MVP Development and Startup Builds
How to scope, time, budget, and ship a first version that survives contact with real users.
55 posts · page 2 of 3
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
From Idea to Live MVP in 6 Weeks: A Lean Founder's Roadmap
Six weeks from idea to live MVP is achievable for the right scope with the right discipline. Most founders pick the wrong scope and miss the timeline. Here is the roadmap that actually ships.
11 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
Founder Led Sales During the MVP Phase: A Technical Guide
Founder led sales during the MVP phase is not just sales. It is product discovery, customer development, and the foundation of every later go to market motion. Here is the technical playbook.
11 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
Feature Creep: The Silent Killer of Startup Launches
Feature creep does not announce itself. The MVP slowly accumulates features that delay launch, dilute focus, and produce nothing. The teams that ship cut ruthlessly. Here is how to recognize and stop the creep.
11 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
Designing an MVP That Can Scale Without Rewriting It
Most MVPs need a full rewrite at year two. The few that do not were designed with a small set of disciplines that cost nothing extra at the start. Here is the design that scales.
12 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
Common Founder Misconceptions About MVPs (And How They Get Expensive)
Founders carry the same handful of MVP misconceptions into every build. Each one quietly costs months and tens of thousands of dollars. Here is the list and the corrections.
12 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
Building an MVP With AI Tools: What Actually Works in 2026
AI tools can compress an MVP timeline from six months to six weeks if you use them well. They can also produce a codebase that takes six months to rescue. The difference is where you let the AI lead and where you do not.
13 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
Build vs Buy: The Honest Framework Every Startup Founder Needs
Build what is your moat. Buy what is not. Most founders get this backwards. They build the commodity and buy the differentiator. Here is the framework I use with clients to get the call right.
12 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
Agile for Early Stage Startups: What Actually Matters
Most early stage startups do agile theater. The parts that actually matter are smaller, simpler, and harder to maintain than the framework books admit. Here is the version I run on client projects.
11 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
7 MVP Mistakes That Destroy Startups Before They Launch
The seven MVP mistakes I see kill more startups than competition, capital, or bad luck. Written from the side of the project that ships, not the side that pitches.
13 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
The Production MVP: Building Something Real Users Will Actually Trust
A production MVP is not a polished version of your demo. It is a real product with real error handling, real data privacy, and real recovery paths. Here is what separates the ones users trust from the ones they abandon.
12 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
The MVP Postmortem: Questions to Ask Yourself Six Months In
Six months after MVP launch, these are the questions that tell you whether your hypothesis was validated -- and what to build next.
12 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
The Modular MVP: Building So You Can Pivot Without Burning Everything
The MVP architecture that survives a pivot: separate the stable core (auth, billing, users) from the product hypothesis that will change.
12 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
The Honest MVP Checklist: 25 Items Before You Launch
25 items that separate a launchable MVP from a demo -- covering security, data integrity, error handling, and the operational basics that real users require.
12 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
When to Stop Calling It an MVP
At some point the MVP label stops being useful and starts being an excuse. Here is how I recognise that point, and what changes when you cross it.
11 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
The MVP Test: Three Questions Before You Spend a Dollar on Development
Three questions that tell you whether your idea is ready for development spending -- before any code is written or budget committed.
12 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
The Five Hour Founder Audit: Are You Ready to Build?
Five hours of structured questions before your first engineering hire will prevent six months of expensive misdirection -- a founder readiness framework.
12 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
What to Cut From Your MVP When the Budget Drops
A field guide to making real cuts when money gets tight, without destroying the core value of your product. The cuts that save projects and the ones that kill them.
12 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
The MVP Tech Stack Cheat Sheet for 2026
The fastest path to a working MVP in 2026: specific tool choices by category with the reasoning for each pick and what to skip.
12 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
Why Your MVP Does Not Need a Mobile App on Day One
Mobile apps multiply the cost of an MVP without proportionally multiplying the learning. For most products, a responsive web app is the right starting point. The mobile app comes after you know what people want, not before.
11 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
The Two Week MVP: A Workable Sprint Plan
A two-week sprint plan for shipping a real MVP slice, written from the side of the build, not the pitch deck. What to do on each day, what to skip, and why the discipline is harder than the code.
12 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
The Smallest Useful Feature: A Decision Framework
Every feature on your list is larger than it needs to be. This is the framework I use on every MVP to find the smallest version of each feature that still does the job, and why that version almost always ships first.
12 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
Why You Should Ship Your MVP With Bugs (and Which Ones to Keep)
The goal is not a bug-free MVP. The goal is a bug-tolerant one. Knowing which bugs to ship with and which to fix first is the difference between launching and not launching.
12 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
What a Good MVP Demo Looks Like: Investor Ready in 90 Seconds
Working notes on what a good mvp demo looks like: investor ready in 90 seconds. Written for founders, engineers, and operators who want a clear read on mvp development and startup builds from someone who has shipped the work.
12 min read
- MVP Development and Startup Builds
The Stages of an MVP Build: A Founder's Mental Model
An MVP build does not move in a straight line. It moves through predictable stages, each with its own risks and decisions. This is the mental model I use on every project to know where we are and what we should be doing right now.
12 min read