Issue #15: How I Became a Tech Bro Without Learning to Code

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Why you're getting this: this is my "build in public" newsletter (if you are here, you are one of the special ones), a weekly brain dump of interesting things that I run into as the #1 "Entrepreneur in Training," seven months in, and things are getting really spicy 🔥. No pressure - hit unsubscribe anytime (I won't be notified or offended)

Welcome back, fellow entrepreneurial adventurers! Greg here, your favourite corporate escapee turned "tech founder" (more on that joke in a minute). Let's dive into how LandLogic Ventures is expanding its empire into the wild world of software - without actually knowing how to code. Because apparently, that's a thing you can do now.

Here’s what I’ve got for you today:

1. Expanding LandLogic Ventures into SAAS (that's Software as a Service for my mom )

2. Built my first app in 3 hours (and only broke it twice! 🤕)

3. No coding skills required (just coffee and audacity 😮)

4. Trading real estate blueprints for software wireframes (same confusion, different tools 🥸)

5. Have the willingness to look stupid and figure things out as you go (do we say stupid anymore? 😅)

P.S: If you want to read any previous editions of My New Meta, you can on our website (I know, websites are so 2010), and if you were forwarded this email, you can subscribe here.

P.P.S: My New Meta is free. My New Meta will always be free. That’s thanks to the support of our sponsors. We’d love if you could take a moment to check them out. It helps to keep the ideas flowing and our landlords from kicking us out. 😬

[Shhh…don’t tell anyone, but we are sponsored by Nike this week…yes Nike, OMFG, this is the big time!]

Let’s get into it.

The Holdco Plot Twist: Adding Another Piece to the Puzzle

Remember our growing collection of business ventures? Well, we're adding another plot line to this entrepreneurial sitcom:

• Land Development Advisory (the OG business)

• Digital Media (you're reading it!)

• chargeFUZE (portable phone charging empire)

• And now... SAAS (because why not?)

Think of LandLogic Ventures like a Holdco for entrepreneurial ADHD - you know, when you sit down to work on real estate development and somehow end up building an app, running a phone charging empire, and writing a newsletter about it all. Except instead of getting distracted, we're building businesses. And instead of procrastinating... okay, we're still doing that too, just with better excuses.

Getting SAAS-y With It (I'm So Sorry Will Smith...)

And yes, I just used "SAAS-y" in a headline. Yes, I'm slightly ashamed. No, it won't be the last dad joke in this newsletter.

(Quick disclaimer: I adore my wife, who has not only put up with my entrepreneurial ADD for decades but has actually turned several of my chaos-induced ideas into real businesses. As VP of Operations at LandLogic, she's the reason chargeFUZE actually works instead of just being another "Greg got excited at 2AM" idea. The following conversation hasn't actually happened yet, but after 25+ years of marriage, I can predict it with concerning accuracy...)

SCENE: 9:47 PM Friday, after a long week of chargeFUZE cold calling. Our kitchen. I'm lounging with a glass of Macallan, laptop balanced precariously on one knee, and 47 browser tabs open in Chrome about AI and productivity apps. Kirsten, our VP of Operations and Chief Voice of Reason, walks in with a glass of wine and that familiar "what rabbit hole has he found now?" expression.

ME: (gesturing enthusiastically with scotch glass) "Honey! You know how I have ideas after scotch and then completely forget them by morning?"

KIRSTEN: (swirling her wine) "You mean like last month when you were convinced pickleball was going to be your new side hustle?"

ME: "That was a perfectly valid business model! But no - this time, I'm building a solution! A note-taking app for entrepreneurs, but with AI! It's like having a digital me that actually remembers things... and probably makes better decisions after 9PM!"

KIRSTEN: (takes a thoughtful sip of wine) "Sweetie, remember how last week you were going to become a pickleball pro? And the week before that you were convinced we should start an underground league for entrepreneurial athletics?"

ME: "But this is different! I've already watched THREE YouTube tutorials about building apps! And ChatGPT is basically my co-founder now!"

KIRSTEN: (trying not to smile) "And how many productivity apps have you downloaded while 'researching' tonight?"

ME: (suddenly very interested in my scotch) "Only seven. But they're all missing something! None of them understand the entrepreneurial brain like me"

KIRSTEN: (refills wine glass) "Tell you what - write up a proper business plan, make sure it actually solves a real problem, and we'll discuss it at tomorrow's operations meeting. Like a real company."

ME: "So... that's not a no?"

KIRSTEN: (heading to the basement TV room) "Just promise me one thing?"

ME: "Anything!"

KIRSTEN: "No more domain buying tonight. The 'Great Domain Shopping Spree of 2024' was enough."

ME: (already opening Namecheap in a new tab) "Of course not, honey! ...quick question though - how do you feel about 'PickleBrain.ai'?"

(Sound of a wine glass being set down with pointed emphasis)

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Why SaaS? (Besides Impressing People at Coffee Shops)

Look, I'll be honest - my entrepreneurial journey has been a series of enthusiastic jumps into new ventures where I pretended to know what I was doing. Remember our pandemic e-commerce adventure? (If you missed that disaster, check out Issue Issue #14: The $27,000 Pandemic Side Hustle Experiment ). Or that time, I tried to build Canada's first used outdoor gear marketplace without understanding how online marketplaces actually work?

But this time it's different. Instead of diving straight into the deep end, we're actually taking the time to learn how to swim first. Note Venture isn't the end goal - it's our tutorial level. Think of it as our entrepreneurial training wheels for the world of SAAS.

The real goal isn't to build a better note-taking app - it's to learn how to turn our hard-won business experience into scalable software. Because if there's one thing I've learned from my face plants in other industries, it's that you should probably understand the basics before trying to revolutionize an industry. (Looking at you, past Greg, with your "Uber for mountain gear" idea.)

The Tools That Make It Possible

Remember when the no-code app Bubble.io came out? That was mind-blowing enough. But now? The game has completely changed. We've got tools that make software development accessible to anyone with an idea and the audacity to try.

Loveable: think of it as your tech-savvy friend who actually understands what you're trying to build. You describe what you want; it builds it. No coding required. Just plain English. Magical, right?

Other similar apps are pushing the boundaries, too:

Cursor: The Copilot for app development - it's like having a senior developer looking over your shoulder but without the judgmental sighs.

Vercel's V0 is the new kid on the block - imagine if GPT-4 decided to become a web developer.

Replit: It's like having an entire development team in your browser, but they all actually agree with each other.

The game-changer though? Supabase.

Supabase handles all the boring but important stuff, like user accounts, databases, and security. Don't worry if these terms make your head spin—mine does, too. Just know it works, and it works well. Just hit the Supabase button, and your authentication, security, communication, and databases are instantly connected.

So, a non-coder like me can type, "Build me an app that does this..." and it will actually happen. The future is weird, but I like it.

My Three-Hour Adventure: Building Note Venture

Here's what I actually built in one caffeine-fueled afternoon:

• A super simple note-taking app for entrepreneurs

• AI that categorizes business notes (okay, it's not perfect, but it works!)

• Basic but functional interface

• I paid $20 for the Loveable starter plan

The Process (Or: How I Only Argued With AI Once)

It all started with a prompt...

...and it was born. Well, kind of. What followed was a 3-hour conversation with AI that went something like this:

ME: "Build me a note-taking app."

AI: "Here's a beautiful todo list app!"

ME: "No, notes. For entrepreneurs."

AI: "Ah, a calendar app with reminders!"

ME: "🤦‍♂️ NOTES. Just... notes."

AI: "Oh! You want a note-taking app! Why didn't you say so?"

ME: sips coffee aggressively

But here's where it gets wild - once we got past our "creative differences," the AI actually built exactly what I wanted. And thanks to Supabase integration, all the complex stuff happened automagically:

• User authentication? One click.

• Database setup? Already done.

• Security features? Built-in.

• API endpoints? Whatever those are, they're handled.

Five years ago, this would have required:

• A backend developer

• A frontend developer

• A database specialist

• Someone who understands security

• A project manager to keep them all talking

• Enough coffee to fill an Olympic swimming pool

• At least one existential crisis

Today? It's just me, an AI, and significantly less coffee. Though we did have one heated debate about the colour scheme. (I insisted on "modern minimalist grayscale" - The AI wanted "startup blue." Guess who won? 🎨)

After about 40 prompts (only 10 that mattered - the other 30 were me trying to explain how bad "slightly more electric blue" looked to an AI), we had a working app.

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Curate and Comment

Here are some digital toys I played with this week:

🥰 Influencer Of The Week: AI Santa Claus (Yes, Really!)

Want to know if you've been naughty or nice this year? AI Santa is making his list and checking it twice - in real time! Through the magic of artificial intelligence (and probably some help from tech-savvy elves), you can now have a video chat with the big man himself.

He has a naughty and nice meter. I tried to keep things professional with my Christmas requests, but I'm dying to hear how naughty some of you get with your wish lists. Will Santa's AI detect your true intentions? Only one way to find out!

🎬 Tools & Apps: Turn Your Words Into Video Magic

Just discovered something wild that's perfect for fellow side hustlers who get hives thinking about video editing. ZebraCat transforms your boring text into surprisingly decent videos faster than I could go to the bathroom and return to my office (spare bedroom).

I wrote a Medium Post about Issue #14: The $27,000 Pandemic Side Hustle Experiment that was picked-up and published in a bigger publication called Startup Stash ← this is a humble brag.

Anyway, I fed that Medium post into this AI beast. Five minutes later, out popped a video that makes my entrepreneurial face-plants look almost professional.

I am thinking of using this for our chargeFUZE Facebook ads because, let's be honest, my current video editing skills are about as refined as my first attempts at e-commerce.

Key Lessons Learned

Lesson #1: Ideas First, Tech Later

Stop worrying about how to build it. Seriously. The tech part is getting easier by the day. What's not getting easier? Coming up with good ideas. Focus on finding real problems that need solving.

As Andrew Wilkinson says:

Lesson #2: Keep It Simple, Really Simple

You know all those fancy features in other apps? Ignore them. Build the simplest version that solves the problem. My app? It just takes notes and categorizes them. That's it. No fancy calendars, no complex integrations, no unnecessary bells and whistles.

Lesson #3: Just Start

Here's what you actually need:

1. A problem you want to solve (preferably one that annoys you personally)

2. A few hours of free time

3. About $20 for the tools

4. The willingness to look stupid and figure things out as you go

The Real Talk

Here's the thing about accidentally stumbling into tech founder territory - for someone whose most advanced digital business experience was spectacularly failing at four e-commerce stores during the pandemic, Issue #14: The $27,000 Pandemic Side Hustle Experiment, I'm surprisingly confident about building software.

Maybe it's the AI tools doing the heavy lifting, or maybe I've just played enough RPGs to think "Tech Founder" is an achievable character class without actually learning to code.

Note Venture isn't the endgame; it's more like when you pick up your first wooden sword in a game and immediately start planning how to slay dragons.

THAT’S A WRAP

If you've got an idea for a new app, hit reply. Let's learn together!

Stay curious and keep building (or, in my case, keep pretending to understand what the AI is building while nodding thoughtfully at technical discussions)

Greg "What's a Backend?" Mills

P.S. Stay tuned for more adventures in accidentally becoming a SaaS founder. Next week: How I convinced actual developers that "make it pretty" is a valid technical specification!

P.P.S. Yes, I did buy PickleBrain.ai. Sorry, Kirsten.

If you liked what you read and are not a subscriber yet, join the crowd:

Here are some back issues if you are just not sure yet:

Issue #14: The $27,000 Pandemic Side Hustle Experiment 

Issue #13: The 5-Minute Research Mistake That Almost Cost Us Everything 

Issue #12: Three Easy Steps To Get Thrown Out Of A Convention 

Issue #11: From Tech Snob To Franchise Fanboy: A Transformation Story

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