How much can an MVP cost?
Good day,
I am Aleksey and I would like to express my opinion about the proximity of startups to us and dispel the notion that creating a startup necessarily involves investing millions of dollars.
About me
I am a Team Lead / Project Manager at NJSoft.
Among my current tasks is conducting interviews with customers to determine the minimum functionality, evaluate it, and define the application architecture.
What is an MVP?
MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product. It is a development technique used in the creation of new products or services, particularly in software development. The purpose of an MVP is to develop a product or service with just enough features to satisfy early customers and obtain feedback for future development.
An MVP typically has the essential features that solve a specific problem or meet a core need for the target audience, but not necessarily all the bells and whistles. The MVP approach allows companies to test their assumptions about a product or service in a real-world setting, while minimizing development costs and time to market.
The idea behind an MVP is to release a basic version of a product or service to early adopters, gather feedback, and use that feedback to make improvements and iterate towards a more refined final product. This approach allows companies to reduce risk and improve the chances of success by building a product that is tailored to the needs of the market.
How will I do it?
To illustrate that a startup doesn’t always require substantial budgets and development timelines, I intend to write several articles analyzing successful startups that have already gained users. In these articles, I will examine the potential MVP for each startup and estimate the amount of time and resources required for its development.
I want to clarify that I don’t claim to be the definitive source of information, and I welcome constructive criticism, feedback, and suggestions for improvements. I also appreciate a good joke or two! Please feel free to reach out to me through the contact information in my profile.
Locket Widget 12+
Live pics from best friends
The initial startup to be featured in this article series is Locket Labs, which offers a mobile widget for photos shared by friends.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.locket.Locket&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1
https://apps.apple.com/us/developer/locket-labs-inc/id1600525063
We will explore the potential MVP development process for this startup.
Total Funding Amount $12.5M
(source https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/locket-labs)
The application allows you to send your photos to friends directly on the main screen of your smartphone — they appear in a special widget. Since its launch in January 2022, the service has been downloaded by more than 25 million people and used by about 3 million people daily.
As this is a mobile application, it will need to be developed for two operating systems: Android and iOS. In our experience, the most efficient framework for this type of project is Flutter. It allows for applications to be written in the Dart language and then compiled into native code, resulting in faster development time without sacrificing performance.
However, there is a drawback to using Flutter: the resulting application may be larger in size compared to a simple native application. For example, a basic native Android application may only require 3 MB for installation, while a Flutter application may require 15 MB.
A backend is also required for the mobile application to function properly. Our team typically uses PHP on the Symfony framework for such projects and can expand with other languages if needed. It’s worth noting that even Facebook is written in PHP.
In addition to developers, the project will require a designer and a project manager. Let’s determine the essential functionality required for the MVP. By creating a simple version of the application, we can test our theory and make any necessary improvements based on audience interest.
How much is it?
The minimum functionality required for this application involves sending current photos to friends’ phone desktops to share emotions. As a user, one would log in using their phone number, select contacts to receive the invitation, and take a photo on the designated screen.
The essential features of this application include login through a phone number, contact selection for broadcasting photos, subscription list management, a photo feed, and the widget itself.
In my opinion, developing an MVP for this application would require approximately 60 designer hours, 124 hours for a backend developer, 152 hours for a mobile developer, and 49 hours for a project manager. This would cost an estimated $34,780 and could take 2–3 months depending on the intensity of development.
Feel free to contact me if you are interested in a detailed estimate or if you have a startup idea and require advice.
Good day!
