Too Long; Didn't Read
There’s a lot that can be done as a mobile developer working with existing APIs to spin up a proof of concept. Although when logic needs to run constantly in the background to check data for a condition a backend app is a better fit as you don’t want to turn your mobile device into a mobile server. If you ask a backend engineer working at a startup to a medium sized company company in San Francisco you may receive the suggestion to learn Javascript (specifically Node.js), with the promise of it being quick to write once familiar with Javascript and easy to deploy.