MVP launch costs
Hello Hackers
I am currently going through the build process for an MVP. As I am I mechanic by trade and not a coder, this was always going to be a tough struggle.
So far I have learnt that I I wasted to much time on the initial build, as the excellent book by Eric Rees, Lean Start up suggested, just build what is important, push it out for feedback then decide if you need to pivot or persevere.
This meant I called out for some help from a Bubble agency to help me with the build. They have been very helpful, bought about 30 hours of their time trying to get the build further along, this so far has cost around £1500.
Whilst this doesn't exactly break the bank, I am curious how much I should be spending on an MVP just to get it out to my early users. As I could quite easily find my self fiddling and tweaking the product and get carried away with the build.
What is the general consensus on how much should be spent getting an MVP to market?
All answers greatly appreciated.
Regards
Depends on so many factors. I wasted 2 years before hiring somebody for $10k. Finalizing in early March. Project 2 in queue I’m hoping I can do myself in bubble else $1-2k. Project 3 likely back to the $10-15k range.
3 darts in 2023, something has to stick. All primarily mobile apps.
So after you had spent that initial $10k what happened after that, is that project still going with the kind of results you had expected?
Project 1 will be ready in mid March but very happy with my developer and likely use for the other big project or something else in my queue. Went through a few time / money sucks to find this dev.
Now it’s a matter of can I execute (assuming this is a worthwhile investment).
It depends on the project.
It's like building "regular" websites. You can build one-page site in two hours, or you can build multi-vendor e-commerce that can take months to build.
My suggestion is to take any kind of Landing page builder. Build one-page where you will explain your idea. Add subscription block to join waiting-list. And try to promote your page.
In this case you would spend less than £100 on the landing page. And rest could be spend on advertising. This way you will see an engagement, feedback and questions your audience is asking. And after make a decision, do you want to build the app.
Yeah so I managed to put a Landing page up a little while ago, although because of the lack of results I need to give it a tweak. Any conversations I have had previously with potential users had really good response and feedback.
I find that my only source of promotion with this is through my social marketing efforts, so traffic to this is very limited. I may consider doing some google ads to see the response rate.
My question, can you close your potential customers manually?
For example maybe you don't need fully functional soft at the beginning. Maybe you can manage stuff with simple spreadsheets. If you see that you need automation, only then invest into development
That is a fair suggestion. As it is a marketplace there is two sides so I have this cold start problem.
In short yes I can close customers manually, but I have only been putting effort into this on the supply side so far, once there is a modest amount of users on the supply side I intend on using this figure to attract the demand side.
So far stis only achieved with a sales pitch, landing page and social media. At some point I will need to push the web app their way to validate some feedback on it.