Minimal Viable Stack
By: Natalie Furn
Tags: Startup, Minimal Viable Product, Marketplaces, No Code Development, No Code

An introduction for lowcode / nocode makers, builders and agencies.

Hey lowcode/nocode makers and agencies! The aim of this article is to provide you with more information about Minimal Viable Stack. Read our vision, the problems we have identified and how we plan to solve them in collaboration with you 🙌.

Have questions? Write to me at natalie@mininalviablestack

The Minimal Viable Stack Vision

Minimal Viable Stack is on a mission to help build 10 million more minimal viable products by 2025.

What is a minimal viable product?

A minimum viable product, or MVP, is a product with enough features to attract early-adopter customers and validate a product idea early in the product development cycle. In industries such as software, the MVP can help the product team receive user feedback as quickly as possible to iterate and improve the product.

Why are we focused on this mission?

Innovation is something that I have always been passionate about. Throughout my career, I have watched founders spend thousands of hours, and dollars building coded products. It pains me to watch passionate people spend so much time and money to build products which fail. While failure is a great way to learn, there are faster, more affordable ways to get from idea to product-market-fit.

While working with enterprises, I’ve seen a different problem — there are so many great ideas that go nowhere. The cost to produce a coded MVP is often considered to be too high. As a result, teams are unable to showcase the value of their idea to decision makers. Unable to see the value of their team’s ideas, budget holders do not think they’re worth the cost to pursue them.

Lowcode and nocode tools opens up new opportunities to tackle both of these issues. Founders no longer need to spend time and money developing products to test in the market, or showcase to investors. Innovation labs do not need big budgets or skilled programmers to build a proof of concept.

Since meeting creators like Ben Tossel, Janel Loi, Kieran Ball, KP and my co-founder Denis Lin, I have seen what is possible, without code. Minimal viable products are being built in days, not months. The development costs are a fraction of coded products. As a result, creators are able to fail fast, giving them a better chance of building successful products.

I want to give this power of high speed, lowcode MVP production to every innovator. The power to build, fail, and learn faster. As a result, we will accelerate innovation world-wide.

The MVP production space needs disrupting and we’re doing it!

Research and Design of Minimal Viable Stack.

We are building for innovators, with innovators. I favor the process of building and releasing product features as early as possible. Even if they suck! But before we talk about our solution, let’s explore the problems which we plan to solve.

Problem Analysis.

Before we decided on the best solution we conducted research on existing problems. The problems which founders and enterprises face, when developing new products.

Through social listening, online research and conversations we identified seven “key problem” themes.

People don’t know what a minimal viable product is People don’t know where to start when building a digital product People lack clarity on which features should be included in an MVP. People don’t know what tools to use for their build People do not have the time to build an MVP. People do not have the skills required to build an MVP. People believe that they do not have the financial resources required to build an MVP.

Other interesting findings

80% of the people thought their minimal viable product would need programmers.

Approximately 20% reported that they were considering nocode for their minimal viable product.

90% of people evaluating nocode/lowcode tools were not sure how to select the best nocode/lowcode stack for their project.

As a result, we ideated on a solution to:

Educate people on minimal viable products and how to build them. Raise awareness and build trust in lowcode/nocode tools. Help people visualise what is possible with nocode/ lowcode tools. Connect entrepreneurs and enterprises with lowcode/nocode tools, which match their project requirements. Connect entrepreneurs and enterprises with people who have expertise in lowcode/nocode tools.

The result -

Minimal Viable Stack : The Minimal Viable Product Marketplace.

We are building a marketplace to connect entrepreneurs and enterprises with the right lowcode / nocode tools and expertise. This marketplace is the solution that we are building to address the key problem themes found during our research.

Your role, as a lowcode/nocode consultant, builder or agency.

While we are building our marketplace and having discussions with entrepreneurs and enterprises about what we are building, we are also onboarding experts like you. You will provide consultancy and product development services to those searching for solutions on Minimal Viable Stack.

If you want to work as an independent consultant, freelancer builder or plan to build a lowcode / nocode agency, Minimal Viable Stack is for you.

We are building the Minimal Viable Stack marketplace to provide you with qualified clients.

No more quick chats with unqualified leads. No more free consultancy sessions with people who still don’t know if lowcode/nocode is right for them.

To hit our target to build 10 million more minimal viable products by 2025, we need to streamline the minimal viable product development process for everyone. That means saving you time and resources, so that your business can better service your clients.

Progress on Minimal Viable Stack so far.

Our private Alpha launched on 16/04/21. Features included the maker profiles and calendar links for booking paid consultations.

We have already had some great feedback from nocode and lowcode makers and agencies.

In the coming weeks we will be launching our closed Beta.

Makers and agencies will receive invites to build their profiles on Minimal Viable Stack. We will also be launching the search functionality so that entrepreneurs and enterprises can search for makers by tools or project types, and easily find your profile.

As we build this product, we plan to stay in close contact with the Minimal Viable Stack community. Once onboarded, you will be invited to attend a meeting with myself and Denis to run through your experience. We want to make sure that we are designing the right features for you and your business.

What’s in it for us?

Minimal Viable Stack is a business. To grow, we will require revenue.

Our plan is to take a % share of the revenue that we generate for you. It’s just like the Airbnb model. You will list your profile and services. We will drive traffic to your profile. When you make money, we make money. It’s win-win for everyone.

That’s the plan. But for now, everything is free. You do not have to provide us with commission. All Minimal Viable Stack Alpha’s and early Beta adopters take home 100% of revenue generated by their Minimal Viable Stack profile page. In exchange for providing this service, we only ask that you provide us with honest feedback, share your profile with others and help us raise awareness.

Join Minimal Viable Stack today. Build your profile +add your projects to apply for early access on minimalviablestack.com.

Those who meet our requirements will be invited on to the private Beta. Early adopters who illustrate expertise and engagement in our community will be featured as leading experts when it comes to our public launch.