Build the product

Ship an MVP, work with builders, and iterate toward something people use.

What founders use for build the product, ranked by how many answers lean on it.

  1. If you use Supabase as your backend (common under tools like FlutterFlow, Bolt, or a Webflow front end), Row Level Security is... Supabase Docs Article Row Level Security Supabase
  2. Once you need real roles (admin, member, viewer), this shows the clean pattern: store roles and permissions in tables, put the... Supabase Docs Article Custom Claims and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) Supabase
  3. Xano is a popular no-code backend behind Webflow and FlutterFlow front ends, and this build-along shows how to gate endpoints... Xano Article Building Role-Based Access Control in Xano Xano
  4. Before roles, you need real login, and this walks through signup, login, and fetching the current user with tokens rather than... Xano Article Building Basic Authentication with Xano and Webflow Xano
  5. This clears up a mistake that leaks data straight out of Airtable and similar tools: putting a private key in front-end code... WeWeb Article API Key Security for No-Code Apps: Public Keys, Private Keys, and Backend Proxies WeWeb
  6. Airtable's tokens have no row-level control: a valid token can read and write the entire base, so leaking one is a full breach.... GitGuardian Article Remediating Airtable API Key leaks GitGuardian
  7. The safe pattern for Airtable is to keep keys and logic server-side, and this is Airtable's own feature for storing secrets... Airtable Community Article Introducing Secrets in automations: Secure your API keys and sensitive data Airtable
  8. When you want the full picture beyond one tool, this is the friendliest serious book on application security, written for... She Hacks Purple Book · 288 pages Alice and Bob Learn Application Security Tanya Janca
  9. A plain overview of where no-code tools tend to leak, useful because the same handful of mistakes repeats across Bubble,... CodeStringers Article Security Pitfalls in No-Code Platforms: What to Watch Out For CodeStringers
  10. Lavingia argues for doing more with less and building only what you can sustain yourself, which fits a domain expert who wants... Penguin Random House Book · 272 pages The Minimalist Entrepreneur Sahil Lavingia
  11. A crowdsourced look at what non-technical people are actually building for themselves with AI tools, which is useful evidence... Lenny's Newsletter Article · 12 min read What people are vibe coding (and actually using) Lenny Rachitsky
  12. Tavel, a marketplace investor at Benchmark, argues that the first thing to solve is user happiness in a small, constrained... Sarah Tavel Essay The Hierarchy of Marketplaces Sarah Tavel
  13. This breaks down the online directory as a business, including how they make money and roughly what they cost to start. It is... Starter Story Article Start an Online Directory: Business Idea Breakdown Starter Story
  14. A practical guide to the directory as a lean side project, covering niche choice, getting the first listings, and monetizing... Side Hustle Nation Article How to Build a Profitable Online Directory Side Hustle Nation
  15. This is the clearest working mental model for exactly your situation: treat the AI as a fast, over-confident pair programmer... Simon Willison's Weblog Essay · 20 min read Here's how I use LLMs to help me write code Simon Willison
  16. Osmani is a Google engineering leader, and this book draws the exact line your question cares about: the spectrum from... O'Reilly (beyond.addy.ie) Book Beyond Vibe Coding: From Coder to AI-Era Developer Addy Osmani
  17. Shipper taught a cohort of non-engineers to build working apps with AI and reports honestly on what clicked and where people... Every Article What I Learned Teaching 100 People To Code with AI Dan Shipper
  18. A firsthand account of a non-engineer hitting the exact wall your short answer warns about: the tools carry you a long way,... Every Essay I Tried AI Coding Tools. Now I Want to Learn to Code. Katie Parrott
  19. A concrete, current walkthrough of how an experienced engineer actually structures work with AI tools day to day: planning... addyosmani.com Article My LLM coding workflow going into 2026 Addy Osmani
  20. From the author of The Phoenix Project and a veteran of Google and Amazon, this is the serious take on moving AI-assisted code... IT Revolution Book Vibe Coding: Building Production-Grade Software With GenAI, Chat, Agents, and Beyond Gene Kim and Steve Yegge
  21. An official, plain checklist for the skill your short answer insists on: reading and testing what the AI writes before you... GitHub Docs Article Review AI-generated code GitHub
  22. The sharpest statement of the tradeoff at the heart of your question: code you do not understand is technical debt the instant... Val Town Blog Essay Vibe code is legacy code Steve Krouse
  23. Another non-engineer, a designer this time, showing concretely how far you can push Cursor to build interactive things without... Lenny's Newsletter Article A designer's guide to Cursor Elizabeth Lin
  24. A research study, not a hot take, on the real tradeoff between the speed of vibe coding and the technical debt it piles up. If... arXiv Article Vibe Coding in Practice: Flow, Technical Debt, and Guidelines for Sustainable Use arXiv

Show the next 24

The questions

Building your MVP 18

Build the smallest thing that tests the biggest risk.

What actually counts as an MVP, and what's the smallest one I can get away with? 20 → How do I decide which features to cut from v1? 18 → How long should building an MVP take? 19 → Should I build an MVP at all, or can I validate without one? 20 → How do I get my first users for the MVP? 17 → All 18 questions in Building your MVP →
No-code & low-code building 18

Ship a product without writing code.

Which no-code tool should I use to build my first product? 20 → Can I really build a serious business on no-code, or will I hit a wall? 18 → Should I use an AI app builder like Lovable or Replit instead of traditional no-code? 20 → How do I connect payments and handle data if I'm building no-code in India? 20 → What can I build with just a spreadsheet as the backend? 20 → All 18 questions in No-code & low-code building →
Finding & working with developers 18

Get it built when you can't build it yourself.

I'm non-technical, do I actually need a technical co-founder? 18 → How do I actually find a technical co-founder? 19 → Should I hire an agency or a freelancer to build my MVP? 17 → How do I hire good engineers in India when everyone's competing for the same talent? 18 → How do I evaluate a developer's skill if I can't code? 19 → All 18 questions in Finding & working with developers →
Product design & UX basics 18

Make it obvious, not clever.

I'm not a designer, how do I make my product not look terrible? 18 → What are the core UX principles every founder should know? 20 → How do I know if my product is confusing to users? 17 → Should I learn Figma, and how much design do I really need? 19 → Why does good design actually matter for an early-stage startup? 19 → All 18 questions in Product design & UX basics →
Shipping, iterating & roadmap 18

Ship weekly, learn constantly, prioritise ruthlessly.

How do I decide what to build next? 19 → How often should an early-stage startup ship? 19 → How do I build a roadmap without over-planning? 19 → How do I keep talking to users while I'm heads-down building? 18 → How do product teams keep a consistent shipping rhythm as they grow? 18 → All 18 questions in Shipping, iterating & roadmap →
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →