Building a B2C Platform Without a Tech Background: How I Hacked My Way to an MVP

In the B2C startup world, there’s still a lingering myth: if you’re not technical, you can’t build a tech company.

Max, the founder of Adventuro, didn’t buy that.

Adventuro is a platform that lets people book outdoor and adventure sport experiences — everything from skydiving and kayaking to scuba certifications and multi-day hiking trips. But it’s not just about fun activities. The company focuses on helping people progress in their sports, with real qualifications, learning paths, and a sense of community.

“It’s so easy to get on a beginner tour, but anything beyond that — where you want to get qualified or improve — is so confusing. I wanted to fix that.”

On a recent episode of The Levels Podcast — produced by Trophy, a platform for building gamified customer experiences — Max shared how he launched Adventuro as a non-technical solo founder, using off-the-shelf tools, contractors, and automations to move fast and ship a working product.

This is what it actually looks like to build a startup without writing much code — and what he’d do differently next time.

Step 1: Start With What You Know

Max didn’t have a background in software engineering or product design. He’d been a consultant in the travel industry, working with companies like airlines and OTAs (online travel agents) on scaling their digital platforms.

“I’m not a coder by background. I’m not overly technical by training. But I had done a lot of system design, and I’d worked closely with dev teams in project owner roles. So I knew how to think about structure and flow.”

That gave him a huge advantage: while he couldn’t code the whole thing himself, he knew what needed to be built, and where he could cut corners.

Step 2: Launch Fast Using Off-the-Shelf Tools

Max wanted to get Adventuro into customers’ hands quickly. So he leaned heavily on no-code tools and off-the-shelf platforms.

“We cut a lot of corners deliberately. We launched within 11 weeks of me quitting my job. You know, we were live after three months with a workable product.”

He used a mix of marketplace templates and automation tools to stitch the MVP together. The result? Customers could discover activities, book online, and pay, even if the back-end was held together with duct tape.

“All the automations were somewhat stitched together on the back end. But it worked — people could book, and that’s what mattered.”

Step 3: Hire Freelancers — and Get It Wrong (Twice)

Max knew he couldn’t build the whole product solo, so he turned to freelance developers on Upwork.

“I actually found them through Upwork. They're two guys based in India who I've been working with now, you know, 18 months or so. They’re great — they feel like part of the team.”

But before he found the right devs, he went through two failed attempts.

“They were third time lucky. I tried a couple of other people… and they just weren’t very good, weren’t communicative. The quality and speed of the work was poor, especially compared to the price.”

What worked about the team he eventually settled on? They were responsive, understood the product vision quickly, and were affordable — crucial, since the company was bootstrapping during its first year.

Step 4: Automate Everything You Can

To bridge the gap between systems and avoid over-relying on dev time, Max used Make.com (an automation platform similar to Zapier) to link everything together.

“We use a lot of Make.com — it’s great software. It means we can get things up and running really quickly, and it’s scalable.”

They use Make to:

• Send email notifications
• Update accounting software
• Handle booking confirmations
• Power cross-system tracking

“It doesn’t matter if you’re putting in one email or a hundred thousand in a day — it works just fine. I think we would’ve been a lot slower without it.”

Eventually, as they rebuilt the platform into something more scalable, they moved critical systems like payment processing and bookings into custom code. But many of the glue systems still run through Make, and it’s saved them thousands of dev hours.

Step 5: Own Product, Not Code

Now that Adventuro has scaled, Max has moved fully into a product owner role, leading design, strategy, and customer feedback, while his developers handle implementation.

“I focus more on the design side of things and allow them to do the coding and bring it to life… I spend most of my time now on customer experience, UI, and getting feedback from customers and centers.”

That’s the superpower of a non-technical founder: relentless focus on what the user actually wants.

Lessons for Non-Technical Founders

If you’re building a B2C startup without an engineering background, here are Max’s biggest takeaways:

1. You don’t need to code to launch.

Use off-the-shelf tools and templates. Get something live.

2. Don’t expect your first freelancer to work out.

Vet fast. Fire faster. You’ll find the right fit eventually.

3. Use automation tools to bridge gaps.

Make.com and Zapier let you connect platforms, speed up delivery, and avoid early over-engineering.

4. Spend your time on customer experience.

You’re not the developer — be the strategist, the designer, the voice of the customer.

5. Technical debt is fine — just don’t drown in it.

Ship fast, then rebuild the foundations once you’ve validated demand.

Final Thought

You don’t need to be a coder to be a tech founder. But you do need to be clear on what you’re building, fast on your feet, and ruthless about keeping things simple.

Max’s journey proves that you can bootstrap your way to product-market fit without a single line of code — if you stay focused on solving a real problem, launch quickly, and automate where it counts.

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