We interviewed Tiger Facts co-founders, T. S. Strickland and Brooke Fleming, on building an app that helps people troll their friends with ridiculous facts about tigers. After watching “Tiger King” on Netflix, Brooke pulled an April Fool’s Day prank on T. S., which inspired them to create the app. They built Tiger Facts on Bubble because the no-code platform allowed them “to spin up a fun, timely app in just a week.”
What is Tiger Facts?
T. S. Strickland and Brooke Fleming: Tiger Facts lets users text-troll their friends with inane facts about tigers. Users can select which facts they want to send and decide when and how often to send them. After sending tiger facts, users can view their friends’ replies anonymously in the web app.
How does your app work?
Users input the names and phone numbers of the friends that they wish to troll, pick the timing and frequency of the texts, and then choose the “facts” that they want to send. Messages are sent automatically from our toll-free number, which allows users to watch the conversations play out in real-time via our web app. Each user receives 5 free messages, but they can send more by purchasing credits.
Tell us a little about your background and how you discovered no-code tools like Bubble.
T.S.: A journalist by training, I have written for the Washington Post, Entrepreneur, and a host of other titles. Brooke was the creative brains behind this project, contributing the copy (and, of course, the inspiration), while I built the application. Besides building Tiger Facts together, we’re partners in life and share a home. I discovered Bubble about six months ago. Since then, I’ve been using it to build the MVP (minimum viable product) for my main venture and talking about Bubble constantly, which has been a source of annoyance for Brooke.
Brooke: I own a boutique communications consultancy.
I’m the more ridiculous half of the couple. I often get too amused with my own jokes and can’t keep from laughing at myself (think dad jokes). Back in March, I had spent days wracking my brain to find an April Fools prank that would actually surprise T.S. After a lot of hand-wringing, I decided to revive an old text prank from Reddit–Cat Facts–but give it a timely spin. We had just finished binge-watching “Tiger King,” along with the rest of the world, so tigers seemed like an obvious fit.
I nabbed a Google voice number and spent about two days trolling T.S. with facts about tigers before finally letting him in on the joke. It worked so well that we decided to turn it into an app, so others could text-troll their loved ones, too. T.S. had been using Bubble to build the MVP for his own company--and fanboying about it, constantly. Thanks to Bubble, we were able to spin up a fully functional web app in under two weeks.
That said, now that I’ve seen Bubble’s capabilities firsthand, I’m not so annoyed that T.S. has been talking about it constantly. I’m a believer!
Why did you build your app on Bubble?
Tiger Facts was inspired by the popularity of Netflix’s “Tiger King.” Tiger Facts is a pretty ridiculous product, so it would have been impossible to justify without no-code tools. Bubble allowed us to spin up a fun, timely app in just over a week.
What has been your traction and successes so far?
We had some early bugs to work out, mostly because we were rushing to launch and making some silly logic errors along the way. However, with very little invested, we already have several dozen users and are revenue positive.
What are your future plans for your app?
Celebrity endorsements from Nicholas Cage and Tony the Tiger. (Duh!)
Learn more about Tiger Facts: Facebook | Twitter
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 400,000 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.
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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.
