Tara Reed

I started building without code in probably 2014. I had an idea for an app that was going to help people find an affordable art for their homes. And this was really before a lot of the no-code tools today. So my first experience building code was taking tools that were not intended to be app builders and kind of hacking them to create an app-like experience.

So for the app whenever someone signed up, they told us about what kind of art they liked, for example photography or like paintings. And then we would ask about their taste. But we would use the survey software to show and hide different things based on their previous answer. So that was my first no code experience — taking a survey and hacking it to kind of create an app-like experience for my customers, and using it dynamically show them art recommendations. People would actually email me back and say, ‘Oh, my gosh, your app is so cool!'  We made our first $35,000 with that hacked together survey.

It has to be something that you previously had to do with code, but you no longer have to do or recently don't have to do and because of that it’s surprising or unusual that you don’t have to code. So the benchmark moves, right. So like five years from now, there will be things that we'll be saying like, of course, you no longer have to code for that. And I think we'll kind of have a moving needle of what no code is.

I think, maybe Vlad from Webflow is the first person I heard saying no code. I think we were calling it different things before that I was referring to it is like building something without code. But I think that Vlad is probably the first person I've heard at Webflow call it no code, specifically.

I personally like no space code just for an accessibility and marketing perspective. No dash code feels like a, almost like, the nerdier version. I think the no dash code one only sounds acceptable to people who are already in the tech world.

Just getting started entrepreneurs is who I get to work with a lot. So I just see a lot of those folks, who previously thought that they had to put their idea on the back burner because all they could do was pay $20,000 to have someone build the app for them, or spend like a year or more learning how to code — those are the options. So for them, there's a big incentive to learn this and that's really exciting.

For enterprises, I remember when I worked at Google, I spent so much time building out dashboards on marketing and operation teams, building out dashboards and hacking Excel and different tools to create things and being able to build internal tools like that, I think is a second greatest opportunity. I think it just requires a bit more buy-in at large enterprises.

UX designers have the biggest opportunity, because they are able to bridge this gap of: I designed it, but now you have to go send someone else to build it or send this design to someone else to build it. They're able to close that loop and almost start more comprehensive design businesses or design practices by having access to these no code tools. There's so much similarity between how a no code software tool works and how design software tools work that I find the designers pick it up really fast.

The speed with which we're able to build out apps for clients, and the price point we're able to do it at are going to change really dramatically. I think that we'll probably see traditional developers move a lot more slowly to adopt it. But I think we'll see new types of development shops, as well.

I think one of the common misconceptions about the no code movement is that we will no longer need code or we will no longer need traditional development. I think that it'll stay in place. But I think that those sorts of shops, those sorts of people, who are doing that freelance work will start to see clients come in to them that are a little bit further along because they've made version one of the product.

For non-dev consultants, I think that they have so much from a resource perspective in terms of hiring developers that I think that we probably will see them maybe later on, jump on to this just from an urgency perspective and a need perspective.

I think it'll mean a lot for underserved populations. For example last year at Apps Without Code, we had our curriculum at Illinois Tech, at Stanford, and at Wharton. And on their campuses, we had high schoolers come in for the summer, and they were able to not only have college experiences but they were also able to learn how to build apps without code, and even augmented reality apps, using our curriculum.

And that program was primarily for Black and Latino young people from high schools. And  it gave them a whole other world of opportunity and leg up.

I would go seven years.

I think in three to four years, I'm already seeing it happening. So three to four, for it to be common.

I'm going to go with two years.

Three years.

I would say like three to four years.

Probably the same time range (as a popular product), three to four years.

I would push that out pretty far. The reason I push it up pretty far is because I think there's still more website agencies that use code than no code and that have been using that technology for a long time. I would give it like a 10.

Yeah, I think that in about two years, we'll start to see a lot more of them using the technology. So the reason I think that is because I have a lot of the students in my program, white label their apps, and I have a few that work in this space, that white label their apps to politicians organization.

So I say a few years and I think it'll show up like they're using it as a way to keep their own costs low and produce products.

I'm most excited about seeing entrepreneurs that are making money for themselves, and like really starting new careers for themselves or revitalizing their careers. So I can think of like two, for example, I've just worked with an entrepreneur who's building an app for farmers, and has this whole community that are using his app. It's really fun and  totally not something I would think of as a use case, but like, great to see it expanding outside of just like our tech industry bubble.

And also there's another person who's gone through my bootcamp program, who built an app to help manufacturing plants become more efficient. So I get really excited about seeing folks who are taking their apps to organizations and white labeling them or to people who are creating real income for themselves.