MVP development services

The point of an MVP is not to build less. It is to learn sooner.

Most first versions fail for one of two opposite reasons. Either they are so stripped back that nobody can tell whether the idea works, or they quietly become the full product and arrive nine months late with no users waiting. We build the smallest thing that produces a real answer, on foundations you will not have to throw away when the answer is yes.

Discuss your MVP See what ships first

Every feature scored on value against effort, then a line drawn. What sits above it ships. What sits below waits for evidence rather than opinion.

6 to 10Typical weeks to first real users

50+Start-ups we have built for

100%Code and IP yours

800+Projects delivered

Where it goes wrong

Four ways a first version wastes the money.

Every one of them is avoidable at the scoping stage, which is why we spend real time there rather than starting to build on day two.

Too thin to learn from

A signup page and a waiting list tells you people will type an email address. It does not tell you whether they will use the thing, pay for it, or come back. If the build cannot produce evidence about the actual risk in your business, it is not an MVP, it is a landing page with a longer invoice.

Too complete to be minimum

Scope creeps because every feature sounds necessary in isolation. Nine months later you have a full product, no users, and no idea which parts matter. The discipline is deciding what waits, and writing it down so it stays waiting.

No instrumentation

The product ships and nobody can answer whether it worked, because activation, retention and drop-off were never measured. You end up arguing from opinion at exactly the moment you need data.

Built to be thrown away

Speed used as an excuse for a codebase nobody can extend. When the idea works, and it often does, you pay for it twice. Fast and disposable are not the same thing, and we do not build the second one.

The cut

How we decide what ships first.

Every feature gets placed on value to the user against effort to build, and we draw a line. Above it goes in the first release. Below it waits for evidence rather than opinion. This is the conversation that determines whether the whole engagement works.

Ships first

The core loop, the thing that makes the product worth returning to, and whatever is needed to charge for it. If payment is part of the risk, payment is in the first release.

Waits for evidence

Integrations, reporting, roles, theming, bulk operations. All reasonable, none of them the reason your first hundred users stay or leave.

Never, probably

The features that came from one loud conversation. We will say so, and record the reasoning so the decision is not relitigated every fortnight.

A team mapping work across a wall of notes in a studio — The scoping week is the part of the engagement that matters most. It ends with a written scope, a fixed price, and a list of what we are deliberately not building.

Who it is for

Who an MVP is for.

An MVP tests the risk that could sink a product before you fund the whole thing. It suits founders and teams inside larger companies alike, as long as someone can make product decisions quickly.

An MVP makes sense

You have a product idea with one assumption that would sink it if it were wrong, and you want to test that first.
You are raising, or about to, and need real usage rather than a pitch deck.
A team inside a larger company needs to prove a new product before asking for a full budget.
You have a prototype or no-code version that people use, and it has reached its limits.

Something else comes first

The product is already proven and needs to scale. That is SaaS or custom software work.
The question can be answered without software: a landing page, a manual service or twenty customer conversations.
Nobody on your side can make product decisions within a day. An MVP moves at the speed of its decisions.

What we build

Six things, and none of them are throwaway.

Scoping that cuts

A working session that ends with a written scope, a price and an explicit list of what is not being built. The most valuable week of the engagement.

Risk and assumption mapping
Value against effort scoring
Written scope with exclusions

The core product

The loop that has to work, built properly. Real data, real accounts, real edge cases, not a demo path that falls over on the second click.

Core workflow end to end
Accounts and permissions
Real data and real states

Payments from day one

If the question is whether people will pay, the first release has to let them. Stripe or your provider, with plans and trials that match how you intend to sell.

Checkout and subscriptions
Trials and plan changes
Basic revenue reporting

Instrumentation

Activation, retention and drop-off measured from the first user, so the go or no-go decision rests on data rather than the loudest voice.

Event tracking and funnels
Activation and retention cohorts
Error and performance monitoring

Foundations that survive

The same architecture standards as any other build. Tests, migrations, environments and documentation, because an MVP that works usually becomes the product.

Test coverage on the core paths
CI, environments and deploys
Documented handover

A path to version two

The backlog you deferred, prioritised against what the first users actually did, ready for whoever builds next, whether that is us or your own team.

Evidence-ranked backlog
Architecture decision records
Scale readiness assessment

We were able to launch our platform in an agreed timeframe and within the set budget. Our solution was highly scalable and secure.

Michael Zion, CEO, MeteorOps
Read the full review

How we ship it faster

Five times faster, at a fifth of the cost.

5xfaster to first users

1/5of conventional cost

Get a like-for-like quote

For an early-stage company this is the difference between testing an idea and betting the company on it. A first version built the conventional way can take months and a six-figure budget, because people hand-write every screen, every form and every test. We generate the first pass of that work with AI tooling and put senior engineers on the product decisions and the review. You reach real users while the idea is still worth testing, with enough runway left to act on what you learn. AI accelerates the work. Our engineers stay accountable for the decisions and the software that ships.

Time from idea to first real users

Conventional delivery Months

AI-first delivery Weeks

Screens and formsThe unglamorous surface area of any product, generated and then reviewed against real interaction rather than hand-built one field at a time.
Accounts and billing plumbingSignup, roles, invitations, subscriptions and the states between them. Necessary, well understood, and enormously time-consuming to write by hand.
Test coverageCoverage on the core paths from the beginning, so the speed does not come at the cost of a codebase you cannot change safely.
InstrumentationEvent tracking and funnel wiring generated alongside the features rather than added after launch when the first cohort has already been lost.

An indicative comparison, not a quote or a guarantee. The gain depends on your core loop, integrations and how quickly decisions get made. You get a fixed price after the scoping week, with a like-for-like comparison against conventional delivery, before you commit.

The plan

Typically ten weeks from conversation to real users.

Four overlapping stages. You see working software from week two, and you never wait on a status report to know where things stand. The exact plan goes in writing after the scoping week.

Week 1
Scope
A working session that ends in a written scope, a fixed price and an explicit list of what is not being built. If we think the idea does not need software yet, this is where we say so.
Weeks 2 to 4
Core loop
The thing the product exists to do, working end to end against real data in your own environment. Demos every week, of software rather than slides.
Weeks 4 to 6
Around the loop
Accounts, payments, onboarding and the admin you need to operate it. Instrumentation goes in alongside, not afterwards.
Weeks 6 to 10
Real users
Launch to a first cohort, watch what they actually do, and meet weekly to decide what the evidence says about version two.

See how every engagement runs

After launch

What happens when the answer comes back.

All three of these are acceptable outcomes. Only one of them is a failure, and it is not the one most founders fear.

Talk it through

It works
We move into building version two against the evidence, or hand the whole thing to the team you have hired in the meantime. Both are normal and neither costs you a rewrite.
It half works
The most common outcome. The data usually shows one part of the idea landing and another not, and the next decision is narrower and much better informed than the first one.
It does not work
You found out in about ten weeks for a fraction of a seed round, with a codebase and a set of learnings you own. That is a good outcome, and we would rather tell you early than bill you for eighteen months.

Questions we get asked

Mostly from founders, mostly about money.

How much does an MVP cost?

It depends on what the core loop is, which is exactly what the scoping week exists to establish. After that week you get a fixed price, with a like-for-like comparison against conventional delivery in writing, before you commit to anything. We do not quote a number before we understand the risk you are testing.

Will we have to rebuild it if it succeeds?

No, and we consider that the whole point. We use the same architecture standards, test coverage and deployment practice as on any other build. Speed comes from AI-assisted delivery and ruthless scoping, not from cutting engineering corners, so a first version that works can keep growing into the product.

What if we already have a prototype or a no-code version?

That is often the ideal starting point, because it means the risky assumptions have already been partly tested and we can be far more specific about what the real version needs. We will tell you honestly which parts are worth carrying forward and which are cheaper to rebuild.

Who owns the code?

You do, in full, on final payment. Repository, infrastructure, documentation and the ability to hire anyone to continue. There is no minimum support term and nothing that requires you to keep working with us.

Can you help us decide what the MVP should be?

That is the first week, and it is the part that most affects whether the money is well spent. We map the assumptions, work out which one would actually kill the business if it were wrong, and scope the build to test that one. Sometimes the conclusion is that you do not need to build anything yet, and we will say so.

Do you take equity instead of fees?

No. We take fixed fees, which keeps the incentives clean and the advice honest. An agency with equity has a reason to tell you to keep building.

What do we need to have ready before starting?

A clear sense of who the first users are and how you will reach them, and someone on your side who can make product decisions within a day. The second one matters more than most founders expect. Everything else we can work out together in the scoping week.

Have you done this for companies like ours?

We have built for more than fifty start-ups. We have also launched two products of our own, Open Lance and BotUp, which is the version of this where we felt every consequence ourselves.

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