Don’t Wait to Build That App, It’s a Lot Easier Than You Think
Wirepullers of the Creator Economy that Give You Superpowers
Wirepullers of the Creator Economy that Give You Superpowers
Did you know that 83% or more of web traffic comes from APIs?
What is an API? Technically, the term stands for application programmable interface. However, in simpler terms, API can be described as the below:
API can be described as everything from Lego building blocks to Tetris to front doors to even veins in the human body. — Andreessen Horowitz, General Partner Martin Casado.
An engineer writes a bunch of code to manage complex things, and builds an API on top of the code to abstract away most of the complexity so that using all of that code is as simple as writing a few lines of code.” — Packy McCormick
Basically, it is a magical piece of code that allows your services or content to access top-notch services: payments, shipping, background checks, review systems, messaging, etc. Literally anything.
If you wanted a function on your website or service, there’s already probably an API for it, and you can implement them with a few lines of code. And for this reason, API-first companies have become the wire-pullers of our creator economy and have become billion-dollar companies.
But wait, how about if you don’t have coding skills to implement the API? (like most content creators without engineering education) Don’t worry; now, there are more than qualified no-code platforms that allow you to build services with drag-and-drop functionalities. They are extremely intuitive to use, even for non-technical people. Literally, even my mother could use some of these tools.
Combining APIs + Low-Code/No-Code has given the superpower for individual content creators to build multimillion-dollar businesses.
Below are some prominent examples of non-engineers making services that have resulted in revenues of $10,000~$20M without a single lick of code.
Danny Taing built a Japanese Snack & Candy Subscription Service, Bokksu. Currently, it has an annual revenue of $22M.
Tara Reed: built a matching app for art collectors, Kollecto. She currently runs Apps without Code, which helps people start their businesses without code.
Dani Bell built a $30k MRR done-for-you content marketing business.
The above is just a sliver of the companies and apps built on no-code platforms.
This article will give you a primer and insight into some of the best APIs and no-code/low-code platforms that you can immediately use to start building that app that has been itching in the back of your mind.
APIs: Billion Dollar Companies Behind the Curtains
APIs aren’t certainly a new concept. It has a long history of more than 20 years.
2002: Amazon Web Services (AWS) releases API
2005: Google Maps releases API
2006: Twitter and Facebook release API to use retweets and likes aside from their public websites.
However, the range of APIs has gone through a massive evolution. Now API-first companies have solved highly complex problems, available in several lines of code codes.
These API-first companies have three main criteria:
1. They solve a complex problem
2. It has to be a niche yet critical function
3. They are behind the curtains
Here’s the hard thing about easy things: if everyone can do something, there’s no advantage to doing it, but you still have to do it anyway just to keep up. — Packy McCormick
One prominent example of an API-First Billion Dollar Company is Stripe.
Payment:Stripe, “Increasing the GDP of the Internet”
Mundane though it sounds, access to capital is the primary bottleneck that limits the growth and expansion of most small businesses.ーPatrick Collison, CEO of Stripe
Stripe’s main value proposition is providing you with complex payment services in just seven lines of code.
If you have ever opened a website on Shopify, you most probably are using Stripe without even knowing it. Stripe is practically married to Shopify, with Shopify paying them hundreds of million dollars for their services.
Why? Because it solves payments for a wide variety of use cases. It reduces fraud, improves acceptance rates, accepts payments from around the world, and makes a complex problem easier.
Stripe has a valuation of $95 billion, with its most recent round on April 20, 2021. Although it is not public, it has a similar valuation with Square!
Other prominent APIs that offer solutions to mundane yet critical tasks:
Voice and text messaging: Twilio
Identity Authentication: Okta, Auth0
Subscription payments for EC: Recharge
Logistics and Shipping Solutions: Shippo
Background checks: Checkr
Security: Cloudflare, Crowdstrike
There is an API for almost everything that a business needs to do. You can build a company on APIs now. For instance, Lyft has been built on Google Maps API, Stripe Payments, and AWS Cloud Services.
Grace Isford has a highly informative piece on APIs here.
No Code/Low-Code Platforms: Making Programming Accessible to the Average Layman
Although APIs are inherently incredible, No Code/Low-Code platforms allow the non-technical average layman to access these superpowers.
Low-Code: Requiring minimum level of coding
No-Code: Doesn’t require a single line of coding
There are many different No-Code platforms, all built for various use-cases and functions. The below diagram illustrates some of the significant no-code platforms available now. And you can see that even sophisticated technology such as AI can be implemented with a few clicks.
You can find a list of 300+ no-code platforms here.
If it is a simple app (for internal use or a hobby), maybe one of them will be enough, but most apps combine all of these different platforms.
For instance, Dani Bell used Webflow for websites, Airtable for assigning the demand to writers, Zapier for automating slack notifications, and Google Docs for creating editable documents.
If you wanted to try building an app, I suggest starting from Glide → Adalo → Bubble. Glide creates a front-end just from inputting spreadsheets. On the other hand, Bubble has more functionality but gets quite complex.
Dividend Finance, an app for home improvement financing & loans, is scaling on Bubble and has raised $384.5M.
If you wanted to build a C2C marketplace, I would recommend Arcadier or Sharetribe. You can have an e-commerce or C2C marketplace running on the internet within hours now.
However, using no-code platforms still requires you to be a programmer. No-code means you can develop without code, but you still need to build the program in your mind.
I heard a good analogy with cooking. When you cook a sauce from spices, herbs, and natural ingredients, it is akin to programming with C++/Assembly. When you use pre-made sauces, it is similar to programming with higher-level codes like Python. Finally, when using pre-packed, instant food, it is like using no-code/low-code platforms. One isn’t better than the other, and they all co-exist in the cooking ecosystem.
Trend Going Forward
The trend towards no-code is going to continue. Individual content creators and app developers don’t want to focus on the “boring stuff.”
Gartner estimates that “by 2024, #lowcode application development will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity.”
A significant benefit of using no-code/low-code platforms is that the apps you can build now don’t have to make sense business-wise. Previously, you needed to hire devs for several thousand dollars to create an MVP. Hence, less urgent, more niche solutions can be built now, which I precisely believe is the gold mine for individual creators.
“Think about all the white-collar-ish jobs that were created because of Excel. We want the same thing to happen for no-code.” — Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft
Now anybody will be a creator and can unleash their creative potential. If you want to explore and browse through some product ideas, I highly suggest the below websites.
I have built a simple app that shows all the best locations for accessing greenery in Tokyo using Glide. I wanted to make it because I felt that city life could get stressful at times, and we all need a breather out in nature.
Unfortunately, most people don’t even know there are great places to relax even nearby. The app has been made within an hour, but I think you can see that it is not bad. It gets the job done and certainly is enough to gain customer feedback. (Apologies, that it is in Japanese)
Special thanks to David Siegel and his team for making app development accessible and enjoyable.
The app can be checked out here if you are curious! https://ikoiapp.glideapp.io/