MVP is too big, business partner doesn't have a "lean startup" mentality, please help

The easiest job 'interview' test ever is to ask the person to complete a task. In this instance, all that I can see she has provided is 'they said, I think, therefore it is correct'.

Ask her to provide you with a short presentation on the industry, opportunity etc. Act like a VC but instead of money, it is your time that will be invested. Personally, I do agree that MVP's are crappy and if you can build the whole thing out with core features and test, then do it.

If she believes the opportunity it so high she should be able to approach people outside of her circle and get their opinion. Matter of fact, she could get a simple landing page built and reach out asking for feedback. Lean startup or not, unless she has the cash and certified research to say that this is a sure-fire success (this is impossible) you either walk away or pitch the lean startup idea over and over again.

Doesn't sound like a business partner you'd be able to work with long-term, point blank. You have different methods, different ideas and seemingly no way to find a middle way.

I think @Melomal is very right in what he says. It sounds to me as if you and your business partner are far apart in your ideas. If you don't come closer to each other, then leave it alone. I say this from bitter experience, if the interaction is not right at the beginning, it will be very difficult with the cooperation. I have always hoped to convince my partner of important things, the cooperation was really fun, despite the sometimes big differences. But in the end the deal failed and I now have a wonderful app worth $300000 lying around. That's a pity for the great programming.

Ask for the market opportunity. How to build traction. Marketing strategy. Pricing. How to engage with the audience. Do you go full in and quit jobs. To have the actual product/SaaS/piece of software is useless when you have no one actually using it. She might not have the mindset for such undertaking yet and thinks when the tech is available, everything else will come automatically. When I started my indiehacking journey two months ago, I was completely off the charts with my expectations. I get the full reality check at the moment. I'm rock bottom. Can't even get likes for my posts on Twitter/LinkedIn :)

I once tried building an app with a lady who had a similar attitude. Didn't work out and I called it quits after two weeks of failing to work together. 0/10. Would not recommend.

Are you a cofounder with her. Or is she paying you fee to built it?

She just says that she was in need of that app when she was working in this domain and that her colleagues told her, that this app would be useful.

We were all at that point sometimes with a project which turned out to not be successful, right?

Honestly, I would try to avoid working with someone with this mindset, this will never work out.

Explain politely and nicely that you're not currently looking to invest everything you have into a 50-50 deal and that due to your circumstances you simply can't take risks, etc, etc, but that you might be open to starting out on a paid consultancy basis. If she gets funny about "why won't developers work for free" then you've escaped a bullet.

Perhaps you can explain that you feel the strategy isn't quite right and to be a cofounder you'd want a lot more say and control. Have you actually done this or are you testing it out on us first?

A lot of us have fallen for this. I'm getting out of the same mistake right now. Hold out for the right opportunity.

Sit her down and have a heart-to-heart conversation with her. Be vulnerable and lead your actual feelings, don't be accusatory, so she won't get defensive. Just like with a romantic partner, communication is important.

If she can't take positive and constructive feedback and improve, don't work with her. You want to work with talented people. That's a huge warning sign.

Hey!
I am happy that you have an opportunity to work on an exciting project! I am not sure how busy you are and how important experience is for you so the answer will depend on that.
I am working in a company that is right now pivoting towards software solutions, and their main distribution channel is salespeople. As the obvious part of a successful part of any business is solving burning customer problems you need to be close to them. Whilst talking to salespeople about any new product, they initially agree but their first request is to see a working MVP. I believe that is the crucial gap we as developers need to overcome.

If I were you I would do a detailed rundown of the time it would take building such MVP, with an exact specification of all the features and so on. This will visualise for your partner the effort ( time and cost) that is needed to complete the MVP. Then as said in other comments I would create mock ups of the products and start interviews with potential target groups discovering their needs.
Hopefully this helps, if you have any questions dm me

Get some screenshots of the app: backend and mobile (but without implementing it), have a form on your landing page to capture emails, drive traffic to it and see how much interest you get.

Do this even if she disagree, that's the right way to start.

Have you shared information about lean startup with her? Maybe if she read the HBS article on it she'd understand where you are coming from.

You have to explain her that having an app ready does not mean you have a machine which is generating revenue) MVP is not about technical things, it is about acquisition channels and costs of the clients:)

I'd tell her that since I'm (you) building the app, I would want to test if the idea is viable and I would want to do that as soon as possible with an MVP. You should show her the benefits of this process and method.

Now, having said that, if there's already a disagreement about how to go about doing business, there's probably going to be other disagreements in the future.

Good luck

Few ideas

• Build using no code as much as possible. Manually coding up would require a lot of time but using, templated webflow landing pages and glide app to create mobile apps can cut your time greatly.
• If your business partner is the one getting the business and that too from her network, try to check in with her if she can get a pre order thing setup for your first few clients where you can charge like 10 % of the order value upfront and rest of the that later. (I'd throw a 30 % discount for being believers if they are your first 5 or 10 customers, but only if they pay a preorder fees upfront)
• You can add in a money back guarantee for the preorder fee (return money if client doesn't find value in your finished product) Ideally, this would be your last resort because you are exposed but it is still better than building just on someones word.

The approach is less important than the investment.

The lady could be right about the right approach for a particular industry. In some industries trust and credibility are not to be risked with promises of a working product at some point in the future.

Theres's a concept in contract law callled 'misrepresentation' that can have serious consequences if the other party assumed that they were buying a finished product.

It can be okay to play with landing pages and deliver the solution 2 years later when lives and profit margins are not at stake... Nobody is going to court over a 'to do list' app that never worked.

The real issue is the investment. The lady has to invest enough money to cover at least half of the development costs. Development is not the most important thing but it's the hardest thing, and it has to be financed properly. People become more reasonable when they have to finance the software requirements.

Not that I disagree with anything you've written or any of the other comments, but a couple questions:

1. What would you cut out if you could have your way?
2. Why Flutter?

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