something about "creating" projects using hacked-together APIs then selling the (seemingly never original) result as if it has any real worth makes me genuinely upset.
I feel as if I am looking at an alien civilization's attempt at emulating entrepreneurship, or a bizarre GPT-3 social experiment.
>I feel as if I am looking at an alien civilization's attempt at emulating entrepreneurship, or a bizarre GPT-3 social experiment.
This same crowd will also preach product-market fit like it's religion. It's literally a race to throw crap at the wall, hype it, and see what sticks. A similar pattern also plays out a little differently and to a lesser degree among startups in respectable accelerators with VC backing.
I think it serves a very useful purpose, though: hypercompetition. Any space that shows promise these days is quickly oversaturated with products such that there can be no clear winner. This is actually a really good thing depending on how you look at it, because it raises standards required to win to a very high level. That in turn filters out virtually everything, including products that we would've previously considered good enough to win the space.
Why? What is "real worth" in your view? These little companies have a handful of paying customers who have decided that there is some value there. That validates the idea, and if you're skilled at scaling businesses up, why not buy a proven out idea with some existing customer relationships.
I mean, the fact that somebody bought it means it's /in theory/ of some value, but draping it in the guise of "Solving a problem in an industry you are familiar with"[0] when it's all clearly meaningless cruft is an uncomfortable thing to view.
I equate this stuff to writing a script that automatically upkeeps a social media account so you can leverage it to get free meals[1]. not wrong, neccesarily, but certainly not something you should be proud of or frame outside of "check out this cool low-effort money-making trick".
I seems harmless to me and lot like old school stories of entrepreneurs starting out doing odd little things that don’t scale or work super well until they hit on an idea that cliques for them.
I think the online culture around this is more annoying than the actual activity.
It just seems like a lemonade stand or washing cars to me.
Almost nobody is working on bare metal. Everyone above that level takes other people's APIs (whether they be the CPU commands, the OS functionality, app functionality, or service functionality, and then "hacks" it together to produce something which they believe is either fun or useful.
I'm not sure why you're looking down on this particular level of abstraction.
I hate these projects. Pitched to managers like they'll solve all problems. And now you've got a developer who inherits this stuff, no documentation, some proprietary json structure that configures some flow, and a $100,000/year license to keep the service running.
16 comments
[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 140 ms ] threadType SaaS
Oneliner Easier publicity for projects
Stats $1,003 MRR 20 presale customers
Sold for $15,000
No-Code Stack Bubble
Acquired on Microacquire
2. INSANELY USEFUL WEBSITE
Type Newsletter
Oneliner Newsletter that features interesting and useful websites
Stats 5,000 subscribers Ad revenue from day 1
Sold for Mid 5 figures
No-Code Stack Webflow Revue
Acquired on Microacquire
3. NOCODE GURU
Type Chatbot
Oneliner A wise tool advisor for beginner No-Code makers
Stats 0 revenue 1,500 monthly visitors
No-Code Stack Landbot Airtable Softr
Sold for 4 figures
Acquired on Microacquire
4. ACTIONS
Type Micro Saas
Oneliner Create Embeddable Notion Widgets
Stats 2,300 created Notion widgets 1,000 users
No-Code Stack Bubble Webflow
Sold for 4 figures
Acquired on Microacquire
If you want to read the full story of how each project was built with No-Code, promoted and acquired, check out No-Code Exits.
I feel as if I am looking at an alien civilization's attempt at emulating entrepreneurship, or a bizarre GPT-3 social experiment.
This same crowd will also preach product-market fit like it's religion. It's literally a race to throw crap at the wall, hype it, and see what sticks. A similar pattern also plays out a little differently and to a lesser degree among startups in respectable accelerators with VC backing.
I think it serves a very useful purpose, though: hypercompetition. Any space that shows promise these days is quickly oversaturated with products such that there can be no clear winner. This is actually a really good thing depending on how you look at it, because it raises standards required to win to a very high level. That in turn filters out virtually everything, including products that we would've previously considered good enough to win the space.
I equate this stuff to writing a script that automatically upkeeps a social media account so you can leverage it to get free meals[1]. not wrong, neccesarily, but certainly not something you should be proud of or frame outside of "check out this cool low-effort money-making trick".
[0] https://www.nocode-exits.com/p/from-no-code-saas-validation-...
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30778028
I think the online culture around this is more annoying than the actual activity.
It just seems like a lemonade stand or washing cars to me.
I'm not sure why you're looking down on this particular level of abstraction.
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...
Nope. I'm out.