Pre-seed founders don't need a technical team. They need a working product.
At pre-seed, the goal is validation — proof that real users will pay for what you're building before you raise the money to staff a team. An MVP built by a senior developer in 12 weeks is the fastest path to that validation. RCB Software builds pre-seed MVPs. Fixed scope, fixed price, founder-stage economics.
You're pre-seed and need a working product to validate the hypothesis and support a seed raise — without the expense of hiring a technical team before you know what you're building.
Pre-seed founders face a specific version of the chicken-and-egg problem: investors want to see product traction before writing a check, but building a product requires capital. The path through this is a pre-seed MVP — a working product that demonstrates the core value proposition to a small number of early users and provides the evidence that a seed investor needs to see.
The pre-seed MVP requirements are distinct from a later-stage product build. At pre-seed, you're not building for 10,000 users; you're building for your first 100. The architectural decisions that are correct for 100 users are often wrong for 10,000 — but the inverse is also true: building for 10,000 users when you're at 100 wastes the 6 months it takes to build the infrastructure you don't need yet. The skill is building the minimum architecture that validates the hypothesis and can be extended post-validation without a full rebuild.
The specific MVP scoping discipline: identify the single core user action that delivers the primary value (the thing a user does in your product that proves the hypothesis exists). Build the minimum features required to support that action. Everything else — the onboarding optimization, the analytics dashboard, the admin tools, the integrations you'll add post-PMF — is deferred. The product that ships in 12 weeks tests one hypothesis. If the hypothesis is validated, you extend it. If it's not, you pivot. Either way, you've learned what you needed to learn in 12 weeks.
A production MVP that proves the core hypothesis — real auth, real data, real payments if applicable — delivered in 12 weeks at a price that fits a pre-seed budget.
Core hypothesis feature set
The minimum features that test the core hypothesis, determined in the specification process. Not everything the founder wants — the minimum that validates whether the hypothesis is real.
Production authentication
Clerk — sign-up, sign-in, email verification, and social auth if the target market uses social login. Not a temporary auth system that needs to be replaced; the auth system that will scale to seed and beyond.
Real payments if applicable
If the hypothesis requires paying customers to validate (not free users — paid users), Stripe Billing is included in the MVP scope. Free-then-convert products where the initial validation is usage, not revenue, can defer Stripe to post-validation.
Data persistence and basic admin
PostgreSQL with the schema that supports the core feature set. A minimal admin interface that lets the founder manage users, view activity, and intervene when users need support — without requiring direct database access.
Production deployment
Vercel deployment with a real domain, SSL, and monitoring. Not a localhost demo — a link you can send to investors and early customers.
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 MVP that proves the core hypothesis — real auth, real data, real payments if applicable — delivered in 12 weeks at a price that fits a pre-seed budget.
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
Pre-seed founders don't have open-ended budgets. Fixed scope, fixed price means you know the total commitment before you sign.
Related engagements.
Your investors expect a product demo in 12 weeks. That's achievable — with the right scope.
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Read moreQuestions, answered.
The scoping session is the first deliverable. We identify the core user action and the minimum features required to support it. The scope document is the contract — what's in, what's explicitly out, and why. Founders who've never shipped software often over-scope the initial version; the specification process forces the trade-offs that need to be made before development anyway. Most pre-seed MVPs scope correctly to 10–14 weeks.
The stack that moves fastest and has the most hiring runway. Next.js + TypeScript + Postgres + Clerk + Stripe is the default — it's the stack that senior developers in the job market know, the stack that has the best documentation and tooling, and the stack that a post-seed in-house hire can be productive in immediately.
Yes — the codebase is production-quality, not prototype quality. Investors at the technical diligence stage (if they do any) will see TypeScript strict mode, a real schema, proper authentication, and clean architecture. Not a hackathon project.
Yes — the codebase is in a GitHub repository in your name. All code is delivered on contract execution. No lock-in.
Pre-seed MVPs typically run $25k–$45k depending on the feature set. Fixed-price. The scope definition determines the price before commitment.
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.