How Much Does It Cost To Build An MVP?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stellafayman/2013/05/02/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-an-mvp/

by Brajeshwar • 13 years ago

23 27 13 years ago

kondro• 13 years ago

The below statement has to be sarcastic right?

Hire a freelance developer to build a prototype - Many freelance developers love working with entrepreneurs to develop MVPs and prototypes. …

mootothemax• 13 years ago

The below statement has to be sarcastic right?

Hire a freelance developer to build a prototype - Many freelance developers love working with entrepreneurs to develop MVPs and prototypes

Why do you think that? It's honestly a part of my consulting work that I really, really enjoy.

film422• 13 years ago

Because far too often, 'hire a freelance developer' means, "I'll give you 20% of the company if you make the MVP."

At my university, several times a week you get people saying, "I have my MBA and I just need 3 developers who are really solid to build the idea. I don't have cash, but I'm determined and will give you equity for your time."

Developers are far too often under appreciated, and most entrepreneurs don't want to shell out a few thousand on an MVP. Sometimes, they don't pay when they're not happy with the result, despite you following every suggestion and even giving plenty of free hours to make the product better.

Lastly, those who are willing to shell out a little cash will often find the cheapest talent they can, which is great, until they start to grow and they realize they've hit a wall because it's nearly impossible to add features and improbable to redo the whole product.

But when the startup has some money, and they know what they want, and they listen to your tech advice, there's no better feeling than crafting a new company or product from a qwerty keyboard and a text editor.

markkanof• 13 years ago

I think that is a reasonable statement as long as by hire they mean exchange money for work. I'm a freelance developer and would find it very interesting to build a prototype of an idea that I think has some potential. It's less interesting though if the entrepreneur is only offering equity.

cpursley• 13 years ago

Why? Every time a 'freelancer looking for work' thread goes up on HN there is at least one post where the freelancer likes working on MVP.

mindcrime2• 13 years ago

This is a nonsense question with no real answer. It could be $0 to > $1,000,000,000,000. Are you building an MVP around a new cat-picture-sharing-website or an MVP around an idea for a new stealth fighter jet?

If you can actually say "Oh, an MVP, developed by a freelancer, will cost between $15,000-$30,000" (or whatever) then that's a damn sad statement about the state of startups. If we've become that homogeneous and generified in our efforts, what does that say about how innovative any of this stuff actually is?

nedwin2• 13 years ago

I think you can hazard a guess that it's for building an MVP for a web product. An agency is unlikely to be able to build an MVP of a stealth fighter jet though they might still send you an estimate.

dasil0032• 13 years ago

Agreed. The insidious thing about this article, though, is that the author is feeding into startup-wannabe culture by catering to the question that is the first out of the mouth of the most clueless "idea guys". It almost seems like a ploy for page views given that the rest of the article is fairly reasonable and I have no reason to doubt the author's credentials.

ysapir• 13 years ago

The point of an MVP is to control costs, to avoid spending millions of $ and precious time to develop something that no one wants. The first step in avoiding spending that much money, is to be able to quantify the costs of building an MVP.

Besides, a stealth fighter jet cannot be a MVP. Maybe you have better maneuvering technology, or targeting technology, or maybe you have teleportation technology. That would be the basis of your MVP. If it still costs above $100,000, then minimize again, and again and again.

mindcrime2• 13 years ago

The point of an MVP is to control costs, to avoid spending millions of $ and precious time to develop something that no one wants.

I'd argue that it's the point of the process to "control costs, avoid spending millions of $ ..."

The MVP is just a tool, a step along that path. Its "point" if there is one - is to test your product hypothesis and evaluate product/market fit at a point in time.

The first step in avoiding spending that much money, is to be able to quantify the costs of building an MVP.

You can't do that, as you know neither the definition of "minimum" nor the definition of "viable" when you first start. That's the whole point of the iterative process. You start building to the Founders' vision, and then go out and try to find customers for that. It's only when you think that you have a testable product hypothesis that you can even speculate about what an "MVP" would look like.

I think part of the problem with these discussions though, is that "MVP" has become part buzzword and part synonym for "prototype" or "alpha" or "first version". It's not necessarily the same as those things though.

Besides, a stealth fighter jet cannot be a MVP. Maybe you have better maneuvering technology, or targeting technology, or maybe you have teleportation technology. That would be the basis of your MVP.

Right, that's why I said "an idea for a new stealth fighter jet". I certainly am not proposing to build a complete jet as an MVP... I can't imagine many - if any - scenarios where that makes sense. But building an MVP of the "magic sauce" that allows you to demonstrate to the DoD that your new stealth fighter jet will be better, is probably still going to be a lot more expensive than the "cat photo sharing site" thing. All I'm really saying is that there's a broad range in how much a MVP might cost, depending on the domain and the problems you're trying to solve.

justhw• 13 years ago

Advice on MVP's from Forbes? C'mon hn

prawn• 13 years ago

They're writing articles knowing they're virtually guaranteed x pageviews from HN because someone is bound to post it and others push it up.

acchow• 13 years ago

The Forbes article was posted so we could all trash it and circle jerk about how much better we are.

hatu• 13 years ago

Is it just me or is Forbes a terrible news site? Everything I've read there lately I've disagreed with and at every corner they try to push this disgusting Forbes Top 100 Billionaires list down your throat.

seyz3• 13 years ago

I am a freelance developer. My core business is to build MVPs. The price and the duration are fixed: 3000€ for two weeks. http://munda.me

skrebbel• 13 years ago

OK, will you dev me an MVP for an auto-aiming paint gun? I keep losing in paintball matches and I think there's a market. $3000, two weeks.

seyz3• 13 years ago

No I am not. It's my job to extract from the customer's vision what's possible to develop in two weeks. I never mention: "I materialize any idea in two weeks".

seyz3• 13 years ago

Finally, I can accept the proposition :-) What about a Drone aimbot? https://github.com/paulhayes/copterface

ZirconCode• 13 years ago

I've been thinking of going into this. I'm curious, how many customers do you get? How sporadic is it? And were do you get most of them from? Does it often happen that they hire you for further work?

Sorry if I just ran you over with question marks =/

nchuhoai2• 13 years ago

Does anyone know how I can get into this business? I'm a full-stack developer and love to build MVPs, but I don't really know where to start finding new clients? Is it really only elance and odesk?

omegant• 13 years ago

Find your own ideas, and then learn to sell them, to posible users, to possible partners. And then if you get clicks on fake buttons and or signups, start to build a more elaborated product. If you are a developer the hardest part is selling, do it from day cero. Also start a blog, I find people looking at blogs. And of course read "the startup owner's manual".

nchuhoai2• 13 years ago

I intend of doing that, but at least at the start, I'd like to have some reliable (albeit small) revenue stream

mbesto• 13 years ago

How long is a piece of string?

How Much Does It Cost To Build An MVP?

Related Stories