AKA: You Can Probably Build the First Version Yourself
Look, building an app is no longer some mythical Silicon Valley journey that ends with TechCrunch and a Patagonia vest. Your mate Bob from the pub has just made his first app, Facebook are going to buy it off him.
You’ve got ideas.
You’ve got ChatGPT.
You’ve got 2 hours before your Deliveroo arrives.
Let’s build something, shall we?
Step 1: Tell the AI What You Want
Open up ChatGPT (or Cursor, or whatever your vibe is) and give it something like:
“Build a Laravel app where users can log in, upload notes, and share them with a friend. Use Inertia, Tailwind, and make it look not-hideous.”
The AI will go bonkers – scaffolding controllers, models, routes, and even seeding fake users called Bob – none of this means anything to you – you’re not a developer. It’s magical. And probably 80% wrong. But that’s fine. That’s the slop.
Step 2: Paste Things You Don’t Understand
This is your rite of passage, even developers who know what’s going on do it.
Copy code. Paste code. Google the errors.
Repeat until it works or you quietly close your laptop and question your life choices.
But honestly? You will get something working. That’s the power of modern tooling + generative AI + good old-fashioned stubbornness. We’ll make a developer of you yet!
Step 3: Fight the UI
An inevitable battle commences between your mental fortitude and the AI’s hallucinations. This is where your app starts to look like a Bootstrap demo from 2012.
Add Tailwind. Watch it break.
Ask AI for a nice colour scheme. It gives you salmon and mustard gradients. You resort to https://coolors.co/ which is still ignores for it’s original gradients.
You cry a little.
But then – somehow – it starts to come together.
Buttons work. Modals open. Data saves.
You show your mum. You send it to a few mates.
Someone says “oh that’s actually kinda sick.”
And now you’re in the loop.
Building, breaking, fixing, improving.
You’re a builder now, baby.
What’s the Catch?
You’ll hit a wall. Everyone does.
Maybe the database is a mess. Maybe the logic makes zero sense. Maybe your mate Dave tried it and said, “It’s cool, but like… confusing.”
That’s when you realise: MVPs are easy.
Good MVPs are not.
Want Help Without a Full Agency Project?
If you’ve got an idea and want to build it properly – but don’t want to commit to a full-blown dev team just yet – we do MVP Day Sessions at our office.
You come in. We bring the snacks, the devs, the AI, and our rulebook.
By the end of the day:
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You’ll know what to build
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How long it’ll take
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And what to ignore completely
It’s one day, it’s low commitment, low risk, and it’ll save you weeks of AI-induced headaches.
Hit Us Up
If that sounds like your vibe, drop us a message.
Otherwise, happy slopping. Godspeed.
