Some time ago, while scrolling my LinkedIn timeline out of boredom, between proud posts from companies that had just discovered remote working and yet another job ad for Java developers, I noticed a buzzword forcefully taking hold: “no-code”.
No-code and low-code platforms get talked about more and more (with or without any real understanding) and unfortunately all this noise often leads to generalisations.
We now face a world full of innovative solutions promising to help you develop web and mobile applications in no time, with no technical skills, advertising the opportunity to launch successful startups without much investment in development costs. But is it really possible?
At Startup Bakery we are aware that technological evolution is progressively automating trades, and among them some software development activities too. So can a startup do without a development team?
Let us analyse this no-code trend and the potential of these tools in more detail.
Not all that compiles is code
I have been writing code for about 20 years, I have lived through harrowing development experiences marked by unspeakable suffering, like that time in 2010 when it occurred to me to develop an iPad app in Objective-C.
I welcomed with great enthusiasm platforms like WordPress (which I consider perhaps the first example of no-code), Shopify or, moving away from the web world, Apache NiFi, with which you can launch and manage data ingestion or ETL platforms without writing code. All this to say that any tool that can ease, without necessarily replacing, a developer’s work is always welcome and certainly appreciated by insiders.
It is worth bringing some clarity, though, because by now any tool with a minimum of graphical interface and a pinch of automation gets counted among the software of the no-code world.
Wikipedia defines “no-code development platforms” as those tools that allow developers and non-developers to create software applications through graphical interfaces and configuration instead of traditional programming.
The current landscape of no-code tools is ever vaster and made up of tools that are nothing short of astonishing: Bubble, Adalo, Webflow, Editor X, Retool… are some of the best known platforms, and the most used by the no-coders community.
Venture Capital looks favourably on this trend too: just look at the multi-million investments the companies mentioned above have raised. Bubble raised $6.3M in 2019, Retool $75M between 2019 and 2020, while Webflow, wait for it, totalled $214.9M in investments, of which $140M in a series B round in January 2021 (data source: Crunchbase). Fine, we are aware of Californian VC logic, hardly applicable to a context like the Italian one, but these concentrations of capital are certainly not to be underestimated.
No-code and the startup studio
So, hold on! Are we really entering an era where developers’ contribution will be less and less required? Is it possible to launch product startups in no time without vertical technology skills? And above all, can a startup studio launch 7 startups in 7 months thanks to these tools?
Our answer is no (to the last question in particular). At Startup Bakery we believe the value of all these technologies lies mainly in easing processes. We do not believe our startups’ SaaS products can be built and brought to market relying purely on no-code tools.
Obviously it is fundamental not to waste time implementing what already exists, so in our software we use an approach that favours the use of frameworks, components and anything good available out there to reduce time to market.
This approach lets developers concentrate on the aspects with the highest added value.
Our goal is creating quality SaaS software, with high technological added value, artificial intelligence (done seriously) and particular attention to User Experience. The industrial partner acquiring the companies produced by our startup studio must buy, first and foremost, the technology.
The democratisation of development?
You often read that no-code platforms are tools that democratise development. In short, software allowing anyone to create web and mobile applications, websites or APIs.
Unfortunately I do not believe at all that it is so simple.
I see plenty of tools able to give great support to those who write code for a living, allowing them to develop, more or less rapidly, applications or parts of software that have by now become commodities. Take, for example, a simple web application to manage normal CRUD operations (create, read, update, delete) on entities defined in a database. With Retool you can do it in a flash (assuming the APIs have been prepared properly).
However simple, intuitive and versatile these platforms are, I find a base of technical knowledge indispensable, if only to understand the terminology used. I struggle to picture a company’s Marketing Manager who, between one meeting and the next, opens Bubble and single-handedly develops the new campaign monitoring app, integrating with the Google Ads and Facebook APIs. Sorry, but it is more complex than some would have you believe.
Let us take a fitting example: WordPress. Software many people know. On the official site it says “Create the site of your dreams. No code, no manual, no limits”. Fine… and yet there are a great many WordPress development agencies in Italy and around the world.
In the same way, numerous consulting agencies are being born to offer services tied to the no-code world.
Conclusion: we will always be looking for good developers for our startups 😉
PS: If you are a developer and want to apply, write to us here.