The features you cut matter more than the ones you keep
One client arrived with an 80-feature spec and 14 weeks of runway. We shipped nine features in eleven weeks and they hit 104,000 users in year one.
What's different here
Every failed MVP we've been asked to rescue failed the same way: scope was never cut, so eighteen months went into building something nobody had validated. The hard part of MVP work isn't engineering — it's the conversation where you tell a founder that 71 of their 80 features don't serve the one job the product has to do. Agencies that say yes to the full spec are being agreeable, not helpful, and the founder pays for it in runway.
Startups & Scale-ups clients
What app development looks like for startups.
These are the plays that wouldn't appear on a generic app development page — they only make sense in startups & scale-ups.
Define the single job, then cut against it
One sentence: what must this product do for a user to get value? Every feature is measured against that sentence, and most don't survive. The cut list is documented as v2 so nothing feels lost.
Design for the activation moment
Pick one metric — percentage of users reaching value within 24 hours of install — and optimize every design decision toward it. One client moved from a 19% prototype baseline to 61% at launch.
Boring, proven architecture
React Native with a Postgres and edge-function backend. One client absorbed a 40× traffic spike from a viral TikTok in month four without an incident, because nothing exotic was in the path.
Instrument before launch, not after
Product analytics, crash reporting, and funnel dashboards ship with v1. Retrofitting them costs a quarter you don't have when retention dips in month two.
What holds startups back
You're testing too many channels shallowly
Six channels at $2k each teaches you nothing about any of them. One channel at $12k produces a real answer.
Building features nobody asked for
Every week spent on an unvalidated feature is runway spent. Scope discipline is the highest-ROI decision a startup makes.
No instrumentation, so no learning
Without activation and retention tracking from day one, you can't tell whether a channel is working or whether the product is.
Hiring a marketing team too early
A full in-house team before you know which channel works burns money on salaries while you're still guessing.
The full scope.
Everything in a app development engagement, applied to startups & scale-ups.
Product discovery & scoping
Jobs-to-be-done research, user flows, and a ruthlessly prioritized MVP scope with everything else parked in a v2 backlog.
UX & UI design
Full interface design across every state — loading, empty, error, success — plus a component library in Figma.
Cross-platform mobile build
React Native for iOS and Android from one codebase, with native modules where performance genuinely requires them.
Web application build
Next.js with server components, type-safe APIs, and a database layer designed for your actual access patterns.
Backend & infrastructure
Auth, database, storage, background jobs, and CI/CD — deployed on infrastructure that scales without a rewrite.
Analytics & observability
Product analytics, crash reporting, performance monitoring, and error tracking wired in before launch, not after.
App Store submission
Store listings, screenshots, review guideline compliance, and submission managed end to end.
Post-launch iteration
An included sprint of improvements based on the first month of real user behavior.
How this runs.
Discovery
Weeks 1–2User research, competitive review, technical feasibility, and MVP scope definition with explicit cut lines.
Design
Weeks 2–4User flows, wireframes, and full UI design for every screen and state, prototyped and tested with real users.
Build
Weeks 4–10Two-week sprints with a working build in your hands at the end of each one. No black-box development.
QA & launch
Weeks 10–12Device testing, performance profiling, beta distribution via TestFlight, then store submission.
Iterate
Month 4+Analytics review, user feedback synthesis, and a prioritized roadmap for the next release.
Startups & Scale-ups results, in detail.
Full case studies with the numbers, the mistakes, and the recommendations clients didn't want to hear.
Real prices, on the page.
Same published pricing as the core service. No vertical surcharge.
MVP
Validate a product idea with real users, fast.
Scoped to your brief
- Product discovery & scoping
- Full UX/UI design
- iOS + Android or web app
- Auth, database & core backend
- Analytics & crash reporting
- App Store submission
- 30 days post-launch support
Product
A full product with real complexity and integrations.
Scoped to your brief
- Everything in MVP
- Mobile + web + admin dashboard
- Third-party integrations
- Payments & subscriptions
- Push notifications & messaging
- Advanced analytics & experimentation
- Load testing & security review
- 90 days support + iteration sprint
Squad
An embedded product team for ongoing development.
Scoped to your brief
- Dedicated cross-functional squad
- Product manager + designer + 3 engineers
- Continuous delivery
- Your roadmap, your priorities
- Direct Slack access
- Month-to-month after quarter one
All engagements start with a free audit. Prices exclude media spend, which you pay directly to the platforms on accounts you own.
Startups & Scale-ups questions, answered straight.
Investors fund traction, not feature counts, and a shipped product with real retention data raises better than a comprehensive one still in development. We'll help you frame the cut list as a sequenced roadmap rather than a reduction — in practice that conversation goes far better than founders expect.
Let's talk about your growth constraint.
One client arrived with an 80-feature spec and 14 weeks of runway. We shipped nine features in eleven weeks and they hit 104,000 users in year one.
Our commitment: Fixed scope, fixed price. If we underestimate the build, we absorb the difference — not you.