In this conversation, Samantha Black shares her journey from being an education professional to becoming an app developer without a technical background.

She discusses the challenges she faced while building her apps, the tools she used, and the learning process involved in navigating app development and submission.

The conversation highlights the importance of problem-solving, the role of AI in development, and the continuous learning curve that comes with creating technology solutions for educational purposes.

In this conversation, Nina Kolari and Samantha Black explore the journey of app development, particularly focusing on the empowerment of women in tech. They discuss the challenges and innovations in creating apps, the importance of marketing strategies, and the value of feedback and iteration. Samantha shares her experiences in launching her app, Earnling, and emphasizes the significance of starting projects even when one feels unprepared. The discussion highlights the unique perspectives women bring to tech and the practical solutions they create to address everyday problems.

Find more about Samantha's app Earnling here.

Takeaways

Samantha transitioned from education to app development.
She created an app to help her daughter with math homework.
The app development process involved significant problem-solving.
Samantha used AI tools like Claude to assist in coding.
Navigating the App Store submission was a complex process.
She learned from bugs and challenges during development.
Samantha emphasized the importance of financial literacy for kids.
The coding aspect was easier compared to marketing the app.
AI tools can enhance the learning experience in app development.
Samantha's journey reflects the power of perseverance and continuous learning. You have to have the patience and the idea.
The gap between being a developer and having a good idea is smaller.
Women can just sit down and fix problems now.
It's so cool to watch what women create.
Don't let your ideas stop you from launching.
Ship before you think you should.
You just have to be willing to learn.
Pinterest is the secret weapon to success.
It's important to recognize your accomplishments.
Feedback is crucial for improvement.

Jocelyn Greenlee was gifted three chickens and had nowhere to put them. Raccoons in the neighbourhood, no coop for sale anywhere, and every DIY plan she found was more complicated than she could pull off. So she pulled her car over on the side of the road and decided to build an app instead.

Two days later she had something that worked. A few weeks after that, Bildara was live on the App Store — snap a photo, get the materials, measurements, shopping list and safety notes.

She has no coding background. She works in SEO by day. In this episode she walks through how she thinks about it: you're the product manager, the AI is your engineer. You describe what you want, it builds, you tell it what's broken.

We get into the parts that broke, the App Store rejection she fixed in fifteen minutes, why she stopped waiting for the logo to be perfect, and the thing she says surprised her most — not the app, but what shipping it did to her confidence.

The chickens are fine. They love the coop.

You can find Buildara on the App Store.

Kayla had never built an app before. Eight and a half weeks later, it was live in the App Store.

Every year, three kids meant three school supply lists in three different formats. And every year, she did the mental work of merging them by hand.

She got tired of it. So she built the fix.

In this episode, Kayla Orozco walks through how a conversation designer with zero coding background shipped a real iOS app while working full-time and raising three kids.

You'll hear:

• Why she chose iOS first, and how she decided app over website
• How Claude became her thinking partner and pushed back on her own scope creep
• The one mistake she'd undo (vibe coding everything into a single file)
• Her three rounds of testing, from low-fi prototype to TestFlight beta
• How she handled backend security when Instagram kept telling her vibe-coded apps get hacked
• The two-part pricing model she built, founding member first, subscription later
• What she'd tell you if you have an idea sitting in your notes app right now

Her advice for anyone waiting for the "right time"? Try. Most people never do.

Download her app at schoolsupply.app or search for it in the App Store and PlayStore.

Ellyn Winters-Robinson — tech marketer turned breast cancer patient turned founder of AskEllyn.ai, the first AI companion for people impacted by breast cancer.

Ellyn Winters-Robinson spent her career in tech marketing — until a breast cancer diagnosis exposed a gap she couldn't ignore: patients get world-class medical treatment but almost no support for the emotional, day-to-day reality of the disease.

So she built it herself.

In this episode of App Minded, Ellyn shares how she went from patient to founder, building AskEllyn.ai, an AI companion designed specifically for people impacted by breast cancer. We talk about the neglect of women's health, why patients are becoming builders out of necessity, and what it actually takes to turn a personal crisis into a product that helps thousands of others.

If you're curious about AI in healthcare, women's health innovation, or how founders build from lived experience, this one's for you.

Welcome to the first episode of App Minded.

This is a slightly different episode because before we jump into conversations with other builders, I wanted to share my own story —how I went from never having written a line of code to building and shipping apps with AI.

I’ll tell you why I started this podcast, what I learned along the way, and why I believe we’re at a moment where more people than ever can turn their ideas into real products.

Let’s get into it.

Connect with me on Instagram.