Building MVPs

For someone who is entrepreneurial, ideas need to be tested and created quickly. An Idea isn’t valuable if it isn’t executed. With that being said, scaling your time and consistency is also important.

These are some of my favorite no-code/low-code tools for building MVPs. If you aren’t familiar with an MVP, it is a minimally viable product. It is really beneficial for testing someone with a small market and releasing some as early as you can with it still being valuable.

This is great if you have a small audience as you small mistakes won’t hurt as bad as releasing an MVP to a large audience.

Websites

Webflow

By far, my favorite is Webflow. Weblow is a visual builder that lets you manipulate code in a very clean way with no bloat. It does have a learning curve, but there is so much functionality and control over other options.

Their Dynamic Content Management system is super powerful as well, letting you make virtually anything dynamic. It also gives you an editor view if you have a team helping you with small changes and marketing content.

I have been able to get some awesome integrations going and even built a marketplace in here in combination with other tools.

They are releasing new features which I’ll touch on and go over in the future like logic and memberships which will make some of the later tools I mention here not as necessary.

This is what I use to develop my sites for personal projects and client sites.

Squarespace

This is template based and any customization here will be a lot more difficult. It does still have some nice integrations. I’d recommend this if a site needs to just get up for your company or service. Scaling with squarespace might be difficult. They do have some beautiful templates though!

Design freedom hands down goes to Webflow, but squarespace is way more user friendly because of it.

You can also do ecommerce and dynamic content here, you have that if you need it, too.

Figma

Figma is an awesome design tool that you can also use for free which is also a bonus. If you have some design skills or are wanting to learn, there are tons of resources out there to learn how to design ui/ux products and will be useful for your own business or product.

You can prototype it in here if needed. I have done this with design sprints to test some ideas!

You can even use it with your iPad! The Figjam tool is pretty nice as well and gives you an infinite canvas to ideate and sketch.

Marketing

Jasper

Jasper is an awesome AI writing tool. I have been experimenting with it and am adding it into my toolset for quickly creating content!

You have to guide it to have it’s best results and is great if you aren’t comfortable with your copywriting abilities or just can’t spend as much time writing!

Mailchimp

Mailchimp has been around for a while and there are probably plenty of other tools but so far, I have been liking mailchimp and the integrations it has.

Having a mailing list is super valuable when it comes to your brand or product. Building an audience that you can communicate with directly is extremely valuable.

Later Media

I have been trying to find some ways to automate social media and later seems to a great option that I found that I have been testing for some time.

I can spend 1 day out of the week and have all my marketing planned and scheduled. It syncs with your social media accounts and lets you update videos, photos, posts, helps you with hashtag research and a host of other things that I don’t even take full advantage of yet.

You can have social sets which is awesome if you are someone who manages a bunch of accounts.

Typeform

Recently I started using typeform and I love how I can create a whole experience with questions I need, take payment if needed, and even sync this data to my project management software like Notion or Slack.

Advanced Functionality

Now if you’re needing to do some advanced functions and really need to scale your time, these are a good place to start.

Make (integromat) & Zapier

Make and Zapier both are awesome tools for automating processes and creating some advanced functionality. (Can I show the workflow that I have for stripe?) You can create logic in here as well to trigger different actions as needed.

Memberstack

Memberstack allows you to add membership functionality to your site. I use this for Webflow and you can create a seamless experience for creating subscriptions! Memberstack 2.0 is coming out soon as well and adding more functionality. I’m currently beta testing that!

Airtable

Airtable is a database software that allows you to do a lot more than you might think. You can use it as simply or as advanced as you need. There is even a designer page that people have used to build marketplaces in.

It can also work as your project manager tool. You can build automations in here and even write custom scripts to create some more advanced functions!

Wized (advanced)

Wized is pretty awesome and is fairly new. I came across it last year. It’s a powerful and easy to use extension for your Webflow projects. Buidling login functionality, integrating data from Airtable and REST APIs, building custom payment flows with Stripe are just some of the things you can do.

Wized allows you to build more webapp stile sites where the front end is made by Webflow. This does have a steeper learning curve, so if you’re technical, I’d definitely look into it. If you’re familiar with Webflow, it should feel somewhat familiar.

I would recommend having some API knowledge to know how to work with some advanced features but if you have a super specific or advanced need, this might be a great place to start.

Finsweet Attributes

Finsweet has been releasing awesome no code add ons for your Webflow project to create some more advanced functionality. They also have a bunch of hacks for Webflow to create some more advanced interactions in Webflow. They have been really pushing the limits of Webflow for a while now.

Stripe

Your MVP has to make you money somehow. A lot of these tools I mentioned above use stripe for their payment integrations already. In fact, lots of companies large and small use stripe.

Again, you can keep it simple or advanced. They have awesome tools to get information and create complex workflows or you can keep it simple and sell a product, service, or subscription with just a payment link!

I used this to build out a marketplace for a client project and I use it personally in my business as well.

Honerable Mention

Bubble.io

Bubble is one I haven’t used personally but I have seen it out in the wild. It looks like it is great for building some advanced backend functions like payment systems or user accounts. However, the front end isn’t as powerful as something like Webflow. Really they are just in two different categories. But, that might change!

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