No-Code Actually a Viable Option?

by Toni

Sure, no-code sounds great. But a lot of the products created with it seem a little clunky. Is no-code really an actual option for people wanting to build a robust, extensible product?

No-code pros

First, it's important to mention that the best tool to use is the tool you already know.

It makes sense to use the tool you're comfortable with, said Stephen Charles. If you are already using a code framework such as Ruby on Rails, then it doesn't make sense to switch over and learn a no-code tool. But for someone that doesn't know how to code, it makes a lot more sense to learn a no-code tool to get up and running much faster. Learning to code can take years; a no-code tool might only take months. For me, I spent several years trying to learn to code, and it still didn't click. But then, I found Bubble easy to learn.

Here are a few other benefits of no-code:

1. Performance: Just like with code, performance is extremely dependent on the developer. Some apps are built better than others. Database structure is important, and smart logic plays a big part as well. It can take awhile to fully understand how to optimize an app to perform faster, just as it would with code. An experienced dev can probably build an identical app to a newcomer, with much better performance.

2. Design: There are some really great looking no-code apps, and some terrible looking ones. If you're not good at design, start with a template. Third party browser tools are becoming more popular (Atomic Fusion comes to mind), and they can help as well.

3. Responsiveness: A lot of people complain about the learning curve in building responsive websites with no-code tools like Bubble. To be honest, I didn't have any issues with it. However, Bubble just upgraded its responsive engine and now uses Flexbox. This is a huge upgrade that makes building easier in every way.

No-code drawbacks

Existing no-code solutions are very good at specific types of apps, namely ones that involve a little less interactivity, said Weaves87. This includes apps that are mostly read-only in permissions structure, like content gateways, communities, directories, membership sites, etc. The data flow for these sorts of apps is largely one-way, and entirely predictable.

When your app becomes more complex, and involves multiple players acting on one piece of data on the backend, things get far more nuanced. This is where no-code tools begin to show their limits. They can't achieve the more complex functions that code can.

That said, I've been a huge follower of this field for a while, and I've noticed a gradual closing of the gaps. Platforms like Zapier implement custom JS/Python actions for very flexible Zaps. Huge coding platforms, like React, have dramatically simplified coding by implementing hooks and side effects. And big vendors like Microsoft have been in on this action for longer than any of us here have been: Remember Visual Basic?

As your app grows over time, is there going to be a point where you're stretching a no-code platform beyond its limits? That's entirely domain specific, and depends on what your plan is for the app, at least in its current iteration. Certain apps bode better than others.

If your app domain is relatively simple, no-code is incredibly viable. If there are a lot of complicated edge cases, you'll probably need to take the code route.

The bottom line

TheBigK offered perspective as someone who's got a good coding background, and is also experimenting with no-code tools:

• There are no prizes for writing the best code ever, unless you are creating something for other developers who'll reuse your code. It takes a lot of devs a long time to really understand this.

• No one cares about the tech stack.

• It all boils down to whether your software solves a real problem or need, and whether there is a large enough audience willing to pay to get that problem solved.

• Use no-code tools to quickly build a prototype and see if it sticks. If it doesn't, you've saved a lot of precious time.

The general sentiment is that no-code has got a long way to go. But it'll likely stick around and improve!

What are your thoughts on no-code? Let's chat below!

Discuss this story.

📰 In the News

from the Volv newsletter by Priyanka Vazirani

👀 Here are some of the most anticipated IPOs for 2022.

📝 This TLDR Act would force companies to spell out legal T&Cs for users.

💻 The first Web3 ETF is on the way.

🧑‍🚀 NASA says that it's running out of astronauts.

🍺 Faux booze may well outlast "Dry January."

Check out Volv for more 9-second news digests.

📘 Three Lessons From Three Company's Strategies

from the Teachable Moments newsletter by Joshua A. Luna

Food delivery service DoorDash is facing employee concerns following a reinstated company policy. This month, DoorDash reinstated its WeDash program, under which all non-delivery employees (including CEO Tony Xu) must complete deliveries for the company at least once a month. Let's dive in further!

DoorDash's policy

DoorDash's reinstated policy has caused concern for some employees, particularly an engineer for the company who shared gripes on the anonymous employee platform, Blind.

While several employees on the Blind platform shared similar concerns, a spokesperson for DoorDash stated that the sentiment represents just a segment of employees:

Employees must participate in either WeDash, WeMerchant (helping a merchant restaurant), or WeSupport (shadowing company customer support agents). The program has been paused since the pandemic began.

Teachable moment: Great employees don't build great products.

Great employees who understand the problems they're working to solve build great products. And that involves learning from the perspective of your customers.

DoorDash's program helps employees to understand different sides of the business that they might not be aware of.

Any employees who have a problem learning more about the product and company that they contribute towards are the ones you may not want on the team.

Facebook's fail

On Friday, December 31, 2021, Facebook hosted concerts by David Guetta and The Chainsmokers in its Horizons Venues metaverse.

The shows, presented as regular livestreamed concerts, failed to attract the numbers that it aimed for. David Guetta attracted close to 1M viewers, and an undisclosed number watched The Chainsmokers. The video has since been removed from Facebook.

Similar concerts, such as Ariana Grande and Travis Scott's Fortnite collaborations, attracted 78M and 12M users, respectively.

Teachable moment: So much for "if you build it, they will come."

Facebook's enthusiasm to promote experiential concerts inside an incomplete product still in beta early access proves that it has underestimated the effort it would take to bring its mission to the masses.

Sure, 1M viewers is no small number, but when exhaustingly talking about defining the metaverse (so much so that the company changed its name), the stakes will always be high.

If you're not ready to produce similar products and experiences to the ones that your customers already expect, it's better to stick to the drawing board to make sure that your next project is one that people actually care about.

Kraft Heinz's experiment

Kraft Heinz, owner of Philadelphia Cream Cheese, is offering to pay customers not to buy its product.

Last month, Kraft Heinz announced its Spread the Feeling Campaign in response to a national cream cheese shortage.

The company paid $20 apiece to 18K people, in the form of a digital award, for purchasing any dessert (or dessert ingredient) that didn't contain cream cheese between December 17-24th.

Teachable moment: What a fun, creative twist on the classic supply chain conundrum that everyone is facing!

Kraft Heinz's move to, not only embrace the shortage, but pay customers for the inconvenience, is a lesson in finding opportunities within a bad situation.

When something negatively affects those you serve (employees, clients, etc.), your first instinct is to find a solution without letting them know that there's an issue.

In this case, Kraft Heinz took a different approach by including customers in a way that allowed them to engage with the brand, even when the product wasn't available.

Do you use a policy similar to DoorDash's? Share in the comments below!

Discuss this story, or subscribe to the Teachable Moments newsletter for more.

🌐 Best Around the Web: Posts Submitted to Indie Hackers This Week

🧑‍💻 I'll try to find users for your project. Posted by Sergiy Cheredko.

🤷‍♀️ Where are the women indie hackers? Posted by Webinsider.

🛠 List of indie developers. Posted by Matteo Le Floch.

🧐 How do you host your SaaS? Posted by Umen242.

📧 A cold email template that sells. Posted by Rishabh Bhandari.

🔌 Marketers seem disconnected with reality. Posted by Annabel.

Want a shout-out in next week's Best of Indie Hackers? Submit an article or link post on Indie Hackers whenever you come across something you think other indie hackers will enjoy.

💭 Bryan Hales is Living His Startup Dream

by Bryan Hales

Hi indie hackers! I'm Bryan Hales, and I quit my dream job at Amazon in June 2021 after four and a half years to pursue my lifelong dream of being a startup founder.

My dad started a software company when I was 10 years old, and I watched him struggle through the ups and downs. Since that time, I've always dreamed of doing the same, but I struggled to find the right idea and get enough traction. As a father of five kids, part of the challenge was balancing my family life, work schedule, and startup dreams.

I gave myself a year of runway when I quit Amazon, and it's now been a little over six months. I've built three micro-SaaS apps, sold one (for a "small used car" amount of money), started a podcast (IndieDads), started (and kind of gave up on) a weekly newsletter, and partnered up with an old friend on his existing business when I realized that I couldn't do this on my own.

This latest partnership is now at $15K MRR (it has increased by $10K MRR since I joined three months ago) and growing. Geoflip is basically a Google Ads agency for real estate investors. Definitely not sexy, but there's a ton of interesting problems to solve. I think that we indie hackers generally shouldn't so quick to blow off non-sexy startup ideas like that; there's money to be made!

AMA!

Can you speak a little more about quitting your job?

My advice is that, no, you shouldn't just quit your job without an existing idea and enough revenue to know that you can pay the bills. I did it knowing that it probably wouldn't work, but it doubled as a sabbatical for me. It's been a blast, but I don't advise it unless you can afford to lose the savings you'll be living off of.

Health insurance has really been a pain to find. One of my main goals in taking this time off was that I didn't want it to affect my kids. For all they know, nothing has changed (including their doctor, orthodontist, etc). That has meant using COBRA to keep my former health insurance while I look for a replacement that doesn't make us switch all of our doctors around.

COBRA is basically where you can keep your company-provided health insurance for up to 18 months, but you have to pay the portion that your employer used to. For us, that means $1.8K per month, which is painful, but it's part of the deal. I have until the end of this year to find a replacement, unless I end up going back to work full-time somewhere before then. The American health insurance system is a mess.

Life insurance was the other thing I wanted to make sure I had covered, just in case something catastrophic were to happen while I was not employed. That was surprisingly easy to find.

Did your spouse support you in quitting Amazon?

I've been telling my wife about my startup ideas since we first got married 20 years ago. I think at this point, she just kind of listens and politely nods, but doesn't put much stock into them anymore, ha! She has known that starting my own successful SaaS has been a dream of mine since I was young.

She also saw firsthand how burnt out I was feeling, and how it was affecting my health. So when I saw this opportunity coming up, we went out to lunch and I ran the idea by her. We both saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing, so if I was ever going to make the leap, it had to be now.

We made sure to plan out a killer vacation at the beginning of it, back in September, so that she and the kids got to have some fun with the amount we had saved up, too. Then, we put the total amount we'd be willing to spend on my sabbatical and launch-a-SaaS experience into a separate bank account. At the beginning of each month, we pull out the amount we need to live, like a salary. When that money is gone, it's gone.

That was the deal, and that's how I was able to convince my amazing (but risk-averse) wife to give it a shot.

Why did you decide to take a sabbatical?

While my dream has been to build something that can eventually sustain me full-time, I've allowed myself to relax, rest, and recharge too.

I was very close to burnout when I left Amazon. It took me a solid month to stop thinking about work, even though I wasn't there anymore. This time has been amazing at helping me undo the hair-trigger-like anxiety and frustration that I used to feel. I feel much more balanced again, and my relationship with my wife and kids has never been better.

I realize this is a luxury that many don't get, so I don't want to take this time for granted. I am so grateful for it, no matter what comes out of it.

Did working at Amazon help you as a founder?

Amazon taught me to work backwards in a strategic, tactical way. Start with where you want to end up, and work backwards from there to figure out what you need to do along the way. And not just what you need to do conceptually, but literally.

For example, if you want to get to $1K MRR by the end of 2022, what do you need to do to get there? Where specifically do you need to be six months from now, three months from now, and one month from now?

Amazon also taught me to prioritize ruthlessly. When time and resources are tight, and you have this goal that you've worked backwards from, you can't afford to become distracted. Knowing what your specific goals and milestones are helps you not even be tempted by the distractions. It also helps with motivation, and decisions on what to work on (or not) become way easier. "Will this task help me get three customers this month?" If not, don't let yourself get distracted.

On the technical side, I've learned to not get distracted by what technology I'm using. Use whatever gets the job done fastest. Get it out there the fastest and hackiest way possible for now. Get real feedback from real customers in order to get more customers, and then worry about scaling when it's actually a problem. I know it's fun to think about, and build, complex systems, but don't. Go for speed and feedback, not the coolest tech (as hard as that might be).

What's your advice on validation?

If you're going into an established market with competitors, you already know there's demand and that people are willing to pay for it. You just need to find your niche, or a way to stand out in a crowded market.

I'm a strong believer in not trying to invent something brand new if you're bootstrapping. If you're just doing this for fun, then go for it! But if you're doing this to get financial, location, and time independence, you can't afford to gamble on big ideas where the odds are super stacked against you. Starting something in a clearly defined market is hard enough.

Discuss this story.

🐦 The Tweetmaster's Pick

by Tweetmaster Flex

I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:

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Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Toni, Priyanka Vazirani, Joshua A. Luna, and Bryan Hales for contributing posts. —Channing