Getting it Built with #BFF Labs
This past Saturday, I had the pleasure to lead a workshop as part of #BFF Labs, a pre-accelerator put on by Black Female Founders to help black women get their startups off the ground. It’s the second cohort I’ve had the chance to work with, and I wanted to share a bit about my experiences, the workshop itself, and some key takeaways. As always, I end up learning as much from the students as they do from me!
The Setup
#BFF Labs is a pre-accelerator, meaning these businesses are often in the “idea stage” and the founders are looking for tips, tricks, information, and guidance that would help them grow to the point where a seed round or other accelerator, such as SEED SPOT, make sense for their business. Last year, we were meeting at the WeWork in Crystal City. This year, we had the pleasure of using the beautiful new facility at In3, a DC space dedicated to inclusion, incubation, and innovation. I didn’t snap any photos, but I wish I would have! A quick search should pull some up, so go ahead take a look.
The topic for my workshop is “Getting it Built.” Most businesses involved with #BFF Labs involve custom software of some sort, and for those who aren’t software developers, it’s a daunting, almost insurmountable mountain to climb. My background is in software product management, so when I was asked if I could teach a class on this topic, I jumped at the opportunity!
The Workshop
Before anything else, here’s a link to the slide deck I used: CLICK HERE Please note: I use slides as a talking point, not the entire presentation itself, so if you check out the deck and feel that things are missing, it’s because they are! I talk more than the deck does, so if you have any questions, feel free to ping me.
I had a solid four hours to work with the founders, and used a combination of interactive activities, active conversation, and good ol’ fashioned lecturing throughout the day. There were about 7 of us total, so we had a nice, safe, intimate environment for sharing information. The founders were each in different stages of their business, ranging from “just an idea” all the way to “I’ve already spent money hiring a contract dev shop.”
While I spent a large amount of time talking about the importance of understanding what to build, and why to build it, the part of the workshop folks find the most interesting is when I get into the “how” of getting something built. You see, I can’t code very well. That hasn’t stopped me from being on teams that have launched some incredibly complex software products, and it hasn’t even stopped me from launching my own software, custom built by me, myself, and I.
Wait, what? I thought I just said I can’t code, what gives?
The Codeless World
In the final section of the workshop, I illustrate how it’s possible to build software without writing a line of code using tools like Bubble and Dropsource. These technologies are truly miraculous for non-technical founders to get their businesses off the ground. I advocate for creating their MVP on a platform like these to validate the product, get real, paying users, and to get a product in the market as quickly as possible. For the same effort used to build a clickable prototype on Invision, or mockups in Sketch, you can create a fully-functioning software product accessible to users everywhere.
I know, I know, there must be tradeoffs, right? Of course there are, and I discuss those at length in the workshop. I’ll never convince an engineer of the value or viability of these products, but if they can help get just one of the businesses from #BFF Labs off the ground, I’d say their existence is justified.
My Takeaways
It’s 2017, and software is still an inaccessible barrier, rather than an exciting possibility. Every time I have the opportunity to speak on this topic, I’m amazed at just how far we still have to go before building software is no longer viewed as scary. Watching the reactions as I built functionality of a web app live in a handful of minutes was incredible. For the first time for these women, software was seen as something they could build, too, and not some distant dream.
I love being able to do that for founders. I love making people realize their dreams are closer than they realize, and equipping them with the tools to do so. These sessions highlight to me that I have knowledge that should be shared, and always serve as a not-so-subtle reminder that I’m not doing enough of it.
