Two 23-year-olds from rural France have achieved something remarkable by disrupting the traditional methods of mobile development. Nicolas Dehandschoewercker and Luc Mahoux-Nakamura, the founders of Minitap, recently secured $4.2 million in funding. Their AI-driven platform is set to reduce mobile development cycles from six weeks to just days, empowering app developers to work 10 times faster. Minitap’s rapid success has drawn attention not just because of their young ages but because they outperformed Google DeepMind’s benchmark in only 40 days.
As a serial entrepreneur bootstrapping my ventures, I know how critical time efficiency is, especially when you're navigating limited resources. Minitap offers a glimpse into what’s possible when technology meets creative problem-solving. Let’s break it down and explore the lessons here for founders like myself who are constantly looking for that edge.
The Minitap Mission
Minitap takes one of mobile development’s biggest bottlenecks, long feedback loops caused by extensive debugging and testing, and solves it by letting AI handle these tasks. App developers can describe features, provide a design mockup (such as via Figma), and the platform does the rest. It generates the code, runs it, detects bugs, fixes them, and even prepares an A/B test. This eliminates the frustrating wait between idea creation and actual execution.
One thing that stood out to me is their approach to tackling a very specific challenge. Mobile apps make up 60% of all internet usage, but the pace of their development lags significantly behind web platforms. For startups, this slow pace often leads to missed opportunities. Faster iteration times mean products evolve quickly based on user feedback, something that is key to staying ahead in competitive markets.
What resonates is not just the speed improvement but the autonomy the platform offers. Minitap essentially allows app developers to outsource routine tasks entirely to AI, leaving more room for creativity and strategic thinking.
Why Investors Took Note
The funding was led by Moxxie Ventures, with Katie Jacobs Stanton calling Minitap’s success “rare.” Backing also came from Mercuri, alongside well-known tech names such as Hugging Face and SumUp. These are heavy hitters, and their involvement signals an endorsement of the product’s potential and the credibility of its technical foundation.
For startup founders in Europe, especially women working in fields like deeptech or AI, this funding round highlights something essential: specialization can trump years of experience. These founders weren’t “seasoned veterans”; instead, they leveraged deep academic know-how and targeted expertise to solve an unaddressed pain point.
What Founders Can Learn
This brings me to some tangible takeaways for founders, especially fellow female entrepreneurs who may be charting their path in male-dominated sectors:
- Identify Niche Pain Points. Minitap took a specific inefficiency within mobile development and solved it. As women in tech, we often aim to provide end-to-end solutions. Sometimes focusing on one issue can pay off bigger.
- Leverage Strategic Timing. By mastering the AndroidWorld benchmark, Minitap didn’t just demonstrate their product’s value, they built credibility. Achievements aligned with industry timing can work as catalysts to secure investors.
- Show Evidence, Not Words. The fact that they built and tested their solution in only 40 days, outperforming some of the biggest tech players, is proof that speaks louder than promises. Female entrepreneurs, especially, need to lean on measurable actions because biases still exist when presenting ideas.
- Surround Yourself With Expertise. The involvement of names like Hugging Face isn’t small. For founders looking to scale, the right collaborations can propel credibility faster than standalone efforts.
Lessons to Avoid Common Pitfalls
The story also sheds light on mistakes to avoid:
- Underestimating Go-to-Market Strategies. While developing innovative solutions is key, founders can’t get stuck in the building phase. Minitap moved extremely fast, iterating in weeks instead of months. Don’t aim for perfect; aim for functional.
- Scaling Too Early. I’ve often observed startups in Europe rush to expand without validating on smaller scales first. Minitap’s combination of testing benchmarks and direct user feedback was strategic.
- Ignoring Marketing. Their narrative is compelling, two young talents from rural France winning over Google-level teams. Founders should work on positioning themselves just as much as they focus on products.
Why This Matters for Female Founders
As a founder who has pumped years into bootstrapping my startups, I understand how often women entrepreneurs are dismissed as niche players or not “technical enough.” Minitap’s example counters that stereotype with focus and expertise. Their milestones remind smaller teams, especially female-led ones, that speed, execution, and proof of concept don’t require endless funding or resources, just determination and strong use cases.
At Fe/male Switch, where I’ve built tools to gamify startup journeys, I’ve constantly emphasized these principles to my community. Watching young founders like Nicolas and Luc succeed reinforces why startups need to operate more like speedboats than cargo ships, they need to adapt quickly, test constantly, and capitalize on each small win.
A Future of AI-Assisted Teamwork
Tools like Minitap will likely shift how small-scale teams operate. With AI taking over repetitive development workflows, founders, product managers, and small dev teams can focus their attention on creating unique, engaging customer experiences rather than being bogged down in technical nuances.
Imagine creating a product prototype within days and running feedback tests before competitors finalize wireframes. For female founders toeing the entrepreneurial waters in Europe’s tech landscape, platforms like Minitap may unlock new opportunities.
If you’re a founder itching to accelerate mobile development without a huge engineering budget, take inspiration from their journey and consider what niche pain points you're uniquely positioned to solve. And if AI tools are part of the solution, don't be shy about incorporating them early, this group is paving the way for you to do so too.
The big takeaway? Speed is now a competitive advantage. And as a female founder, this is the perfect chance to leverage smart tools and close the gaps others are too slow to notice. Got an app idea brewing? Now could be the time to bring it to life.
Keep exploring
If this story inspires you, explore how Minitap’s vision fits into broader trends in AI-driven mobile development. Tune into expert opinions or tools that may streamline your entrepreneurial journey.
FAQ
1. What is Minitap and who are its founders?
Minitap is an AI-driven platform that reduces mobile development cycles from six weeks to just days, founded by Nicolas Dehandschoewercker and Luc Mahoux-Nakamura, both 23 years old from rural France. Read about Minitap’s journey
2. How much funding did Minitap raise, and who are its investors?
Minitap raised $4.2 million in funding from investors like Moxxie Ventures, Mercuri, and notable contributors like Hugging Face and SumUp. Check out Moxxie Ventures | Explore Mercuri’s focus
3. What technology does Minitap offer to app developers?
Minitap’s platform uses AI to generate code, run it autonomously across devices, debug it, and even set up A/B tests, drastically speeding up app development. Learn more about Minitap’s tech
4. How did Minitap outperform Google DeepMind?
Minitap ranked first on the AndroidWorld benchmark, beating Google DeepMind, ByteDance, Microsoft Research, and Alibaba within 40 days. Read about the benchmark achievement
5. Why is Minitap’s approach unique for mobile development?
Minitap eliminates long development feedback loops by automating routine coding, debugging, and testing processes, enabling creativity and strategic thinking for developers. Explore their innovative approach
6. What industries stand to benefit most from Minitap’s platform?
Consumer mobile companies like Duolingo, Calm, and Hinge benefit greatly from faster iteration cycles and A/B testing capabilities offered by Minitap’s AI technology. Learn more about AI applications
7. Why did investors back Minitap, despite the founders’ young age?
Investors were impressed by Minitap’s technical foundation, rapid achievement in performance benchmarks, and targeted approach addressing a major inefficiency in mobile development. Explore investor endorsements
8. What are some key lessons for startup founders based on Minitap’s success?
Founders can learn about focusing on niche pain points, leveraging strategic timing, providing measurable evidence, and collaborating with experts to build credibility. Take inspiration from Minitap
9. What challenges in mobile development does Minitap solve?
Minitap addresses the slow pace of mobile app development compared to web platforms, enabling rapid iteration across teams limited by conventional engineering cycles. Discover their solution
10. How does Minitap’s success impact the future of AI-assisted teamwork?
Minitap exemplifies how AI tools can shift focus from repetitive workflows to customer experience innovations, driving efficiency for small teams. Explore Minitap’s implications
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
Violetta Bonenkamp's expertise in CAD sector, IP protection and blockchain
Violetta Bonenkamp is recognized as a multidisciplinary expert with significant achievements in the CAD sector, intellectual property (IP) protection, and blockchain technology.
CAD Sector:
- Violetta is the CEO and co-founder of CADChain, a deep tech startup focused on developing IP management software specifically for CAD (Computer-Aided Design) data. CADChain addresses the lack of industry standards for CAD data protection and sharing, using innovative technology to secure and manage design data.
- She has led the company since its inception in 2018, overseeing R&D, PR, and business development, and driving the creation of products for platforms such as Autodesk Inventor, Blender, and SolidWorks.
- Her leadership has been instrumental in scaling CADChain from a small team to a significant player in the deeptech space, with a diverse, international team.
IP Protection:
- Violetta has built deep expertise in intellectual property, combining academic training with practical startup experience. She has taken specialized courses in IP from institutions like WIPO and the EU IPO.
- She is known for sharing actionable strategies for startup IP protection, leveraging both legal and technological approaches, and has published guides and content on this topic for the entrepreneurial community.
- Her work at CADChain directly addresses the need for robust IP protection in the engineering and design industries, integrating cybersecurity and compliance measures to safeguard digital assets.
Blockchain:
- Violetta’s entry into the blockchain sector began with the founding of CADChain, which uses blockchain as a core technology for securing and managing CAD data.
- She holds several certifications in blockchain and has participated in major hackathons and policy forums, such as the OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum.
- Her expertise extends to applying blockchain for IP management, ensuring data integrity, traceability, and secure sharing in the CAD industry.
Violetta is a true multiple specialist who has built expertise in Linguistics, Education, Business Management, Blockchain, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, Game Design, AI, SEO, Digital Marketing, cyber security and zero code automations. Her extensive educational journey includes a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Education, an Advanced Master in Linguistics from Belgium (2006-2007), an MBA from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden (2006-2008), and an Erasmus Mundus joint program European Master of Higher Education from universities in Norway, Finland, and Portugal (2009).
She is the founder of Fe/male Switch, a startup game that encourages women to enter STEM fields, and also leads CADChain, and multiple other projects like the Directory of 1,000 Startup Cities with a proprietary MeanCEO Index that ranks cities for female entrepreneurs. Violetta created the "gamepreneurship" methodology, which forms the scientific basis of her startup game. She also builds a lot of SEO tools for startups. Her achievements include being named one of the top 100 women in Europe by EU Startups in 2022 and being nominated for Impact Person of the year at the Dutch Blockchain Week. She is an author with Sifted and a speaker at different Universities. Recently she published a book on Startup Idea Validation the right way: from zero to first customers and beyond, launched a Directory of 1,500+ websites for startups to list themselves in order to gain traction and build backlinks and is building MELA AI to help local restaurants in Malta get more visibility online.
For the past several years Violetta has been living between the Netherlands and Malta, while also regularly traveling to different destinations around the globe, usually due to her entrepreneurial activities. This has led her to start writing about different locations and amenities from the POV of an entrepreneur. Here’s her recent article about the best hotels in Italy to work from.
About the Publication
Fe/male Switch is an innovative startup platform designed to empower women entrepreneurs through an immersive, game-like experience. Founded in 2020 during the pandemic "without any funding and without any code," this non-profit initiative has evolved into a comprehensive educational tool for aspiring female entrepreneurs.The platform was co-founded by Violetta Shishkina-Bonenkamp, who serves as CEO and one of the lead authors of the Startup News branch.
Mission and Purpose
Fe/male Switch Foundation was created to address the gender gap in the tech and entrepreneurship space. The platform aims to skill-up future female tech leaders and empower them to create resilient and innovative tech startups through what they call "gamepreneurship". By putting players in a virtual startup village where they must survive and thrive, the startup game allows women to test their entrepreneurial abilities without financial risk.
Key Features
The platform offers a unique blend of news, resources,learning, networking, and practical application within a supportive, female-focused environment:
- Skill Lab: Micro-modules covering essential startup skills
- Virtual Startup Building: Create or join startups and tackle real-world challenges
- AI Co-founder (PlayPal): Guides users through the startup process
- SANDBOX: A testing environment for idea validation before launch
- Wellness Integration: Virtual activities to balance work and self-care
- Marketplace: Buy or sell expert sessions and tutorials
Impact and Growth
Since its inception, Fe/male Switch has shown impressive growth:
- 5,000+ female entrepreneurs in the community
- 100+ startup tools built
- 5,000+ pieces of articles and news written
- 1,000 unique business ideas for women created
Partnerships
Fe/male Switch has formed strategic partnerships to enhance its offerings. In January 2022, it teamed up with global website builder Tilda to provide free access to website building tools and mentorship services for Fe/male Switch participants.
Recognition
Fe/male Switch has received media attention for its innovative approach to closing the gender gap in tech entrepreneurship. The platform has been featured in various publications highlighting its unique "play to learn and earn" model.