SaaS and MVP product builds: from idea to a product people can pay for.
A payable product in weeks, not quarters
Auth, billing and analytics from day one
Honest advice about what not to build
You have an idea, or a spreadsheet other people keep asking to buy, and you want to validate it as a real product without burning a year and a fortune on the first version. We fit best with founders building B2B tools: compliance and field service, accounting and tax, and operations software, the verticals our own products live in.
- A genuine MVP: the smallest thing that delivers the core value and can take payment
- Auth, billing, and the unglamorous plumbing every SaaS needs, done properly the first time
- Analytics and reporting from day one so you can see what users actually do
- A build partner who has shipped and run their own SaaS, not just built for others
Six weeks, week by week.
This is the method we use to build a real, payable product in weeks rather than quarters. Press a phase for the detail.
Weeks 1-2: Sharpen and shape
We cut the idea down to the one thing it must do to be worth paying for, and shape the core loop before a line of production code is written.
Manifold and Quarterly, our own products, were both built with this method.
From idea to a payable product
Sharpen
We cut the idea down to the one thing it must do to be worth paying for.
Build the MVP
We ship a real, payable product in weeks, not quarters.
Learn & iterate
We instrument it and build the next thing based on evidence, not opinion.
The MVP scope-cutter.
Every idea arrives with a feature list like this one. Click to cut and keep, and watch what the first version becomes. This is the conversation we have on every scoping call.
Heavy: 8 of 8 kept.
Every feature you keep is something users wait longer for and pay more for before anyone has proven they want it. The first version of most successful products looked embarrassingly small on purpose.
Shipping lean is not doing less; it is finding out sooner. What your MVP must prove decides the scope, and the scope decides the price.
MVP builds typically from £12,000, scoped to what the first version must prove.
After one scoping conversation you get a fixed written estimate for the MVP. We do not bill by the hour, so scope discipline stays honest.
We build software for ourselves, with our own money on the line. Manifold and Quarterly are the receipts. We will also tell you the uncomfortable parts early: what the first version should not include, what running costs look like at low volume, and when a spreadsheet is honestly still the better product.
Founder questions, straight answers
How much of my idea makes it into version one?+
The smallest slice that someone will pay for. That discipline is the difference between a product learning from real users and a year of building on guesses.
What happens after launch?+
We instrument the core loop, watch what users actually do, and build the next thing based on evidence, on a light retainer or as scoped follow-ons.
We have a limited budget. Is an MVP still realistic?+
Often, because cutting the idea to the smallest payable slice is the whole method. The scoping call produces a fixed written estimate, and if the budget and the idea genuinely do not meet, we say so rather than build something too thin to prove anything.
SaaS & MVP Product Builds start with one question: what must version one prove?
- Tell us the idea. A paragraph is plenty; we reply within one working day.
- Sharpen it on a call. You speak with the builder who would ship the MVP, never a sales layer.
- Get the honest version. A fixed written estimate for the smallest payable product, and a candid 'don't build this yet' when the evidence says wait.