The Different Flavors of MVPs

There are many ways to build an MVP.

You don’t need to build a full-code solution.

The faster you ship your MVP, the quicker you solve your user’s problems and learn their needs.

Let’s talk about other MVP styles that you can use to validate your idea.

Estimated reading time: 2 min 2 sec

Consulting

This is the easiest way to get started.

Use your knowledge to help solve someone’s problem.

This way you can get paid while validating your idea and learning more about your customers.

As you work with clients, you'll understand their workflows completely.

This gives you 2 superpowers:

• Better insight on what you need to build

• Use the revenue from consulting for paid acquisition (ads) or partnerships.

The relationships from this MVP can help you get your first 5-10 paying customers.

To get started, send targeted cold outbound messages to your ICP and ask if they’re interested in the offer.

Agency

This is a level deeper than consulting.

Instead of using your knowledge, you do the work yourself.

This lets you understand the requirements of the product.

Which makes it easy to transition your customers to a SaaS solution.

You also build the product from a strong base of understanding.

So you also save a few iterations on the product.

Once the SaaS solution built, transitioning your current customers is easy.

They already trust and understand the value you provide.

Now they have a self-serve solution they can use anytime.

In my opinion, this method is more scalable with better returns than consulting.

Forms + Manual Work

This is what Pieter Levels does often.

He creates a simple landing page with a form and a stripe payment link.

Then he processes the work manually and delivers the results via email.

This approach combines the agency model but takes it digital.

Advertise the landing page on Google or Facebook ads to validate if the product is in demand.

You can also iterate through multiple ways of positioning the product.

No backend needed.

Zapier

The core principle of an MVP is to automate a painful process.

Zapier is a great alternative to code for building the MVP faster.

Zapier is powerful due to its flexible automation workflows.

And you don't need to change lines of code.

It should be good enough to solve your customer’s problem.

Attach the Zapier workflow to your landing page form and watch the magic happen.

This approach allows you to set up a functional system without writing any code.

As your customer base grows, you can replace Zapier workflows with custom-built features.

Bubble

More technical founders should use this option more.

No-code is becoming more viable as the technology improves.

It offers more control like code but requires less time and effort than coding.

You can gradually replace Bubble with custom code once you validate the idea.

Bubble workflows, like code, can be reusable.

Giving you the flexibility to ship many apps quickly.

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