STOP trying to build the next TikTok! - Interview with David Siegel, CEO of Glide

I don’t have much experience doing interviews so I was a bit nervous (like totally screwing up David’s last name… oops!), but I think we got to cover a lot of ground in 1 hour.

In the interview you will learn:

  • What’s the difference between a native app and a PWA app (what you can build with Glide)
  • Why most people fail at building consumer apps (i.e. the next TikTok, Instagram, Facebook)
  • Why you should focus on building apps for businesses instead.
  • What are the best ways to make money building apps with Glide.
  • Why Glide is a better alternative than Bubble or Adalo.
  • How Glide plans to help create 1 billion new software developers by 2030
  • How David has spent the last 25 years preparing to be the CEO of a big software startup.
  • And much more!

Let me know what you think.

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Great interview, thanks for sharing

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SIEGEL not SEIGEL ;D :bird:

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I had just added this to my watch later queue too. Can’t wait to watch.

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How do you pronounce it though? When I say it, it sounds to me like “Siegel” but I get the feeling you say it and it sounds like “Siegel.” :thinking:

This is covered in the first 10 seconds of the video above :smiley:

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I’ll never forget now :slight_smile:

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This is a great interview. A LOT of nuggets uncovered - thanks @david and @grumo !

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terrific interview!

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Great interview :+1:

You now have lots of answers for your YouTube channel :wink:

All the best with your apps (built with glide of course)

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Most people fail at building succeful consumer apps, but most companies fail at building succesful B2B apps too. Build what you believe in, make a difference, try. And know that there is good chance that you fail, whatever you do!

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But of course, if you want to become the next FB, Instagram or Twitter, don’t build on someone elses platform :wink: Build your own infrastraucture.

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Congrats @grumo! Awesome interview!! Thanks @david for all this vision
When I met Glide I realized the internal/work apps are the best option and thank you guys, today we can do it easily and the best solution for them!

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Wonderful interview, I had totally missed this.

(I got up extra early this morning to get work done, stumbled upon the interview and just spent 55min watching it. Classic!)

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Great to finally understand the grand vision and strategy for Glide…

I get the “don’t build the next TikTok or FB”, I can only assume due to Glide’s own limitations…but what I don’t get is that Glide has squarely put it self against the likes of AWS Honeycode

https://www.honeycode.aws/

What’s the strategy to compete with such a behemoth to build the “work apps” referenced in the vid.

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Appsheet (bought by Google) is really active in that field too.
Which doesn’t say you can’t be better / more succesful, of course.

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Exactly why I’m baffled at the advise to “don’t build the next TikTok, FB, AirBnB etc” there are many “clones” that are carving their niche in the space dominated by the big players.

I’d really like to see Glide push towards consumer apps (in parallel to the work apps strategy), Glide is a fantastic offering and in my view needs to allow for full UI customization for building apps (hence all the CSS discussions in this forum) to enable it to succeed in that space.

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I’m not sure about building the next TT or FB etc but totally agree with your comments about consumer apps vs work apps. The former is (also) a growing market where I believe that Glide could really excel, particularly given a little more flexibility for those that need it.

I hope Glide will remain a tool for the 2 billion people with ideas (small or big, personal or business) too. Hopefully the combination remains possible. At the moment it is. But it seems Glide doesn’t think it can make enough money in the consumer space to be a viable business. Businesses are more willing to pay substantial money where you need a lot of consumers to reach same amounts. Which is a business choice of course …
But saying Glide has never been about the next big social tool … :wink:

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That tweet is almost 2 years old and Glide has been around for just over 2 years if I’m not mistaken. Tech companies this young experiment and tweak, not only the product but also go-to-market strategy, pricing, brand positioning, etc. It’s normal.

As for the mission to create a billion new software developers by 2030 and to focus on apps for work to get there, this has been crystal clear since I’ve been using Glide (about a year). :slightly_smiling_face:

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