If you're on this page there's a good chance you've got a great idea for a new SaaS product or mobile app.
Or perhaps you want to build a cool new software tool or app for your current business?
Designing and creating your own software product is an exciting and rewarding project.
But… it can also be a risky venture. Custom development projects can eat up lots of time and money, without finishing and shipping your product.
Traditionally, designing and building software has been similar to designing and building physical one-time products such as building a family home.
You spend heaps of time brainstorming, planning, and deciding on each and every feature your product will have. You then turn all this into a blueprint and follow on by spending months of design, coding and testing.
After months (and sometimes years) you hopefully launch to excited users who love your product — that's if you're lucky enough not to have changed your mind halfway through (which would lead to big delays with rewrites and redesigns).
The scary thing is, after all that time and money spent, how do you know your product will be successful? Will enough customers use it and keep using it?
Building a digital product can be expensive, and there's no guarantee of success.
The Lean Startup Approach
In 2011, Eric Ries published The Lean Startup, which became essential reading in startup circles. It addresses the risks inherent in building startups and proposes a methodology for launching products with minimal risk and maximum reward potential.
Rather than hiring expensive teams for lengthy development, the lean approach reduces scope to a minimum viable product (MVP) — the simplest version users find valuable.
"Find a judo solution, one that delivers maximum efficiency with minimum effort." — Jason Fried, ReWork
Key questions:
- How could you build an MVP within days or weeks instead of months?
- What core functionality matters most, with other features reserved for future versions?
The 30-Day Timeline
The ideal MVP launch window is six weeks (30 working days) or less. Companies like Intercom, Buffer, and Basecamp follow this principle, shipping projects in six weeks maximum, then iterating.
Successful Startups Built in 30 Days or Less
- Buffer — 7 weeks to launch; $18.6M annual run rate
- Egghead.io — 2 weeks; $3.3M annual run rate
- Baremetrics — 7 days; $1.3M annual run rate
- Loot Crate — 2 days; $115M annual run rate
- ProductHunt — Less than 1 day; acquired for $20M
- WP Curve — 1 week; acquired by GoDaddy
- iDoneThis — 2 weeks; $7.6M annual run rate
- Proof — 1 weekend; $2M annual run rate
- Dollar Shave Club — 6 weeks; acquired for $1B
"Cut as much as possible out of the first version… when you launch, you'll hopefully have fairly binary feedback." — Joel Gascoigne, Founder of Buffer
When 30 Days Isn't Possible
Not every product can be fully functional within six weeks. Perhaps the problem is too complex or you lack resources. However, MVP validation doesn't require a working product — you need to validate your idea and discover market potential.
Successful startups have launched without functioning products through various approaches:
Landing Page MVP
Dropbox ($9.7B valuation) faced a challenge: how to build an MVP for a product handling sensitive personal data? Founder Drew Houston created a screencast video demonstrating Dropbox functionality, posted it on a webpage with an email signup form below. This validated demand before extensive development.
Concierge MVP
Food on the Table (acquired by Food Network in 2014) suggests recipes and identifies grocery deals matching preferences. Founder Manuel Rosso first manually interviewed users, learned their preferences and budgets, and compiled shopping lists from current store specials. Only after refining this process did he develop the actual app.
Wizard of Oz MVP
Airbnb tested assumptions by selling air mattresses in their own house through a website.
Zappos validated online shoe shopping by partnering with a local retailer, purchasing shoes after orders arrived. The front-end appeared fully automated while humans managed everything behind the scenes.
Email MVP
ProductHunt founder Ryan Hoover tested demand using only an email list. Contributors shared product links; subscribers discovered new products via emails. No website existed initially.
Piecemeal MVP
Groupon combined multiple MVP approaches. Andrew Mason started with a WordPress blog posting restaurant deals. When sufficient interest accumulated, he generated PDF coupons using AppleScript and emailed them via Apple Mail.
Taking Action
"It's not about ideas. It's about making ideas happen." — Scott Belsky, Co-founder of Behance
The value of launching early and gathering real customer feedback outweighs additional development time. Successful founders consistently report they could have launched sooner.
