Quick update: We closed AWDIO. It wasn’t the outcome we dreamed of, but we tried hard. kthxbye!
It has taken a while for me to regain energy to build again. I just haven’t felt inspired following the process of AWDIO. I’ve actually loathed the idea of starting over again for a while.
But then after many runs, coffees and chats with friends, ideas started to emerge. Some were new, some from old notes and others created in the space between conversations, articles and boredom. A glimmer of hope!
The big AHA moment was trying out a couple of these “human replacers”, also known as AI app builders and coding agents, such as Lovable and Replit.
It changed everything for me. As a non-coder, not-very-good-designer, but growingly full of ideas, building applications on my own with any resemblance of functionality has been impossible until now. This feels incredible to say the least.
Then what?
Well, I have a couple of ideas and I’ve begun working on them, but I have a problem.
The tools are abundant, each with very bold claims of changing the world. Additionally, each week a new tool claims that they have grown 500% in 1 hour, which sounds super reasonable.
Because all tools are not created equal and their marketing spiel being so heavy, it’s actually really difficult to navigate the solutions. Add to that the companies are building fast as fuck, which means new updates with thick new claims on a weekly basis.
My experience is that a lot of these magnificent tools fall flat, when trying to live up to the hype in the hands of this idiot (me).
So where does that leave us, the curios people who can’t code? How do we hit that three pointer, get the right tool and build awesome?
The plan
I want to decide on an epic idea and test it with multiple tools as prototypes.
Share my process and experience with you, dear reader
Win the internet
I’ve so far decided on these tools:
Lovable - the current leader and insanely fast growing startup
Databutton - more advanced and technical than Lovable
leap.new - brand new contender, very much focused on full stack applications
codapt.ai - haven’t tried yet, but I’m testing out their closed beta shortly (bold claims)
v0 - made by Vercel and (I’ve been told) worth testing out
I will share my journey as I progress, hopefully helping non-coders (and others) choose the right tools when building.
I’ve managed to connect with some of the friendly founders of these companies, so I hope they will be able to help this idiot out, when attempting to build something awesome and in that process hopefully get a couple of insights from the horses’ mouth.
You stay frosty!
