Let me take you back to my first rodeo in the app world. Picture this: wide-eyed enthusiasm, a head full of ideas, and absolutely no clue what I was doing.

I did it all wrong. I mean, spectacularly wrong.

I dreamt up this complex, all-singing, all-dancing app. Hired a team and threw money at them.

The problem? I wasn't a project manager. I wasn't a coder. Hell, I barely knew what I was asking for half the time.

The result? A whole lot of nothing for my trouble. Well, nothing except an empty wallet and a bruised ego.

It was a harsh lesson, but an important one. And you know what? It was entirely my fault. I overcomplicated things, bit off way more than I could chew, and paid the price. I wanted something complex but wasn’t able to handle that complexity.

Let’s help you avoid making the same mistake.

Let’s get started:

The Power of Starting Simple

After my initial debacle, I learned a crucial lesson: when it comes to building apps, simpler is almost always better. Here's why:

1. Faster Time to Market: The sooner you get your app out there, the sooner you can start getting real user feedback. And remember what you think isn’t important. Only the market can tell you what’s up.

2. Lower Costs: Simplicity means less development time, which translates to lower costs. Which means you can deploy more ideas for the same cost.

3. Easier to Pivot: If you need to change direction (and trust me, you will), it's much easier to do so with a simpler app. Bigger ships, wider turning and all that.

4. Focused Value Proposition: A simple app that does one thing well is often more appealing to users than a complex app that does many things adequately. It’ll be 1000% easier to sell.

Here’s a Reddit post I literally saw today of someone who appears to be making ALL the mistakes:

I wish them all the best of luck and hope I’m wrong. But this to looks like an overstuffed app that will be a pain to market. Simple first!

Your Options: From No-Code to Full-Stack

Let’s talk options for actually building this thing. Depending on your skills, resources, and the complexity of your app, you've got a few routes:

1. Custom GPT: If your app is primarily based on language models, you might be able to create a prototype using ChatGPT's custom GPT feature. This is great for testing concepts but has limitations for full-fledged apps. Also you can’t monetise or collect emails so this is purely for testing.

2. SaaS tools*: Platforms like Launch Lemonade let you very quickly deploy a prototype by stringing together your own prompts, running multiple models, having a central database for you files and more. This would actually be my #1 suggestion for getting starting.

3. No-Code Tools: Platforms like Bubble or Adalo allow you to build fully functional apps without writing code. They're fantastic for MVPs and can even scale to full products in many cases. There is certainly a learning curve though - they aren’t plug and play tools where you can whip something up in a weekend (unless you are already tech savvy).

4. Low-Code Platforms: Tools like Retool or Appsmith offer a middle ground, allowing you to build apps with minimal coding. Cursor and Replit (AI tools for coding sort of fit here - they are hard to classify honestly!)

5. Traditional Development: If your app requires complex integrations or custom algorithms, you might need to go the traditional route with frameworks like Flask (Python) or React (JavaScript).

Choosing Your Path

So, how do you decide which route to take? Let's use an AI prompt to help you out:

You are an AI specialising in software development strategies. Based on the given AI app idea and developer profile, recommend the most suitable development approach. Consider factors like technical complexity, time to market, and resource requirements.

AI App Idea: see prior inputs and if no app idea present prompt the user.

Developer Profile:
- Coding Skills: [None/Basic/Intermediate/Advanced]
- Available Time: [Part-time/Full-time]
- Budget: [Low/Medium/High]
- Desired Time to Market: [ASAP/Within 3 months/6+ months]

Please provide:
1. Recommended development approach (Custom GPT, No-Code, Low-Code, or Traditional) - give specific tools to look at as well.
2. Rationale for the recommendation
3. High-level steps to get started
4. Potential challenges and how to mitigate them
5. Estimated timeline and resource requirements

Run this prompt with your specific details. The output will give you a (high level) tailored roadmap for your app development journey.

Building Your MVP

Regardless of which path you choose, your goal should be to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This is the simplest version of your app that delivers value to users.

Do not overcomplicate!

Here are some key principles for MVP development:

1. Focus on Core Functionality: Identify the ONE key problem your app solves and build just that. Everything else comes later.

2. Embrace "Good Enough": Your MVP doesn't need to be perfect. It needs to be functional and valuable and that’s it for now.

3. Plan for Feedback: Build in ways to collect user feedback from day one. This could be as simple as a feedback form or as sophisticated as usage analytics, heatmapping etc.

4. Iterate Quickly: Plan to release updates frequently based on user feedback.

One of the biggest challenges in app development is deciding what features to include in your MVP. Here's a quick exercise to help you prioritise:

1. List all the features you think your app needs.

2. Now, cut that list in half.

3. Look at what's left and cut it in half again.

4. Alright you know the drill - cut it in half again.

What remains are your essential features. Ideally it’s ONE thing. Start with this.

Remember, every feature you add increases development time and complexity. Be absolutely ruthless in your prioritisation.

In our final Part, we'll talk about launching your AI app. We'll cover pricing strategies, creating a compelling sales page, and setting up your initial marketing efforts.

Remember, your first version doesn't need to be perfect. It needs to exist.

Better » Done.

Get something out there, and let your users guide you from there.