Don’t Start a No-Code Business

No-code will take your business farther faster, but it shouldn’t be your core product

I’ve been using no-code platforms for the better part of three years now, including for building a profitable and growing business around a custom-built app without writing a single line of code.

But to be brutally honest with myself, I’ve been a “no-code coder” from the beginning. And by the beginning, I mean the 1990s, when programming was carried out in what was barely a visual GUI — let alone a drag-and-drop playground.

No-code has come a long way over that time, and today’s platforms allow almost anyone to build a working, sustainable, scalable business around technology without having to invest tens of thousands of dollars to get started.

But there’s a catch.

I’ve built, advised and even just admired a slew of successful no-code businesses lately, and there’s only one single common thread among them: If you want your no-code business to take off, you have to treat no-code as a tool, not a business idea.

The Idea Guy

Entrepreneurs frequently contact me for help. Not long ago, someone who I won’t describe as an “entrepreneur” emailed me out of the blue with a request for something I won’t describe as “help.”

It was more of a proposal for a business partnership. Actually, it was one of those deals where I bring the experience and connections — and then do all the work based off of one of his several amazing ideas.

I hate those emails.

While this email was almost breathtaking in the sheer boldness of its approach, it wasn’t the first time I’d heard the outline of the plan he was laying out. See, he too had been playing with no-code for a while, and he was enamored with it. Fascinated, really. He was an idea guy (always had been), and after messing with no-code for a while, he had discovered several phenomenal things he could do with no-code that he was sure a business could be built around.

The plan was for me to help him build a startup around the best of his many ideas, standing it up within a month using no-code tools. Then the money would start rolling in.