Did you know that there’s an entire industry of professional Bubble Developers, either freelancing or working at Bubble agencies? It’s true, and they’re an impressive group of people (to put it lightly).
Matt Mazzega is the co-CEO and head of product and design at Tinkso, an agency that’s been building client applications in no-code since 2017. We sat down with him to learn more about his journey and hear what excites him about the future of no-code.
How did you find your way to Bubble?
I started my career as an academic after earning my PhD in sociology/anthropology. After that, I transitioned into corporate UX research and design, working for Xerox and Steelcase research centers in Europe and the US. But while I was doing a lot of the “thinking” around innovative products and services, I was missing the actual “doing.”
I discovered Bubble in 2016. I was working on a project for my employer at the time, and I wanted to present more than a simple point-and-click prototype. The first Bubble app I built was a monster, and I could hardly believe I’d built a real working app! I quickly realized that building digital products from A to Z was something I wanted to do in the next stage of my career. Six months later, I quit my job and moved fully into freelance Bubble development.
Today, I'm the co-CEO of Tinkso, a well-known Bubble agency, managing around 20 team members — all fluent with Bubble! While I'm currently leading the agency’s design department (and development of our internal Bubble framework, openBuild), I also project-manage certain strategic client projects. Having said that, not a single day goes by where I don’t have at least one app editor open.
Has becoming a Bubble Developer unlocked any doors for you?
Above all, having expertise in Bubble development and a background in UX allows me to feel confident about the full process of building a digital product — from thinking to doing.
On a more personal level, moving into Bubble dev and then founding a Bubble agency has helped me lead a very different personal life. We’re a fully remote agency, which gives me and my family more freedom in deciding where we want to live. Before, my career tied me to major cities. Now, we are living in the heart of the French Alps in a town with only 40 inhabitants (although a quite decent internet connection!).
How many Bubble apps have you built to date? Which one was the coolest?
Tinkso has built somewhere around 150–200 Bubble apps so far. It’s hard to say which one is the coolest, because the Bubble platform has grown a lot since we started in 2017, and we couldn’t have developed the same kinds of apps we build today back then. But among the most recent, I might say Here is a good candidate. It’s a platform that makes it easy for anyone to invest in vacation rentals. We’re in charge of both design and development, and they now count dozens of thousands of users!
What excites you most about no-code and the future?
On the business side, I'm excited to see (now and tomorrow) no-code and Bubble get adopted by new types of companies. Startups discovered no-code early, but I love that we’re now seeing SMBs, enterprises, and even public institutions enter the game.
On the people side, it’s also exciting to see a new population of product builders using no-code. I’m eager to see how they (and we!) will transform businesses, industries, and the overall job market.
All in all, tracking the no-code space and watching it redefine who can create digital products — and even what a digital product actually is — is an exciting moment to be in!
“Seeing no-code redefine who can create digital products — and even what a digital product actually is — is an exciting moment to be in.”
What’s your favorite Bubble hack or little-known tip?
You can put emojis in your Bubble editor (data types, fields, workflows, elements) to make it more visual and understandable. Seems trivial, but even if you’re the only one building your apps, this will help your future app team members drastically. In fact, pay special attention to keeping your app editor clean and enjoyable overall, as you (and others) might spend a lot of time in it. Better to think about it from the start!
What would you say to someone who’s considering a career in no-code?
Come in!
I would add that while no-code can indeed be faster to learn than code (even though it's still a commitment, be patient!), learn other things in combination (UX, business, copywriting, etc.) and bring what you’ve learned before with you. I meet and recruit new no-code developers on a regular basis, and I’m always amazed by the variety of backgrounds in the community. At the professional level, it adds a lot to your profile.
