The problem with big plans is that they often come with even bigger price tags.
For industry-changing applications, especially those with B2C appeal, you have to take on a significant amount of consumer demand if you hope to see widespread adoption of your application. However, between Facebook, Google, and Amazon services, it can be hard to leverage the proper resources and marketing to see your digital product go live in the way you intended. But that doesn’t mean you have to give up hope!
This blog will detail how your startup can receive stardom using the MVP model alongside the low-code platform Bubble.io. Together, you are offered a cost-effective solution to the most significant development challenge that faces tech and business startups alike—building a compelling digital product and website while growing your budget instead of sinking it.
What is an MVP Model?
MVPs are like the Halloween candy-bar-sized versions of bigger, better applications. Known outside of the business world as a Minimum Viable Product, these stripped-down sites, apps, and prototypes offer a sliver of the functionality the designer hopes to deploy someday and instead just enough to gauge market interest.
Just a few tech startups that secured their funding through an MVP:
- Asana – A collaborative productivity tool.
- Clapit – A “positive” social media platform.
- Zillow – A real estate app.
- Magic Leap – A virtual reality application.
- Amazon – An E-retailer.
Let’s go into more detail. Amazon, for instance, started as a used book-selling service in 1995! With only a wireframe site and hand-delivered orders, Amazon grew by the end of 1996 to boast $15.7 in revenue. By 1997, the company went public and raised $54 million to continue growing—all of this long before adding any of the other products or services that characterize the e-commerce monolith today.
The lesson here is that an MVP allows you to demonstrate demand for your product, realize your target demographics, and secure bootstrap funding before making more significant leaps in your business structure. An MVP strategy reduces risk, generates revenue, and leverages demand better than immediately releasing a fully optimized (and expensive) product to an unaware audience.
For those looking to grow organically (IE, most startups), MVP deployment is an invaluable tool that forces thoughtfulness and changes how we think about our products and market. So now, the question becomes, “how do I launch an MVP on a shoestring budget?”
The answer is Bubble.io.
Using Bubble.Io for Your MVP
As we’ve touched on in other blogs, Bubble.io simply cannot be beaten when it comes to simplistic and robust development.
Through templates, you can quickly build from and optimize a site in a matter of days or weeks, skipping the lengthy UX/UI development that could take another studio a month to land on. With frameworks, modular plugins, and powerful overview tools, you can oversee your project functionality from start to finish without repeatedly starting from scratch.
Being agile with your development offers numerous benefits—firstly, you won’t get hung up on small details that may distract you from the larger project. Roadblocks tend to come and go quickly when working with low-code development. Secondly, a stripped-down view of your application offers you an opportunity to restrain and refine your product vision.
When looking for the finish goal on the horizon (like Amazon if they set out first to create a multinational company), you tend to miss the rhythm of your own two feet in front of you.
Thirdly, and most importantly for a startup, you can effortlessly capitalize on your momentum. Instead of taking down your site for a lengthy development period, you can add to and amend your code on the back end while slowly building out the application you hoped for from the start.
With Bubble.io, you no longer need to choose between creativity and deadlines. High-powered prototypes are yours to command through low-code development.
Development Tips
It’s time to think about your product the old-fashioned way—with pen and paper. Strip away all social media integrations, back-end wizardry, and advanced filter tools. Ask what you need your app to do and only what it would need in terms of back-end programming to do so.
You’re not showing off your full skills as a visionary or coder here—you’re focusing on deployment. The who and what of usership today will inform your future successes.
A few tips to keep in mind:
- Keep your application simple.
- Focus on accessibility and straightforward design.
- Implement feedback as much as possible.
- Create a roadmap of future functions.
- Stay true to your original strategy—don’t get distracted by minor details.
- Work with a trusted few for now instead of the immediate public offering.
With these in mind, you will be able to develop a user-first application that you can use to work with invaluable consumer data and trends that will shape your future product.
So there you have it! Whether you’re the next entrepreneur or an existing one, we hope you consider using Bubble.io in your next MVP deployment.
If you’re looking to streamline your process further, consider working with senior low-code developers like Techmate Labs. Our experience in envisioning, developing, and later optimizing and marketing low-code applications makes us a fantastic partner when navigating the early stages of your startup with Bubble.io. Contact us today to learn more and make your first move with confidence.