No-Code Tech Founder Tips | Tory Burch Foundation

If you’re an analog founder in a digital world, we have good news: you don’t have to speak tech to build your product. All you need is the right playbook—and that’s where our latest webinar speaker comes in.

A Tory Burch Fellow, Ahva Sadeghi is CEO and co-founder of Symba, a venture-backed software platform for new-hire and early-career readiness. Scan her CV, though, and it’s decidedly non-tech: she studied political science, economics, and philosophy, and interned at the Peace Corps and the U.S. Department of State. Symba, in fact, began as a social action project to create equitable access to the workforce. The tech pivot came as a way to scale the mission.

Here, Sadeghi breaks down her simple strategy to successfully build no-code solutions, perfect for founders with big ideas and without a tech background. “You don’t have to be perfect to get started,” she said. “You just have to start.”

VALIDATE THE PROBLEM.

Step back and zero in on what the need actually is. Write down all the assumptions you have about the problem, and then ask yourself questions that really dig into it:

• What about the assumptions needs to be true?
• How big is the problem and whom does it impact?
• Why do you want to fix it?
• If you had a solution, what would it empower you to do?
• How does it fit into your day or workflow?
• How are you managing today without it?

Obsess over the problem and the market need. Gather data from interviews, surveys, and research. Remember, 42% of startups fail due to lack of demand.

Pro Tip: Find out if there’s a solution already available. Depending on what you’re building, you can white-label or rebrand the existing product. Case in point: If your goal is to foster a community, you may not need to build a new engagement platform from scratch.

VALIDATE THE NEED FOR TECH.

Ask yourself what’s the best way to solve your problem, then determine whether tech is necessary. It’s important to be intentional to ensure this is the right path for you.

Tech is a good fit if any of the following criteria apply:

• There’s a large market and a need to scale quickly across many users.
• You’re looking to automate repetitive or complex workflows that can be sequenced.
• Connecting people, data, or systems—especially across geographies—is essential.
• You want to personalize experiences based on inputs.

When is tech not the right move? If your solution is niche or low frequency, if high-touch human interaction is key, or if a service-based or manual model gets faster results.

COMMUNICATE YOUR VISION WITHOUT CODE.

Begin by mapping out the user flow, step by step. What are the main actions your user needs to do to solve the problem? Concentrate on two or three high-level steps—five max.

In product development, the big-picture goals are referred to as epics, while the smaller, supporting actions are called stories. They’re a helpful way to break down big ideas into manageable tasks.

For instance, if the objective (or epic) is to schedule a hair appointment, a customer’s stories might include signing up, creating a profile, booking a service, and getting a confirmation. Save the nitty-gritty details—like time zones and scheduling preferences—for later.

Note that you may have multiple users, each with their own flow—say, one for the customer and one for the hairdresser. For examples of different workflow formats and structures, Atlassian is a good resource.

“Start scrappy and focus on clarity,” Sadeghi emphasized. “Draw boxes and arrows. Use Post-its, a white board… we used napkins. Then, you can level up and make it visual with Canva, Microsoft PowerPoint, Miro, or Figma.” The purpose here, she added, is to make your idea clear enough to share for early feedback.

Pro Tip: Pay attention to how tech products are designed, whether it’s a button placement or a checkout process. Study what you love and what you don’t. “Design is something that should be both beautiful and functional,” she said.  

BUILD YOUR TECH TEAM.

Now that you know what you want to build and why, you need the tech expertise to bring it to life.

“Share your mission everywhere, loud and proud,” said Sadeghi. “Talk about it, post about it, tap into networks, conferences, meetups.” Ask for guidance on what it takes to develop your product—and then get a second, third, and fourth opinion. And be persistent. Don’t send one LinkedIn message; send a hundred to get one or two responses.

If you’re worried about protecting your intellectual property—don’t. Use a simple NDA for something patentable, but if it’s something that’s that easy to steal and build, then you need to think through your technical and competitive moat. “Ideas are a dime a dozen,” explained Sadeghi. “It’s all about the execution, the marketing, and the strategy.”

Sadeghi met her own partner, Nikita Gupta, at a women in tech event in Washington D.C., and they quickly became friends—which brings us to what she considers the most integral part of the tech/non-tech relationship: trust.

To strengthen that foundation, consider doing activities together that aren’t about work. For Sadeghi and Gupta—a computer science and engineering grad who is now Symba’s co-founder and CTO—that means cooking and working out.

“This isn’t about finding a technical lead to build your idea,” she explained. “It’s about finding someone who believes in the idea for the community and the audience you’re serving. You need to know you’ve got each other’s back.”

Pro Tip: There are many ways to bring technical skills to your project, from co-founders to advisors, engineers to dev shops. Choose what fits your needs best.

USE AI TO DO THE HEAVY LIFTING.

Whether you have your technical lead or not, generative AI can be a big help in the beginning stages. Use it to help you research competitors, analyze market trends, summarize insights, and create better product mock-ups. Sadeghi’s favorite tools include ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Browse AI. There’s even an AI for visual prototyping, Uizard.

Pro Tip: You can also work smarter, not harder, with third-party plug-ins instead of building your tech from the ground up. But Sadeghi offered some key reminders: “How effective—and cost-effective—is the solution?” she asked. “What is the customer experience like? How developed is the company? If they do an update, how will it impact your platform? Do your due diligence.”

TEST, TEST, TEST.

Test as much as you can. This is crucial, Sadeghi emphasized, to avoid tech debt—an expression developers use to describe the long-term cost of quick fixes or rushed code that can cause problems down the line.

First, prototype your idea using no-code tools such as Webflow, Notion, Bubble, Glide, or the aforementioned Figma. Demo it live and gather feedback.

Second, fake it before you build it. Stitch Fix, for instance, used Google Docs and Microsoft Excel to track inventory and manage orders before creating its own internal software. Symba did the same—it initially relied on the survey tool Typeform, giving Sadeghi the insight needed to design a custom version.

Finally, lock in a goal and launch timeline—and drive momentum by setting up a wait-list, engaging on social media, pre-selling, or collecting sign-ups. Not only will you get people excited, but this will help you understand demand.