Your investors expect a product demo in 12 weeks. That's achievable — with the right scope.
An MVP is not a simple product. It's a minimal product. The discipline required to define what 'minimal' means — and then actually deliver it — is where most MVP projects fail. We define the scope ruthlessly, then execute on it precisely. Fixed scope, fixed price.
You have a funding round, a customer pilot, or a competition pitch in 12 weeks. You need a product that's functional, demonstrable, and impressive — not a mockup, not a Bubble prototype, and not a 'minimum viable' app that's too limited to demonstrate the actual value proposition.
Most MVPs fail the timeline not because development is slow, but because scope is undefined at the start. A developer is hired (or a development agency is engaged) with a broad product concept and a 12-week deadline. The first 4 weeks are spent figuring out what to build. The next 4 weeks are spent building. The final 4 weeks are spent discovering that what was built doesn't actually demonstrate the value proposition convincingly, and rebuilding the most critical parts.
The 12-week delivery is achievable. The discipline required is specifying exactly what "minimal viable" means — which features are core to the value proposition and which are table stakes that can be cut, which workflows need to be real and which can be simulated for the demo, which integrations need to be live from day one and which can be stubbed. The specification work takes 2 weeks. The remaining 10 weeks are clean execution.
The definition of "viable" in MVP is specifically about demonstrating the value proposition to a real or potential user in a way that produces a signal about whether the problem is real and the solution is wanted. This is a different objective from "impressive" or "complete." An MVP that impresses investors but doesn't produce a signal about user desire is a demo, not an MVP.
A production-ready MVP with real data, real auth, real API integrations, and a real user experience — delivered in 12 weeks because the scope was defined correctly at the start.
Scope definition sprint (weeks 1–2)
Every feature, every workflow, every integration is specified in writing before development starts. The scope definition is the most important deliverable — it determines whether the 12 weeks works. Features are categorised into: core (must be live), secondary (add if time allows), and post-MVP (not in scope).
Authentication and user management
Real auth from day one using Clerk — social login, email/password, session management, user roles. Investors and pilot customers expect to log in with a real account, not a shared demo credential.
Core feature implementation
The 2–4 features that demonstrate the primary value proposition. Built fully, not stubbed. Real data, real logic, real workflows.
API integrations
The external integrations that are fundamental to the value proposition — Stripe for payment-dependent products, Google Calendar for scheduling products, third-party data providers for data-dependent products. Stubbed where possible without undermining the demo.
Production deployment
Deployed to a real domain, running in production, accessible to real users from demo day. Not localhost. Not a staging environment. Built on Next.js, TypeScript, Postgres or Convex, Clerk, Stripe.
One honest number to start.
Fixed-scope, fixed-price. The number below is the starting point — final scope is built from your brief.
A production-ready MVP with real data, real auth, real API integrations, and a real user experience — delivered in 12 weeks because the scope was defined correctly at the start.
Three steps, every time.
The same repeatable engagement on every project. No surprises, no mystery, no billable ambiguity.
Brief & discovery.
We send you questions, then get on a call. Output: a written scope with every step, feature, and integration listed.
Build & ship.
Fixed schedule, weekly reviews. No scope creep unless you change the scope — and if you do, we reprice it transparently.
Warranty & retainer.
30-day warranty on every launch. Most clients stay on a monthly retainer for ongoing features and maintenance.
Why Fixed-Price Matters Here
A 12-week timeline with an unfixed scope is how projects fail. Fixed scope and fixed price imposes the discipline of defining what "minimal" means before development starts. The constraint of fixed scope is a feature, not a limitation — it forces the product thinking that determines whether the MVP delivers a real signal.
Related engagements.
Questions, answered.
New feature requests during the 12-week sprint are evaluated against the remaining timeline. Features that don't fit the timeline are added to the post-MVP backlog for a subsequent fixed-price scope. Scope changes during development are the most common cause of missed deadlines.
A production MVP has real user accounts, real data persistence, real API integrations, and real workflows. A prototype or mockup has designed screens with no backend. An investor or pilot customer using a production MVP is doing the same actions a real user would do — which produces a genuine signal. A mockup produces a reaction to a design, not a signal about product-market fit.
Yes — the codebase is production-grade, on a standard tech stack (Next.js, TypeScript, Postgres), and documented for handoff. Extensions are scoped as fixed-price additions after the initial launch.
A production MVP with auth, 3–5 core features, key integrations, and production deployment typically runs $25k–$55k. Fixed-price.
Post-launch, the next phase is scoped as a separate fixed-price engagement based on the signals from the initial MVP launch. You might extend features, build additional integrations, or rebuild specific parts based on user feedback.
Tell Ryel about your project.
Describe what you’re building and what outcome you need. You’ll have a written, fixed-price scope within the week.