Amanda Spann Wants To Empower ‘Missing Middle’ Professionals To Build Tech Startups Even If They Don’t Know How To Code – AfroTech

Amanda Spann wears many hats — the former Wells Fargo and IBM professional is a serial app entrepreneur, author, and educator helping non-technical professionals enter the tech industry.

At the center of her work is The App Accelerator, a 15-week product-development program that teaches professionals how to build viable, tech-enabled businesses around their app idea — without learning to code. The program, which offers coaching, training, mentorship, and other resources, is now expanding to more than 100 universities nationwide, according to information shared with AFROTECH™. Spann also counts billionaire philanthropist Robert F. Smith as a supporter of her program.

“I believe that God called me to help people actualize their dreams. And apps are just the medium that I’ve chosen to help people do that,” Spann told AFROTECH™ in an interview.

With economic mobility a major driving force behind her work, Spann noted that one “big thing” she consistently observes while visiting communities around the world is not a lack of entrepreneurial spirit. Instead, she sees a large group of people who don’t know how to leverage technology to grow and scale their businesses.

The “missing middle,” as Spann refers to them, are individuals already doing the work for their businesses and are capable of growth, but they lack the tools and knowledge to make the digital transformation. They’re everyday working professionals — teachers, doctors, lawyers, civil servants, and social workers — who are in close proximity to real, billion-dollar problems and have ideas to fix them, yet face exclusion from the tech economy.

“We need to empower those people who are in the middle, those everyday innovators, with the tools and resources they need to build the ideas of the future because they really are a lot closer to the problem and a lot closer to solving the problem than somebody who’s in Silicon Valley,” Spann said.

Lessons That Sparked The App Accelerator

Reflecting on the challenges she faced early on, Spann identified several key missteps, she shared with AFROTECH™. First, she didn’t initially focus on the right problem, a single, clearly defined problem that people were willing to pay to have solved. Instead, she attempted to solve multiple problems at once — an approach she now advises against.

Second, she tried to serve too broad an audience and too many people rather than narrowing in on one group. And third, she failed to take the time to learn the product-development process and understand the roadmap before investing significant time and money — an oversight that ultimately cost her more money and added years to the process.

Determined not to repeat the experience of losing money and spending years building an app that didn’t work as intended, Spann took the time to study, refine, and systematize the process. The result was a framework she built first for herself, and later for others, known as ID³, which consists of four steps: ideation, design, development, and deployment.

“It was put on my mind and my heart to create this framework that actually helps people pay it forward, create new jobs, create new opportunities, create new income, and be self-sustaining and do that with dignity,” Spann said of The App Accelerator. “I feel like I have an obligation to put it out there to the world and to supply it to as many people as possible.”

How Helping Others Sparked A Book

Spann, who was named one of Business Insider’s 30 Most Important Women in Tech Under 30, began seeing greater success with her framework — both through the growth of her apps and the increasing attention they received worldwide. She started receiving emails and letters from people, including incarcerated individuals, seeking advice. Those messages ultimately sparked the idea to write a book.

“I Have an App Idea: The Essential Guide to Building an App Without Tech Skills,” set for release in March 2026, equips experienced professionals with a practical framework for validating ideas, leveraging AI, and building scalable digital solutions — without a technical background.

More than a traditional how-to guide, the book walks readers step by step through the product-development process, from idea to app, she says. It blends real-world case studies, testimonials, and hands-on activities designed to help readers build as they go. By following the framework, readers can incrementally develop their product alongside the book — making it possible to finish with a viable solution in hand.

Despite her many accomplishments, Spann admits that writing the book has been one of the most challenging endeavors of her career — an experience she found both humbling and deeply rewarding.

“But I’m just so excited to see that out in the world and see how it might affect people and how many jobs are going to be created, how many startups are going to be birthed out of it, [and] how that money generated from these startups might affect communities,” Spann shared. “That is really exciting for me.”

Building A Legacy Of Dignity In Tech

And when asked about the legacy she hopes to leave behind, her answer is simple: empowering people with dignity.

“I want to be known for being a kind person, a caring person, [a] compassionate person, an intelligent person who uses the resources and knowledge that she was gifted with to sow a seed in other people and to help them actualize the dreams and the ideas of the future,” Spann told AFROTECH™.