
YC Hackathon without writing code - ahaller07
https://airdev.co/post/hacking-at-y-combinator-without-code-1539634676357x118163909297436480
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MIKarlsen
I don't throw language like this around a lot, but this was actually very
inspiring to me.

I'm currently between jobs, and have a hard time figuring out what direction I
want to go (and CAN go).

I see myself as a generalist with above-average it-competencies, but I'm not
familiar enough with design to be a designer, nor skilled enough with
programming to be a developer.

The past few months, I've been thinking that going the designer route might be
the smarter career choice for me, as it is an area I have dabbled in before
(both professionally and through education). Programming seems to hard a game
to play catch-up in.

It seems like learning a visual framework like this would be an efficient way
for a designer to create value for the business, both because it's fast, but
also because it reduces the workload on the IT-team. I'm wondering if it would
be a better idea to master a tool like this, and focus on design-related
learning, that it is learning to program almost from scratch (even though it
is the better choice in the long run i suppose).

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Nilef
Tons of tools like Webflow in this space - check out nocode.tech

There's a real need in the market for designers who can work better with
developers and produce faster - tools like Zeplin.io are key here - Maybe
thats where you position yourself?

~~~
MIKarlsen
Thank you for the heads up. I'll check those tools out.

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restingrobot
I don't mean to sound elitist, but this isn't a Hackathon, its an idea-athon.
Participants are limited to the small toolset of pre-built components provided
to them, (Bubble in this case). The whole benefit of a hackathon is to think
outside the box, but this actually encourages staying inside the box in order
to produce a more polished product. You're getting a deep dive but completely
missing any breadth.

~~~
mchannon
In all fairness, even a large proportion of real hackathons tend to be light
on code, heavy on presentation. Maybe it's a misnomer but it doesn't stop them
from using the term.

True hackathons, where everyone's technical, in the same place, and miles of
lines of code are written on no sleep, pizza, and Mountain Dew, are really
hard to come by, because few talented people have the spare time to do them,
and they don't typically pay all that well. Older hackers also tend to avoid
them because they're more likely to have incompatible family obligations.

The terminology doesn't suit it, but it's widely used, like "Software
Engineer".

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fabricexpert
this is based on [https://bubble.is/](https://bubble.is/) \- I just took the
tour, it looks pretty neat for creating a quick prototype. I suspect I could
get to market with a half working prototype faster with this, and then hire a
team to develop a "proper" app later on. I'm going to try it out for my next
app as I am getting a bit sick of getting started each time with create-react-
app and running into dependencies etc. etc.

~~~
kornish
Nice. Looks like a competitor to Retool:
[https://tryretool.com/](https://tryretool.com/). (or perhaps the other way
around, since Bubble predates Retool)

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dopeboy
This is great. I've been to ~10 or so hackathons including both of the YC ones
this year and this approach makes total sense. For the most part, the judges
and audience don't care how you built something. They're more interested in
the story behind the product including what sparked the idea, how you're
equipped to tackle it, the market size, how you're going to get your first
customers, etc.

I saw groups spin up AWS instances, throw up backends, and put on a frontend
framework. It depends on the idea but for the most part, that's usually
overkill. For web apps, I always static hardcode everything (yep, with jQuery)
and then if time permits, productionize everything _if_ it helps the demo be
more slick.

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estraschnov
This is awesome!! (disclaimer, I founded Bubble).

We've actually had a few teams at YC using Bubble, either to get in or after,
once they were in the program. It's awesome as it's a great validation for our
technology.

Thank you for doing the same in their hackathons!

~~~
owens99
Congrats man, we demoed a product at NYTM the same day as you guys (QuickMVP,
now pivoted away from).

Been great to see your progress!

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estraschnov
Thanks! Yeah I remember! I hope all is well.

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ahaller07
I wrote up some reflections on participating in last week's YC Hackathon using
Bubble, a visual programming platform. My AirDev cofounder and I didn't take
home the prize, but it was a great chance to put our code-free development
approach to the test and build a new product (Mailmitten) with Gmail and
Stripe integrations in 12 hours.

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chuqdennis
First, I think you guys did an amazing job and should not only celebrate you
achievement within the short period of time, but also plan to execute this
further. I think it's a good nice-to-have.

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zubairq
Is Airdev Bubble, I am a bit confused?

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Gys
> To explain: at AirDev, we build custom web applications for clients using
> Bubble, a powerful visual programming framework.

