SPOTLIGHT: Ben McCarthy

Spotlight

13th of January, 2025

Meet Ben McCarthy, a guy who started out tinkering with WordPress templates and ended up creating a game-changing app for nature lovers. Back in 2014, Ben was just another non-technical person using WordPress to build a website, but he quickly hit its limits. Fast-forward a few years, and he discovered Bubble.io—a platform that let him ditch the pre-made templates and build exactly what he envisioned.

With a little help from Building with Bubble tutorials (and a lot of Lachlan’s voice playing on repeat at 2x speed), Ben created NatureReel: a stunning app that combines a love of nature with features to inspire and empower conservation efforts. Think TikTok for wildlife enthusiasts, complete with challenges, species facts, and even donation options to protect endangered species.

In this post, Ben talks about how he made the leap from WordPress to Bubble, the challenges he overcame, and how NatureReel is making a difference. Let’s dive into his story!

1. What’s your history of discovering Bubble & BWB?

Around 2014, I built my first website using WordPress. I think it was the first popular platform where a non-technical person could build a site without code. But I quickly discovered its limitations, particularly if you had big and creative ideas.

You would pick a premade template, like a ‘Photography Portfolio,’ but then you had to work within the boundaries set by the template designer. You had to hope that by tinkering with its settings you could get close enough to what you wanted.

If you were a photographer looking to showcase your photos in a typical portfolio, or a real estate agency who needed a quick website, then it’s probably fine. But it wasn’t enough for me. I had a vision for a website and app that brought together popular features to create something totally new and exciting for people who loved to share nature content. So after years pushing WordPress to its limits I discovered Bubble.

Instead of pre-made templates, Bubble had powerful building blocks that I could combine to create something entirely original. I was amazed that it was flexible enough that you could make clones for Uber, AirBnb, or Instagram – seemingly anything I wanted.

I dove into Building with Bubble’s tutorials over Christmas break and burnt Lachlan’s voice into my ears by building alongside the videos at 2x speed. By the end, I had created my own Instagram-style app, which I modified and extended into what is now NatureReel.

2. Tell us about the most exciting project that you’ve built or are currently building on Bubble!

The most exciting project I’ve built with Bubble is NatureReel. NatureReel is an app for nature lovers, designed to enrich their experience of the natural world. It features a TikTok-style feed showcasing stunning nature photography, wildlife videos, and other nature content from our community of nature photographers. Other features include:

  • Facts about species and ecosystems
  • Challenges to regularly explore nature and discover new wonders
  • Support endangered species with donations to NGOs and track invasive species

Visit NatureReel’s website to be blown away by the endless and incredible biodiversity of our planet. Thanks to Bubble’s new native mobile feature, by the time you read this it may also be on the App Store!

NatureReel’s goals are ambitious. I believe that if we can make a popular app that shows people the wonders of nature around us, then give them ways to support it and reward them for doing so, we can make a huge impact in nature conservation. If you’d like to help make this happen, reach out to me!

Bubble and Building with Bubble was my only feasible route for getting to where I am now. Since I couldn’t do it with other no-code platforms, they saved me a ton of uncertainty and cost in outsourcing development to a software developer. By building it myself, the build became a creative process of modifying and extending my original vision into something that is now way better than I ever thought.

3. What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while building your apps using Bubble? What helped you?

The early stages of learning Bubble weren’t without frustrations. For example, element states are a massive part of the platform but they are all but hidden within the interface. Fortunately, Building with Bubble doesn’t miss a single step and shows you everything. This is why I’d recommend building alongside the videos.

Another key lesson was mastering responsive design early in the process. NatureReel needed to look great on both mobile and desktop. Fortunately Building with Bubble does this in all tutorials as well.

Browse Building with Bubble courses

4. Anything else you would like to say for fellow Bubblers?

  1. Follow Tutorials: Start with a Building with Bubble clone tutorial that aligns with your vision and then modify it to suit your needs.
  2. Learn Responsive Design Early: It’s much easier to get your app looking great on all devices from the beginning than to adjust it all later.
  3. Think Big: With Bubble, you’re not limited by templates or pre-made solutions. If you can imagine it, you can build it.

 

We are grateful to share Ben’s Bubble story and if you enjoyed it as much as we did – stay tuned for another story!

Would you like to share your story, too? Drop us an email at hello@buildingwithbubble.com

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