We asked Suite Books founder, Nick Hutton, about building an app that allows users to keep track of what they have read, what they are currently reading, and what they want to read next. Nick has a background in product management and previously ran an e-commerce business in Australia. He chose Bubble because of the no-code platform's easy-to-understand user interface, robust design features, and ability to scale quickly.
Tell us about your app and what it does.
Suite Books is an online book community. It allows you and your friends to keep track of what you've read, what you're reading and what you want to read next. Suite also allows you to rate, review and categorize the books so you can compare notes and share recommendations with your friends.
By connecting with other people and seeing their lists and reviews, we hope to help everyone find more great books - and then have someone to discuss it with!
How does your app work?
You sign up to the app, then are directed to The Library where you can find any book. Here you can search for books and list them as 'read,' 'reading' or 'want to read.' You can also record a ton of information next to the book such as whether you own it, a review and rating, categories and sub-categories, and a whole lot more!
Tell us a little about your background and how you discovered no-code tools like Bubble.
I previously ran an e-commerce business in Australia, which closed last year. One of the biggest lessons I took from the business was that a digital product would have far greater reach and potential than any physical product, so I immediately began learning to code. While learning to code, I came across Bubble which was the first program I found that had the ease of no-code, but the power of real programming.
Why did you build your app on Bubble?
Bubble was the first program that I found that I could understand quickly and easily how to use, but also had the power to build a product that could scale to a lot of users. The ease of the design hooked me instantly - I had planned out 3 pages of the app in one day.
What have been your milestones or successes so far?
Although I have a background in Product Management, this is the first web app I've built end-to-end. So far, I've been working closely with people I classify as 'voracious readers' which means they read over 50 books a year and I've spent an enormous amount of time speaking to them and using their feedback to iterate the product. The goal is to make the app as powerful as a big reader wants, while ensuring it is so easy to use that anyone can pick it up.
What are your next steps or future plans for your app?
Now that we've got a solid base built, but plenty of room to grow, the focus is on marketing and getting the next set of users in. A key ingredient of the business is that we simply want people to read more books than they otherwise would have. If that means you read 100 instead of 90, that's great. But if it means you read 2 instead of 1, that's amazing as well. So we are focusing on getting more users to log honest reviews and ratings of the books they read, and connecting with people based on this.
Learn more about Suite Books: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest
About Bubble
Bubble is a leader in the no-code movement. Bubble offers a powerful point-and-click web editor and cloud hosting platform that allows users to build fully customizable web applications and workflows, ranging from simple prototypes to complex marketplaces, SaaS products, and more. Over 500,000 users are currently building and launching businesses on Bubble - many have gone on to participate in top accelerator programs, such as Y Combinator, and even raise $365M in venture funding. Bubble is more than just a product. We are a strong community of builders and entrepreneurs that are united by the belief that everyone should be able to create technology.
Do you want your app featured by Bubble? Reach out to us and tell us about your app. In addition to this series, we sometimes select our best apps to showcase on our website.
