Startups, MVPs and the Illusion of "Doing It Right"

I recently had a conversation about early-stage startups and whether everything should be built “properly” from day one - TDD, full CI pipelines, clean architecture, the works.

Here's the scenario:

• You're starting a brand-new startup.
• You have no funding.
• You have one developer (maybe it's you).
• You need to ship an MVP.

In that situation, is it worth spending time building everything the way a small team at a proper company might? Or is this a special case?

Here's my take:

When it's just one dev and no money, "doing it right" often means doing it wrong.

The goal isn't to build a perfect product - it's to build the right one.

Startups live or die by whether they find something people actually want. And you don't find that by building out a full test suite, refining your domain models, or setting up a Kubernetes cluster.

You find it by getting something - anything - in front of real users, fast.

Perfect is a luxury. Progress is essential.

Most of what you build in the early days will get thrown away or rewritten. You're not laying the foundations for a ten-year architecture - you're throwing clay at the wall to see what shape sticks.

By all means, be mindful. Leave comments, or document what you'd refactor if it catches on. But don't waste time building “properly” for something that may not survive a single user test.

Build fast, validate faster.

Startups with no funding are in a completely different world to funded startups with a small team. One can afford to do things the right way. The other is racing the clock to prove it even deserves to exist.

What to look for in a developer or CTO at this stage

If you're in the no-money, pre-product stage and looking for a developer or CTO, you don't need someone who insists on building things the “proper” way from day one. You need someone who understands the game: fast, focused, and flexible. Look for someone who can make smart shortcuts, who's comfortable saying “this is a hack for now,” and who knows when to trade perfection for progress. Bonus points if they can clearly communicate what corners they're cutting - because that's what makes a good partner, not just a good coder.

If / when your startup catches on you'll have time - and ideally funding - to rebuild parts of it properly. But first, just make sure you're building something worth rebuilding.