SaaS and MVP development.
A first version that real users can pay for — without building for a scale you do not have.
Most MVPs fail for one of two opposite reasons. Either they are built so quickly that they collapse the moment anyone uses them, or they are over-engineered for a million users who never arrive. The useful version sits between: genuinely simple in features, genuinely solid in the parts that would be expensive to get wrong later — accounts, billing and data.
What’s included
- Multi-tenant account and user architecture
- Subscription billing with trials, plans and upgrades
- Authentication, roles and permissions
- The core feature, built well rather than broadly
- Admin tooling so you can support customers from day one
- Usage tracking and basic analytics
- Deployment, monitoring and backups
What to build well and what to keep simple
Build accounts, billing and the data model properly — these are structural and expensive to change once you have paying customers. Keep the feature surface deliberately narrow. It is far easier to add a feature later than to unpick a billing model or a tenancy decision that turned out wrong.
Billing is not a bolt-on
Subscription billing touches everything: trials, upgrades and downgrades mid-period, failed payments, dunning, cancellations, refunds and entitlement. Adding it after the fact usually means reworking your permission model too. I build it into the foundation.
Admin tooling from the start
You will need to look up a customer, extend a trial, issue a refund or fix bad data in week one. Without admin tooling that means a developer running database queries. A simple back office pays for itself almost immediately.
Common questions
How much does an MVP cost?
It depends entirely on the core feature; accounts and billing are reasonably predictable. I will scope it with you and quote a fixed price before starting.
Can you work with a technical co-founder?
Yes. I am comfortable building alongside an existing developer, or handing over cleanly to a team you hire once the product is proven.
What if we get traction and need to scale?
The foundations I build will carry you a long way further than most people expect. When you genuinely need to scale, you will have revenue and real usage data to guide it, which is the right time to make those decisions.
Will we be locked in to you?
No. Standard, well-documented technology, full source ownership and infrastructure access at handover.
Have a project in mind?
Tell me what you're building and roughly when you need it. I reply to every genuine enquiry within one working day.