How to Build a Successful MVP

In a time when startups are booming, the topic of MVPs has never been more relevant. But how can you be successful in building one? That’s what David and Pawel - from the MVP expert company GeekForce | Software Development - talked about in our latest #AskTheHub video. Do you have any questions for Geekforce about #MVP building?

David: Welcome to another edition of Askthehub the series where we take questions from the community based on business technology and product development and talk with experts in the field from the Amplifyre hub, today we will talk about how to build a successful MVP and our guest is Pawel the COO of Geekforce, Hi Pawel how are you doing?

Pawel: HelloDavid, thank you very much for inviting me. I'm feeling good. I'm really excited about this interview.

David: Perfect! Yeah, it's nice to have you here. Geekforce is a very interesting name! What is this company about?

Pawel: This is pretty easy to explain, we are a pretty unique software house from Poland, the unique is the name geek and force as we try to work with on best talents on the market we became a geek box. What makes us special is maybe what will be the topic for the talk today, that from the beginning we tried to be specialized in MVP development, the story from the one hand was that we had a team, which was specialized in this, and on the second hand we had a very strong connection to one of the biggest bc found in Poland in the entire hill capital, and based on this experience, this connection we will we were able to grow up very fast, to establish several startups to build some MVPs learn and also sit a different perspective not only from the startup point of view but also from the venture capital point of view and this I think brings us to this point that we are pretty effective in this what we are doing but also we try to be a good business partner for all companies that are planning to build the MVP that's more or less our short story.

David: So when you're dealing with MVP so much right, what is it, that defines an MVP? What is the difference between MVP and any other software project?

Pawel: There are several differences positive and negative side, maybe I will start with positive one because from one hand this is extremely interesting you have projects very often that are working with the newest technology, this is very attractive for the development team, people get excited have a bit different approach very motivated, have feeling that they are doing something very unique, this is something that everyone likes to do at least in our teams, but this is also a dark side of from this perspective you need to be sure and and have this kind of approach that you are working on very risky and uncertainty projects that could end in very bad way, especially if you have an MVP for a startup is very often only one shot I mean this is not possible to make something like this once again basically because in the early stage you have limited budget so you need to try to build this mvp from the beginning in this direction, that assure you that the startup will be successful later, if this is growing up of course it's not so risky as in the beginning but anyway I have a feeling and this is my opinion that working on MVPs requires a kind of personality that like to work on a kind of risky environment and simply like this challenge this is a kind of challenger's work this is my definition.

David: It definitely is and I can also tell from my experience that it's a lot of hard work and a lot of risks involved and when I take a look at the startups that I've met during my life, I've seen that the variable that really is one of the most important ones is, how many iterations can you survive right, on one side from the financial perspective but also from the psychological perspective, right how much can you go through this yeah the motivation you go through this, until you actually get there, that this product is a market fit, really make sure, okay now I found this, the secret sauce I was looking for. Yeah so definitely a very challenging field, so what are your tips to make it successful? If I would say okay Pawel tell me the three most important tips to have a successful MVP what would you say?

Pawel: Well maybe I will tell you, this is from one hand a business trip, this is already a mention in the last question, pick good founders to pick up good founders find someone who fits your expectation, be sure that there are right people that you can trust them and can survive, try to launch as soon as possible and then let your idea evolve and try to understand your user as much as you can that's the business side. You know the points on how to make it from the business perspective successful. From the software development side, is maybe a bit different here, you need to focus on who will build your product, if this is a big advertisement about Geekforce that you know we try to focus on business but think about it that this is not only a development of your product this is something that someone, who will be like a co-founder, maybe you know that you need to first know that he bring you added value not only build your great software but also help you out in market research understand your business value understand where you are where are your competitors and how are your unique selling points in the future and this is from the perspective of software development in my opinion pretty important and these two things put it together thinking about how to make up a great MVP maybe this will help out in this particular situation.

David: Perfect! Okay so thank you very much for your insights, if any one of our viewers has questions on MVP building or for Geekforce please leave them down in the comments we are happy to answer them see you next time.

Curious to hear other interesting interviews, get more insights at #AskTheHub