😺 🎙️ NEW PODCAST: We Built 3 AI Apps in 60 Minutes (No Coding!)

Welcome, humans.

Remember when building an app meant hiring developers, spending months in development, and dropping $50K minimum?

Well, Grant and Corey just built three apps with AI in under an hour… with ZERO actual coding required. 

One of them EVEN planned a 4-day St. Louis adventure: complete with interactive maps and budget tracking.

In our latest podcast episode, we put Google AI Studio's new app builder to the test with a simple challenge: Could we really go from idea to deployed app faster than it takes to watch a Netflix episode?

Spoiler: The adventure planner we built was so good, we’re actually going to use it to plan our next trips.

Here's what went down:

• (16:11): App #1 begins, our first attempt at building an email organizer goes sideways (and why that's actually a good thing).

• (29:57): App #2 starts, Building a meme generator that gets surprisingly savage.

• (35:11): App #3 starts, The adventure planner that blew our minds.

• (27:49): The “Context Rot” problem that makes your chats get worse over time—and how to avoid it.

• (36:05): The Game-changer = Using ChatGPT-o3 (or equivalent model like Grok 4 / Gemini 2.5 Pro) to write better prompts…this alone will save you hours.

• (47:45): The moment our adventure planner creates a fully interactive 4-day itinerary with maps.

• (58:47): Don’t know how to describe a problem? Take a screenshot of it!

• (1:01:29): Alternative AI app builders if Google's not your thing (including Claude's artifacts, which just got a new upgrade).

• (1:09:20): A five-step quick start framework for when building your first AI app—remember, the key is to start small with a “micro-app” that’s easy to spin up! 

• (1:12:12): Critical cost controls—how to avoid a $80K surprise on your credit card.

Bottom line: If you've been waiting for the “right time” to build that fun little app idea, it's here. No CS degree required. No $100K budget needed.

Just you, an idea, and about 30 minutes.

Watch now on YouTube | Spotify | Apple (this is another one you wanna watch with video!).

Resources to get you started:

• Google AI Studio (free to start).

• Google’s Firebase Studio (we didn’t mention this in the vid, but this is their “Lovable” equivalent).

• Google’s new micro-app builder Opal (read more).

• NoCodeMBA's step-by-step guide (great resource!!).

• Here’s a quick tutorial on building AI apps w/ Firebase Studio

• Understanding Context Rot (video)

• Alternative builders: Lovable | Claude Artifacts | V0 | Bolt.new 

  • There’s also Ideavo, which is new, and Rork, which is for mobile apps.

• Database/ infrastructure tools: 

  • Supabase (for storing your app's data).

  • Railway (for hosting your app online).

One thing we didn’t mention: let’s say your app totally stalls out, and AI Studio can’t fix it. Gemini’s stuck on an endless loop saying it’s fixing it, but clearly isn’t.

Well, in addition to starting over with a new prompt, you can just download the code AI Studio already wrote, and then re-share it (with some copy and pasting of the files) in a new chat to ask for help fixing the problem. Not a perfect solution, but worth a shot!

Now, here are some resources for vibe-coding in general (so you don’t bite off more than you can chew to start).

• Simon Willison on vibe coding.

• How Simon uses AI to code.

• Harper Reed's AI coding workflow.

• Agentic project management guide (a bit technical, but useful resource).

• When vibe coding works (and when it doesn't).

• AI Engineer YouTube channel (to go deeper into coding with AI).

And for a few additional resources to get you started in coding in general, check this Reddit comment, this Reddit post, this Hacker News thread, this other Hacker News thread, and this other Reddit thread (just a start!)

Stay curious, 

The Neuron Team

P.S. The meme generator we built roasted us so hard we almost didn't include it in the episode (just kidding, but it’s still funny to see it try). Watching AI try to understand humor? Priceless. Check out 57:30 for the “savage” burns. 🔥