Applications Standard at $4,999 a month. One senior engineer, 2-4 day delivery cycles, cancel anytime. I used the same pattern at GigEasy: investor-ready MVP in 3 weeks against an industry norm of 10.
- Scope
- Ship
- Iterate
monthly subscription
Who this is for
You're a non-technical founder, pre-funding, with a clear problem and a Figma file that hasn't moved in two months. You need something functional to put in front of design-partner users and early angels before the window closes.
The pain today
- The idea is fully designed and has been sitting in Figma for months.
- Every agency you've talked to quoted 12 weeks and $80,000 for what should be a 3-week build.
- No CTO, no technical co-founder, no one to own the technical decisions.
- Each week without a live prototype costs you a design-partner conversation.
- You don't know which features to cut and which to protect.
The outcome you get
- A narrow-scope MVP live in 3-5 weeks: auth, one core loop, analytics.
- Weekly iterations shaped by real behavior from the first 5-10 users.
- A flat monthly subscription you can cancel the moment the fit breaks.
- Work Made for Hire: the code is yours the day you pay, no strings.
What goes into a 3-week MVP
A 3-week MVP is not the full product. It is the smallest slice that lets a design-partner user complete the value action once and tell you whether the idea holds. For GigEasy, that meant auth, a single core workflow, admin controls, and analytics. The investor demo worked end to end. The roadmap of 40 features stayed on the roadmap.
I make the cut on the kickoff call, not mid-build. Most founders arrive with 30 features. By the end of that first session, we're down to six: one that the design partner needs in order to say yes to the next meeting, two that protect it, and three that are the smallest infrastructure worth not redoing later. Everything else waits. Three weeks is a commitment, not a range.
A narrow-scope MVP live in 3-5 weeks: auth, one core loop, analytics.
Scope discipline is the only thing that makes the timeline real
Agencies miss MVP timelines for one reason: they don't cut scope at the start. They accommodate the founder's full list, the build drifts past the estimate, and the renegotiation conversation starts around week six.
The kickoff call I run with every MVP customer is built around three questions. Which feature does the design partner need to say yes? Which two features protect that one? Which three keep us from rebuilding the foundation in month two? That conversation is uncomfortable. Founders push back. Then the build ships on time, and the pushback becomes a thank-you email. Scope discipline is the single biggest predictor of an MVP landing on schedule.
3 weeks: From kickoff to investor demo.
The standard skeleton: auth, core loop, analytics
Every early MVP shares the same structure. Auth with email and Google, no exotic providers. The single core loop that demonstrates the value proposition to a first-time user. Analytics via GA4 plus a product analytics tool so real behavior is visible in week one, not guessed at in week four.
I deploy on Vercel or AWS depending on your post-MVP path, and I pick Next.js with Laravel or NestJS where they fit the problem, not because they're fashionable. That same stack powered GigEasy from kickoff to investor demo in 3 weeks. In 17 years of shipping software, I have not missed a launch date.
Custom-coded vs. no-code: which one is right for your MVP
No-code platforms work well for validating a concept visually. They struggle when you need custom business logic, specific integrations, or a codebase you can hand to a CTO later without rewriting it. If your MVP is a landing page with a waitlist, no-code is fine. If it needs auth, data relationships, an API, and real user flows, custom code is the correct call.
The cost difference is smaller than most founders expect. A no-code MVP costs $8,000 to $25,000 and takes 4 to 8 weeks with a specialist. A custom-coded MVP on a flat monthly subscription costs $4,999 a month with no long-term lock-in. For a 5-week build, the numbers are comparable, and the output is production-grade.
What happens after the MVP ships
The MVP shipping is not the end of the engagement; it's the beginning of the useful part. Week one after launch is when you learn whether the value action you built actually resonates. Most of what I see: the core loop works, but one step in the middle creates friction nobody anticipated in the Figma file.
I stay on at $4,999 a month on a 2-4 day delivery cycle to iterate on those findings. Most founders keep me on for three to six months post-launch, then scale down or pause when the product stabilizes. The subscription model means you can cancel at the end of any month without a contract dispute. The code is yours from day one under Work Made for Hire.
Monthly subscription vs. fixed-price project for MVPs
Fixed-price MVP projects fail because scope drifts and the agency renegotiates. Time-and-materials billing fails because the invoice is unpredictable and the engineer is incentivized to move slowly. The Applications Standard model at $4,999 a month pairs a fixed monthly number with a senior engineer on a short delivery cycle.
That gives a pre-funding founder the one thing they actually need: the option to stop without a contract fight. There is a 14-day money-back guarantee if the fit breaks in the first two weeks. After that, cancel at the end of any month. Most customers stay six to nine months because the velocity earns it, not because they're contractually obligated.
Recent proof
A comparable engagement, delivered and documented.
Built and shipped an investor-ready MVP from scratch
Built the entire technological base and delivered MVP in just 3 weeks, enabling a successful rapid launch and investor demo.
Read the case studyFrequently asked questions
The questions prospects ask before they book.
A well-scoped MVP takes 3 to 5 weeks when the feature list is cut before the build starts, not during it. The 10-week industry norm exists because scope creep is the default, not the exception. At GigEasy I delivered an investor-ready MVP in 3 weeks by fixing scope on day one and shipping daily to a staging URL the team lived on.
Auth, one core loop, and analytics. That's it. Auth gets the user into the product. The core loop is the single action that demonstrates your value proposition to a first-time user. Analytics tells you whether they completed it or dropped off. Every other feature waits until user behavior tells you what to build next.
Yes. Most of my MVP customers are non-technical founders without a co-founder or CTO. I make every technical decision on paper first, walk you through the trade-off, and own the outcome. You don't need to know what a monorepo is. What you do need is a clear picture of the one problem your first user needs solved.
No-code is fine for a landing page or a simple workflow with no custom logic. Once you need auth, real data relationships, an API, or a codebase a CTO can inherit without rewriting it, custom code is the right call. The cost difference at the MVP stage is smaller than most founders expect, especially on a flat monthly model.
A custom-coded MVP on the Applications Standard plan runs $4,999 a month. A focused 4 to 5 week build comes to roughly one monthly payment with a short tail into the second. Agency fixed-price quotes for comparable scope typically start at $40,000 to $80,000. The monthly subscription model also means you pay for iteration, not just delivery.
Next.js and React for the frontend, Laravel or NestJS for the backend, PostgreSQL or MongoDB, Redis for caching, deploy on Vercel or AWS. That's the same stack that shipped GigEasy in 3 weeks. I pick what fits the problem, not what's currently popular in engineering Twitter threads.
Yes. Cancel at the end of any month. There's no lock-in after the first two weeks, and the code is yours under Work Made for Hire from day one. Most founders keep me on for 3 to 6 months post-launch to iterate on what users actually do, then scale down when the product stabilizes.