No-code opens the door to a host of opportunities - Oli Littlejohn

I’ve had many (mostly terrible) ideas for startups that I’d like to have pursued, but with all the planning and market research in the world, I’d still reach a brick wall of “how do I actually build something?”. I don’t have a small fortune to spend on hiring someone to build it, and technical co-founders don’t grow on trees.

But in the last few years, that’s all changed. I still can’t code, but I can now make software.

In the last few years, no-code tools have made a huge step forward in terms of their capabilities. While they have been around for decades, the quality of what they can produce has greatly matured. If you’ve not come across no-code tools, they generally share two characteristics: a visual interface, normally involving drag and drop controls to get your desired appearance, combined with human language to create workflows and automations. The idea behind them is to empower people who can’t code.

I’ve gotten to know countless people who have used these tools both for themselves and to build products to sell to others: teachers, farmers, musicians, lawyers, construction workers, you name it. All sharing the common trait that they can’t code, but can create digital products. They invariably describe no-code as life-changing, something that gave them a seat at the startup table. Many have built and sold businesses with no-code, or used what they built as a proof point to raise investment.

That’s really exciting to me - I remember the moment I built my first app. I remember when I showed it to potential customers. I remember when one of them actually paid me some money for it. I also remember when I shut the business down. And that’s all fine, because I started almost immediately on something new. No-code had given me the skills to build, and an energy for entrepreneurship that I didn’t previously have.

But no-code is not a silver bullet. With a new cohort of people developing software, we need to think about education in software best practice. Security is vital, as it’s easy to build something without following data security guidelines - which can lead to disastrous results. Likewise with accessibility, platforms vary vastly in terms of how accessible their outputs are, and again education around the importance of making your website usable by everyone is vital. Platform risk is a huge problem too - what happens if the tool you use goes bust or puts up prices?

But even with these setbacks, the opportunities are huge. I’m excited about opening up the tech ecosystem to more non-technical people. If you ever want to find out more, feel free to come along to one of the no-code meetups hosted in CodeBase.

Oli Littlejohn is the VP of R&D CodeBase. The next NoCode Scotland event takes place at CodeBase Edinburgh on Monday 27th November.