Navigating Intellectual Property Concerns when Developing MVPs with Bubble
Bubble's strength lies in its rapid development & iteration cycles. However some start ups have concerns over ownership & vendor lock. But there is a 3rd way. We take a look at how that might look.
As I engage with clients on building their applications, one recurring theme emerges: the importance of retaining intellectual property (IP) including a clear pathway for potential migration away from Bubble. While Bubble offers a powerful platform for quickly developing minimum viable products (MVPs), it raises concerns about the long-term implications of being tied to a no-code solution; especially one with a hosting lock in.
On the one hand start ups need to show revenue to get interest from investors, where as in the short term they need to prove their idea is viable. This doesn’t mean Bubble is not the solution. It just means you need to plan a little more carefully.
The Intellectual Property Concern
The concerns of start ups are they worry that building their application on a no-code platform like Bubble might limit their control over the intellectual property of their software. Business thrives on ideas and execution, but there are situations, such as raising funds, where investors may hold back for fear of vendor lock in.
This fear also relates to the reliance on one platform's infrastructure and tools, which could later change, become unavailable or unviable. It also about having control, managing scalability or pivoting in ways that exceed the perceived capabilities of the no-code platforms.
And likewise investors raise concerns when they feel their investment is not under the full ownership of the start up. That being said, it should not be a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Bubble as a Front-End Solution
Bubble's strength lies in providing a rapid development environment and the means to iterate ideas quickly. It means you can quickly develop ideas and solutions and get feedback. You can see very early on, before you get to testing it with real users, whether your ideas are valid or not. This helps business raise funds.
It also serves as an effective front-end solution, where the user interface and user experience are paramount. For many startups, this provides space to focus on validating the business model and refining the platform without getting bogged down by technical details.
Learn more Orzo Blue and how we work with No Code platforms to develop applications for our clients.
Building IP Outside of Bubble
For companies concerned with IP and scalability, the architecture can be designed in such a way Bubble handles only the front-end, while the back-end logic and data management are handled by more traditional, code-based systems. Here’s how this can be structured:
Use Bubble for What It Does Best: Leverage Bubble for rapid prototyping and to build out the UI/UX. This means both developer and start up can work together and see how things are shaping up, and feedback quickly and then iterate.
Develop Core IP Off-Platform: Building the proprietary algorithms, data processing, and storage components outside of Bubble using traditional development frameworks. This can be done using custom servers or cloud functions that connect to Bubble via APIs.
API Integration: Bubble supports integration with external APIs. This enables the application to communicate with back-end services developed in other languages or hosted on other platforms, ensuring that the critical IP components remain secure and proprietary. Doing this using Bubble is easy and very quick.
An Example
This is all very well in theory, but what does it look like in reality?
In a previous post I talked about how AI and Supabase can be combined to strengthen apps developed using Bubble. There we talked about how Supabase can be self-hosted and scaled, whilst being integrated with AI to enhance the features of machine leaning tools like recommendation engines.
In this example my approach was to use the following:
Supabase: Which is a realtime database you can use with Vectors to store embeddings derived from AI engines. This helps you understand the value of the data you have been collecting and processing.
Open AI: Connect to their API and pass your data, process it and return the values to your self hosted Supabase database.
Node JS: Develop your own intellectual property using serverside Javascript. This can be used to orchestrate between Supabase, Open AI and Bubble, passing data in all directions.
Bubble.io: Use their API connector to drive and co-ordinate business logic and surface the results using a set of webpages developed in Bubble.
It means you can ingest data from outside sources, directly into your database, using Supabase’s API wrapper; send it to Open AI for analysis, save the results and then present them in a dashboard using Bubble.
Benefits of This Hybrid Approach
Speed to Market: By using Bubble for the front-end, you can quickly test your ideas and iterate quickly based upon feedback without significant upfront investment in custom software development.
Flexibility: You can develop core technology independently of the front-end, giving you ownership, scalability and flexibility to change and scale the back-end without being tied to a specific platform.
Cost Efficiency: You have a means to manage your development costs by focusing resources on creating the unique aspects of the application that offer competitive advantages, rather than on routine programming.
Proof of Concept and MVP Testing: You can effectively use this setup to validate your market and refine your product offerings. If the concept proves viable, you can assess the future direction at that point and plot a path to migrating away from Bubble.
Conclusion
Bubble is an excellent tool for start ups who want to quickly turn their ideas into functional MVPs, but there are trade-offs to consider.
While this approach offers a range of benefits, it also comes with trade-offs such as the need for more sophisticated architecture planning and potentially higher complexity in managing two separate systems (front-end on Bubble and back-end elsewhere). For many, this approach is worthwhile in having control over intellectual property and scalability.
It is an approach that enables startups to protect their intellectual property and maintain flexibility for future growth and scaling. This can be done by leveraging external services, hosting, APIs, and frameworks like Node JS to separate areas of concern.
It not only mitigates using a no-code platform but also provides a longer term pathway for evolving away from an MVPs to a full-scale enterprise application.