Engineering is always a barrier to getting started. Whether that's building your own small tool for VC work or creating a web app for a new idea you have, it's hard to learn an entire framework and build out a product. One specific subset, automation, has been on the rise recently. Automation and the like have been a fundamental part of engineering for the longest time. Need something to check whether a batch update has been made to the database? Run a cron job. Or some other form of background job processing system. This ensures that the system runs effectively and that we don't need to search for it. An xkcd comic put it so eloquently below:
And this tweet from Jeremy Diamond who is a part of The Automatter, a newsletter dedicated to automating all the unnecessary parts of your life:
This spiked a rise in VCs to start actually talking about their internal processes and what they do on the day to day. And while on the outside, it seems insignificant and pointless, the rise of no-code tools have strongly shaped the future. For the rest of this article, I'd love to just touch on some tools you should check out if you're looking to build things out without a CS degree.
Zapier — the bread and butter
Zapier, started in 2011, decided to ride on this wave of external APIs. We've seen companies now like Stripe, Plaid, and Twilio that are built off this but Zapier recognized this early and decided to capitalize off of it. I personally used it during my Freshman summer to build out a lot of tools and it's super robust. Even without any CS knowledge, it gets a lot done and has a ton of features (and more) for all of your building needs. Highly recommend it if you ever want to look for something like that.
Bubble — your no-code web app
Ever wanted to build a web app or something small that allowed you to do a task but never learned enough Javascript to do so? Bubble has you covered. Built in 2015, it's a new way to build software (similar to webflow) that allows you to create whatever you want and host Saas platforms, marketplaces, and CRMs all in one tool. It's simple to use and has beautiful design.
Airtable — a spreadsheet you'll like
Airtable is fantastic in that it has built in automation tooling (if you're too lazy to open up a Zapier template) that I've been loving. Other than that, it's extremely dynamic in its functionality and various view options (such as kanban, groups, anything you want really). It gives you the power to understand your data and also has a robust enough API that you could integrate it into anything you want. Whether you're using it for dealflow or for some other needs, I love Airtable and use it for a lot of things.
Low-code tools are taking over the future and now is the best time to be building out your own apps. So sit back, strap into one of these softwares, and happy building!
-Ivan