Apps Without Code is an online school that looks to teach users how to build apps while having little to no technical experience. Tara Reed, the founder and CEO, joined Cheddar News to discuss the company’s offerings. “Typically, if you want to build an app, you need to understand computer science, computer language, computer code, and there are now all kinds of software that mean that you don't need to know that," she said. "So what it means is you can build the app by drag, drop, point click like you're making a PowerPoint presentation and then you tell the app what to do in English."

Opening Bell

Apps Without Code Teaches How to Build Software With Little to No Tech Skills

joining me now is Tara Reade she's the founder and Co C. And C. E. O. Of apps without code. So Tera thanks so much for joining us. Starting off, what are the main road blocks that people face when they're starting their apps. Yeah okay so when I was starting my first app I encountered a lot of the same roadblocks that people encounter. So the first one is that if you want to hire someone to build an app for you it's gonna cost about $20,000 and go up from there. I know when I was starting that just wasn't an option. So cost is a really big barrier if you have an app idea and want to get it out into the world. The other big barrier that people often face is that if you want to learn how to code and there's nothing wrong with learning how to code. But it takes 1 to 2 years to get the level of proficiency that you need in order to actually build that app. And so um for a lot of people they don't have that kind of time now what is your advice for those trying to come up with an app idea and eventually profit from this concept? Like is profitability even an option? Yes. Absolutely. Okay so if you're coming up with an app idea, one of the best things to do is to think about areas that you already know something about. So think about what you do for work or what you do for a hobby and for all of us there are parts of our job, parts of our hobbies that are really time consuming, there may be manual, so think about what those parts of your job or hobbies are that are manual and time consuming and then you can brainstorm things that an app can do to solve that because really an app is just something that people can log into and it can save things, it doesn't have to be an app on your phone, it can be on your computer as well. So the formula that I usually use for coming up with app ideas is to think about what you do for work, what you do for a hobby and then what's manual or time consuming about that now, are there certain categories that we need more apps in that you have noticed? Yeah, so typically like apps can do a lot of things, one of the things that apps commonly can do or recommend things. So if there are parts of your job, parts of your hobby that you need to know what's next to recommend things, apps also can teach people something or allow other people to teach what they know um apps can do all kinds of things like let people buy and sell things from each other and exchange things. So one of the cool things is that I get to coach and work with entrepreneurs and help them figure out what the challenges are in the areas where they already know something um and then solve those problems with a piece of technology. Now. How did you get into this? No code industry and what challenges did you face while starting apps without code? Yeah, I think it might be useful to explain even what I mean by building an app without code to answer that question for you. So typically if you want to build an app you need to understand computer science, computer language, computer code and there are now all kinds of Softwares that mean that you don't need to know that. So what it means is you can build the app by drag, drop, point click like you're making a power point presentation and then you tell the app what to do in english and for example you might say when the user clicks the button then log them in, like it literally says what to do in english and so what it means is that all of us who can just give instructions, we can talk in english, um can tell the app what to do and now build apps and software, drag, drop and then telling the app what to do. Now did you have any coding background? Did you eventually go to boot camp or or did you just kind of work with other people and come up with this method? No. So this method I discovered because I had an idea this was when I started was in 2014 my background was in tech, so I worked at google, I worked at foursquare, I worked at Microsoft my backgrounds in tech but I was not a coder, I was working on the business side of those companies and I had an idea but I didn't know how to build it and I didn't have a tech savvy Business partner that I trusted to give 50% of the company away too, and I didn't have one or two years to learn how to code and I didn't have $20,000 to hire someone to build it for me. And so I started looking into these alternative ways. But I discovered this myself. I did not have a computer science or coding background myself. So what advice can you give to other females and other bipac entrepreneurs about scaling their business. Yeah. So in the beginning when you have an idea you're going to do a lot of things that don't scale, you're gonna maybe try to do things manually, you're going to talk to customers individually, you're gonna figure out because your goal is to figure out what people want and what people need in your product idea. So a lot of what you do at the beginning won't scale and then things are gonna change about how you operate as the company gets bigger. But one of the cool things about building an app as opposed to building another kind of business idea is that you get to build the app once and then have a reach for thousands and millions of people and so just in building a technology or technology and abled business idea, you're able to have that kind of reach just in and of itself now, you're famous for working two days a week on your laptop while traveling. I think this is the goal for so many people. Do you have any advice on how to work remotely while maintaining a business and really trying to balance that work life? Yeah, I think the useful thing to think about is how your life as an entrepreneur and if you want to be an entrepreneur, how that will scale and grow and change over time. So at the beginning I worked a lot, I was heads down doing lots of stuff and then, and for many people when they start their move lighting moonlighting means it's like you're working on your day job during the day and you're working on your business idea in the evening, in the moonlight. And so at the beginning you're kind of doing double duty, but as you progress, you start to make decisions about how you want to spend your day in your life. Because really the cool thing about being an entrepreneur, the goal is that you get to craft your own time, have creative autonomy, figure out how you want to spend your time. So for me that looked like deciding that I was not going to work on Fridays first and then I decided that I was going to ad monday to that and really look when your role is to be innovative and come up with new ideas, having that blank space where you're not grinding on the computer all the time. That's where the good ideas and new ideas come. And so really designing that space for me helps me be more productive, but also just enjoy my life. Now speaking of those good ideas, how do you know of that good idea is going to be a good app? Yeah, great. So it's really important to think about the business model and how you want to make money from your app idea. So a lot of times people think about apps and they think 99 cents in the app store and actually really encourage people not to build 99 cent apps. Um one of the ways that you can do that is called white labeling. It's one way that you can charge premium price points for your app idea. And so what you do is you ask yourself what kinds of companies or organizations would want to have their own version of this app. And what you do is you make a copy of your app and you take your logo off and you put that company or organization's logo on. So they get to take credit and say look at cool app and you say you can take credit if you want to as long as you write me that check and usually when you white label you're gonna be charging $3000 a year or more for the app. And the reason why is because alternatively the company could go and they could pay $20,000 for someone to custom build it for you. And so your $3000 a year is a really good steel for them. An example of this might be like, let's say you have an idea for an app that helps homeless folks, right? Like you probably can't charge homeless folks very much for your app. And so you might ask yourself what kinds of companies or organizations might want to have their own version of an app that has resources for homeless folks. And an answer might be like nonprofits shelters those sorts of organizations that are receiving funding for that specific purpose to make a copy of the app, take your logo off, put their logo on and then you can charge premium price points and have a real business model. That's a great idea and a great way to start. But thanks so much for joining us. That's Tara Reid, she's the founder and ceo of apps without code.