Forging the First Build
The Art of the MVP That Matters
"If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late." — Reid Hoffman
There’s a moment in every startup founder’s journey when the thinking, the planning, the ideating—all of it—must be put to the test. That moment is the first build. And no, I don’t mean your "version 1.0" or some glossy, investor-ready beta. I mean your Minimum Viable Product (MVP)—the leanest, roughest version of your startup idea that can still stand on its own and say: this is what we believe users need.
In the past three pieces, we explored how to align yourself with the right market (Founder-Market Fit), how to hone in on the right pain (Problem Fit), and how to shape an uncompromising value proposition. Now comes the real test: can you build something that doesn’t just speak, but listens back? Something that tells you whether the path you’re walking is solid or just smoke?
This is where we forge the first MVP.
Why Most Minimum Viable Products Fail
I've seen this repeatedly—smart startup founders, great ideas, weak MVPs.
Either they overbuild, spending months perfecting a full-fledged product that nobody’s asked for yet.
Or they underbuild: putting up a landing page, maybe collecting some emails, then calling it "validated."
But here's the truth: the MVP isn’t about optics. It’s not a shiny pitch tool or a shortcut to funding. It’s a working experiment designed to test the most dangerous assumption in your business model.
The MVP exists to teach you something critical—ideally before you've burned through time, team morale, or money.
What Makes a Minimum Viable Product Viable?
The best MVPs I’ve seen—and built—do three things:
They solve a real problem for a real customer.
They test one risky, high-stakes assumption.
They force the user to act—whether by paying, signing up, investing effort, or giving access.
If users can walk away with a shrug, your MVP hasn’t done its job.
How to Build a Successful MVP: A Startup Founder’s Playbook
Step 1: Get Honest About What Could Kill Your Startup
Every value proposition has a landmine.
Will users actually trust an AI to give them financial advice?
Will B2B buyers pay a premium for analytics?
Will content creators switch from a tool they already love?
List every risky assumption. Then pick the one that, if proven wrong, renders everything else irrelevant.
That’s what your MVP is here to test.
Step 2: Strip It Down Without Losing the Core Value
Ask yourself:
What’s the bare minimum I can build to test this assumption?
Can I run this test without writing a line of code?
Who exactly needs to use this, and what action should they take?
Remember: MVP ≠MLP (Minimum Lovable Product). You're not trying to charm anyone. You're trying to validate product-market fit.
Step 3: Pick the Right MVP Format for Your Startup Idea
Here are MVPs I’ve seen work:
A Notion doc + Calendly + Stripe for a concierge startup service
A Loom demo + waitlist for a SaaS MVP
A Figma prototype with clickable product flows
A WhatsApp group to simulate a future community platform
Your goal isn’t to impress—it’s to elicit real user behavior.
Step 4: Launch Fast, Observe Behavior, Adapt Quickly
Push it live. Watch what users do (not what they say). Collect the signal. Iterate. If the signal’s weak, change the test. If it’s strong, start doubling down.
But don’t confuse early excitement with true validation. You’re looking for repeatable user behavior, not polite curiosity.
MVP Examples Worth Studying
Dropbox MVP: Didn’t build anything at first. Just released a video that explained what it would do. 70,000 people joined the waitlist.
Zappos MVP: The founder took pictures of shoes from local stores, posted them online, and manually fulfilled each order.
Superhuman MVP: Did high-touch, 1-on-1 onboarding long before scaling, to ensure product-market fit.
These weren’t just clever hacks. They were focused, cheap, brutal tests of startup assumptions.
Common MVP Mistakes Startup Founders Make
Treating the MVP as a "mini-product" instead of a validation test.
Building for scale too early.
Hiding behind surveys and NPS scores.
Waiting for perfection. (Spoiler: perfect never comes.)
MVP Launch Checklist
Before launching your MVP, ask yourself:
Do I know what core startup assumption I’m testing?
Will this MVP test force real user behavior?
Can I run this experiment in under 2 weeks?
What decision will this test help me make?
If you can answer those confidently, you’re ready to launch your MVP.
Final Thought: Build Your MVP to Learn, Not to Impress
There’s a moment when you’ll feel the urge to delay. To wait until it’s prettier, faster, and more robust. Ignore it.
The MVP is not your debut. It’s your first lesson. The sooner you learn, the sooner you can start building a successful startup that matters.
So forge your first build. Not to prove you’re brilliant—but to prove there’s something worth building at all.
Let the sparks fly.