An MVP on a proven core: your product in 3-4 weeks
For founders who know an industry and want to sell its software, and for founders with an idea they want to test. The core already runs in production, so the weeks go into what makes the product yours.
By Eugene Romanov·Published
The short answer
An MVP from this studio is built on the core that three systems in production run on: sign-in, roles, documents, payments and notifications already work. Your weeks go into one core workflow, a separate account for every company that signs up, and a Stripe subscription. It starts from $5,500 and takes 3-4 weeks. You own the code, the database and the Stripe account.
SHT-02What drives the number
Why it is weeks, not months
Most of a first version is not the idea. It is sign-in, password resets, roles, a place for documents, payments, emails that go out when something changes, and the tests that keep all of it honest. Here that part already exists. WallFlow, the studio's own product, runs paying customers on it, and both client systems were forked from it, which is why the third took weeks rather than months. A new product starts from that core, so the calendar goes into the one thing nobody else has built: your workflow.
What the first version contains
One core workflow, end to end: the thing a customer signs up to do, done properly rather than five things done halfway. Sign-up and sign-in. A separate account for every company that joins, with its own users, its own roles and data the next company cannot see. A Stripe subscription, with a trial if you want one, paid into your own Stripe account. It is live on your domain at the end, not a clickable demo.
Two kinds of founder, two first steps
If you know the industry and people already ask you for this tool, the first step is a scope call: the workflow is written down, priced, and the build is booked. If you have the idea and nobody yet who would use it, the first step is the $500 Blueprint: five business days in which we talk to three to five people who would pay for it, name the one job the first version has to do, and write the scope from what they said. It is credited in full if the build starts within 60 days. A build started on a guess about what users want is the one that does not finish.
Built to take the next hundred customers
The second company and the hundredth should be a sign-up, not a rebuild, so every company gets its own account from the first day rather than after the first sale. The same habits that keep the client systems right apply here: one fact lives in one module, a rule that lives in the code and the database changes in both at once, and guard tests are run against the bug they guard before they are trusted. None of that is visible in a demo. All of it is visible the week the product has more customers than you can watch by hand.
What is not in the first version
Native apps for the App Store and Google Play: the product is a web app that works properly on a phone, and native apps are not built here. Marketing, launch, ads and investor decks. A second workflow, an admin panel for things you can do in the database for now, and integrations beyond the one the workflow needs. Each of those is quoted as its own line before it starts, never absorbed into the same three to four weeks.
What you own, and what you do not give away
The code, the database, the Stripe account and the domain are yours from the first commit. There is no equity, no share of revenue and no licence back to the studio: the price is fixed, half to book the slot and half at launch. The studio is not a co-founder, and if you need one, that is a different conversation worth having with someone else. After launch a retainer is optional, and nothing switches off if you never take one.
SHT-03The options, side by side
What each route actually costs you.
| Option | Price | Timeline | The trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| A no-code builder | Their published monthly plans | Days to try | Fast to start. The data model and the billing are theirs, and moving off it once customers arrive is a rebuild. |
| A freelancer from scratch | Quoted per project | Weeks to months | Can be good. Sign-in, roles and billing get written again from zero, and that is where most of the weeks go. |
| An agency MVP | Quoted per project, usually after a discovery phase | Months | A team and a process. Right when an investor or a committee wants one, and priced for that structure. |
| An MVP on this core | From $5,500 | 3-4 weeks | One workflow, many companies, Stripe billing, on code already in production. Anything past the first workflow is its own line. |
| An idea with no users yet | Blueprint $500 first | 5 business days | Five days with the people who would use it before a line is written. Credited in full if you build within 60 days. |
SHT-04General notes
The questions people actually ask.
- N01How much does an MVP cost?
- From $5,500, in 3-4 weeks, for one core workflow, a separate account per company, sign-up and a Stripe subscription. Anything beyond that is quoted as its own line before it starts. If you only have the idea, the $500 Blueprint comes first and is credited in full if the build starts within 60 days.
- N02I only have an idea. Will you take it?
- Yes, through the Blueprint. Five business days: we talk to three to five people who would pay for the product, name the one job the first version has to do, and write the scope from what they said. If it turns out nobody would pay for it, you hear that before you spend the build.
- N03Do you take equity or a share of revenue?
- No. The price is fixed, half to book the slot and half at launch. The code, the database and the Stripe account are yours from the first commit, and nothing is licensed back to the studio.
- N04Can it grow into a real business with many customers?
- That is what it is built for. Every company gets its own account from the first day, so the next customer is a sign-up and not a rebuild. WallFlow, the studio's own product, runs paying customers on the same core.
- N05Do you build mobile apps?
- A web app that works properly on a phone, yes. Native apps for the App Store and Google Play, no. For most first versions the web app is enough to learn whether people pay.
- N06What happens after the first version?
- Two choices, both optional. The next pieces are quoted one by one, or a retainer covers monitoring, fixes and steady improvement. If you take neither, nothing switches off: the product runs on your accounts.
SHT-05Evidence
The systems this argument comes from.
Everything above was learned building these. Each sheet names the business, what the trade's arithmetic actually is, and the file in the repository that proves the capability. No client revenue and no client's customers appear on any of them.