Build less. Learn faster.
Tcipher Technologies builds minimum viable products for startups, taking an idea to a launched product in about 12 weeks. This page is the thinking we use: what to build, what to cut, and how to know you're right. Take it, even if you never hire us.
No forms to read this page. It's just… a good page.
Ship 5 in 12 weeks — learn, then earn the other 7.
An MVP is not a cheaper product
It's the fastest honest test of your riskiest assumption. Most expensive failures start by getting this definition wrong.
✕What founders often build
- ✕
"Version 1 with everything, just rushed"— a full product on a diet, late and thin everywhere. - ✕
"A prototype we'll throw away"— money spent on something that was never meant to meet a real customer. - ✕
"Whatever competitors have, minus polish"— someone else's roadmap, inherited.
✓What an MVP actually is
- ✓smallest real product a stranger can use, pay for, and complain about.
- ✓Built to answer one question: will the market pull this out of our hands?
- ✓Production-quality where it matters, deliberately absent everywhere else.
Every feature must answer one question:
"Does this test our riskiest assumption?"
If not — it waits.
Failure-cause data: CB Insights post-mortem analysis. The other two: our own shipping record.
What makes the cut
Three buckets. Every feature you're dreaming about belongs to exactly one.
🟢 Build now if…
Removing it breaks the core promise. A user couldn't complete the one job your product exists for.
🟣 Delay if…
It makes the product better but not truer. Valuable — after strangers prove they want the core.
🔸 Delete if…
It exists because a competitor has it, or because it's fun to imagine. Roadmaps die of borrowed features.
Ninety days, honestly spent
This is what the calendar actually looks like when an MVP ships on time.
The riskiest assumption named — the one thing to test.
A prototype you can press, before any production code.
Production core flows, a working demo every Friday.
Real users, real devices — broken before your first customer.
You go live — and learning from strangers begins.
Launch isn't the finish — it's lap one
The MVP's job is to start this loop. Every two weeks, it goes around once.
One improvement aimed at the current riskiest assumption — shipped in days, not months.
Not what they say — what they do. Activation, retention, the moment they drop off.
Double down, adjust, or kill the idea early — every outcome is a win if it's cheap.
Five hats, one brief
Every MVP needs these roles filled. At Tcipher, nine AI engineers wear all five hats — you brief one team, not five vendors.
What founders actually ask
Related reading
What MVP development really costs, and how long it takes
There's no single number for MVP cost or timeline — it depends on scope, integrations and platform. Here's the framework we use to give founders a straight answer.
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Read articleTake the thinking. The building is optional.
If this page sharpened your scope, it did its job. And if you want a second pair of eyes on your v1 — the consultation is free, and the advice is honest, even when it's "start smaller."
A real person replies within 24 hours · No pitch decks required