Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] I've built over 100 MVPs for non technical founders. 23 of them hit six figures in their first year and not a single one followed the traditional advice you see everywhere. While everyone else was burning cash on development teams and equity deals, these founders used a completely different playbook that allowed them to build a winning MVP from day one. A playbook that gets you paying customers before you even write a single line of code. Because I get it, you're not technical. You've got this brilliant idea. You know there's a real problem to solve, but everybody's telling you to either learn programming or give away half of your company to some technical co founder you barely know. It's garbage advice. If we haven't met yet. My name is Victor. I've spent over a decade in the trenches as a developer and in the boardroom as a consultant. Every year I've been helping dozens of non technical founders launch their SaaS in under three months. I was part of the biggest coaching programs for SaaS and communities and consulted on all these projects. And today I'm breaking down the exact five step framework that separates the winners from the casualties. And by the way, if you already know you need this playbook for your own idea and you just wanted the expert shortcut, the link to book a one on one strategy call with me is in the description. So let's start with step one, where most non technical founders make their worst and most expensive mistake, which is you think you know your customer's biggest pain. But I've seen this so many times, you might even be a part of the audience you want to serve. But I'm telling you, your perspective is biased. It's a guess. And we're not going to build a business on a guess, are we? The first step to building a winning MVP happens before you buy that domain name. I know you've been checking it for the past three weeks before four, you design a logo. It's in real research. So if you have a solution, you must leave your guest solution behind and go on a quest for one thing and one thing only. A painful, expensive problem for your target audience. The problem how do we find the proof? First and easiest ways to look at your own experiences. If you at some point were part of the target audience you're trying to reach, great. You try to find inconveniences you had, maybe some repetitive tasks and so on, great. Okay. But the better and more effective way to do it is to ask.
[00:02:30] Set up an interview with people you're targeting or if you have friends you know who are in that target audience. The better ask them. But you can't just ask, what's your biggest pain? It might work, but there are better questions that you can ask. I'll give you in just a minute. The thing you have to look for in these answers is the language that they use, right? Which is why surveys won't work that well. Apart from nobody answering those. They just give you data so great, but they don't give you the empathy, the feelings, they don't capture the sight, the frustration in someone's voice, the words they use to describe their own struggle. Your job is to get on a call or even better, go to somebody's office. You find these people on LinkedIn, Reddit, niche Facebook groups, wherever they hang out. And you ask them open ended questions like walk me through your process for whatever task you want to solve. What's the most annoying part of that? How does this affect you other than work? What are you currently using to solve this? What do you hate about it? If you had a magic wand and you could change one thing about this process, what would it be? Let's say you interview one of your friends you know named Sarah. She's a graphic designer, a freelancer. You talk with her and you find that her biggest problem is tracking hours and invoicing. But most importantly, the biggest pain is that nobody's paying on time and sometimes she forgets people haven't paid and so on. So remember, that will be important later in this video. Now this is the most important part. You just shut up and listen. Don't pitch your idea, don't correct them, don't guide them, just listen, take notes, court the call if they let you. Because the exact words they use, the specific frustrations they share, that's not just research. That's your future marketing copy, your feature list, your roadmap to a product people literally be begging you to build. You're mining for gold and the gold is their pain. You know you've nailed step one when you can complete this sentence. My target audience stays awake at night worrying about blank. If you can't fill in that blank with confidence, keep digging. You can probably do this in a couple of days. Once you've found that goal, that raw pain, you're ready for the next step. But what if you could validate your idea without spending a dime? I'll show you exactly how in step three. But first, let me show you how to turn that problem into something tangible.
[00:04:48] So now you've uncovered a real painful problem that Keeps your customers awake at night. But the problem is in product vision. So the next step is to translate. Your solution is something you can see and feel long before you have anybody write any code. This will give you insane clarity, which will save you weeks, months and thousands of dollars in the future. This is where you create a prototype. And the game has completely changed here. It used to be that building a prototype was a difficult, time consuming step. Not anymore. Hey, you don't even have to be a great designer even to make this work. I used to recommend low code tools here, but with today's advancements in AI, you can build a real full code prototype in a matter of hours.
[00:05:30] Instead, you can use Vibe coding tools, right, Lovable Data button and others to create a working prototype. Or if you have any basic coding knowledge at all, you can try cursor or replit. Those will give you even better results. You might remember five years ago, we were all told to not build anything, right, but create wireframes or other forms of clickable prototypes. Because even those took a very long time to build. And the goal was to save us from weeks or months and tens of thousands of dollars before talking, before getting feedback from a real customer, right? And that's still the case. We still want that. But a working prototype has always said more than a thousand wireframes. And today they're, they've become dead simple to build. So now that idea in your head, you can make it reality. Something you can click through, you can put it, your own hands on it and say, well, first user does this, then they see that, then they click this. You will instantly spot a dozen flaws in your own logic they would have never found otherwise. Show it to customers. So the purpose of this product prototype is really twofold. Number one, it clarifies your vision. It forces you to think through every screen and every click and every interaction better than you would in any sort of documentation. It turns your abstract solution into a tangible plan, right? So do build your first demo if you can. However, what still remains just as true, you know, results first, not software first. Some people really want to just build software. You should aim for results. And so in this prototype, don't try to perfect the design. Focus on the core problem. Okay, now you have a validated problem and a simple prototype. So amazing. Now it's time to spend thousands, tens of thousands on an mvp, right? Wrong. This is what most founders forget to do. You're going to get your first paying customers before the product even exists. But how you will do it with something called A Conserve mvp. And to be fair, not everybody can do it. It depends on what you want to build, but more often than not, you can. So this is how it works. Remember the CR you interviewed? Remember freelance graphic designer? She wants a simple way to track her project hours and invoice clients without paying for clunky expensive software. That's a problem you uncovered. You don't have a product, just have a prototype. Now you go to Sarah and say, I'm building a new simple invoicing tool specifically for freelancers. I'm looking for three founding members for just 50 bucks a month. I will personally handle all your invoicing for you. Yeah, by hand. Exactly how the software would. I'll remind late paying clients, reconcile payments, make sure these invoices get paid. You just email me the hours or give me access to whatever tool and I'll create and send professional invoices for you. Sarah says yes. I mean, why wouldn't she? You just got your first paying customer, you're solving her problem. Now you get paid to learn the exact workflow without spending on building software. You'll know what features are actually needed. You have zero development, cost of proof of concept and a role testimonial. This is also the exact way I started my previous company. By manually matching clients to tech teams before building any sort of platform to help me eliminate the risk on investing in an idea that won't work. And that's what it will do for you. You can do this by going to the people you interviewed in a first step and pitching it to them. Now you have a battle tested idea that people will pay to have. Now and only now you're truly ready to build. But this is the moment where fear creeps in for most non technical founders. How do you find the right person? How do you avoid getting ripped off? How do you manage a process you don't fully understand?
[00:09:08] And listen. The idea that you need a technical co founder at this stage is an absolute myth. When you have paying customers a perfect visual prototype, you hold all the power. You don't need to give away half of your company. You're hiring a single talented freelancer for a specific mission. One senior developer or a small software house who can handle both front end and the back end. Right, the software house. If it's really more complex, you have a complex mix of technologies right at the gate. Otherwise, probably just a freelancer. You write a simple contract that includes, you know, the exact scope based on your prototype, a timeline, payment, milestones, and most importantly, that's really the most important part about a contract Ownership of all code and ip. Any of the following or this and that. Sound complex and you'd like guidance and help. Always feel free to book a call with me using the link in the description. So focus on solving the core problem first because polishing comes later. But the main part is hiring a good developer as this will make or break your mvp. You don't need to know how to write code, but you need to know how to hire. And so here's what you do. First, you create a clear request for proposal in your rfp. You include all your documentation, but you also add two crucial details, your budget and your timeline. Be upfront. This transparency filters out mismatched candidates from the very beginning and saves everybody weeks of wasted time. Second, you filter out your candidates ruthlessly. Don't just look at their five star rating, go deeper. Check their portfolio. Are they obsessed with detail? Does their past work look polished and professional? Verify their reviews. Look for verified reviews on professional platforms like Clutch or Upwork. Just see what real clients say. Now we match the product project size critically. Have they worked on a project of a similar size and scope to yours before? Because someone who builds giant enterprise software might over engineer your very simple product. Third, you just conduct a vibe check meeting. Once you have a short list of three to five candidates, you know the interview is everything. You're checking for two things. Number one, can they understand your vision? Ask them to explain your project concept back to you. If they can't articulate you your vision, they can't build it. Period. Are they generally interested? Pay close attention to the questions that they ask. Are they asking smart clarifying questions or are they just asking about the payment schedule? You want a partner who's intellectually engaged and not just a pair of hands. Fourth, judge their code quality without reading code. How do you do that? How do you know that if their work is any good, it's actually very simple. You now go and talk to their past clients, ask for references, and when you speak to them, ask two powerful questions. Number one, how easy was it to add new features to the project later on? And number two, did the project scale well as you were getting more users? The answers to these questions will tell you everything you need to know about the quality and foresight of their work. And finally, for larger projects, you can run a paid test. You know, if you're down to two great candidates and project is significant, this is the ultimate tiebreaker you can offer to pay them. You know, for a small two to five day Test project. Give them a small feature from your roadmap to work on and you'll see how they estimate. Communicate, handle feedback. It's the single best way to de risk your most important hire.
[00:12:32] Congratulations. Now you have hired your developer and you're ready to build the mvp. If, however, hiring and managing a developer feels intimidating, that is normal. If you want, I can guide you on a strategy call or connect you with plug and play developers whom I have already tested and have the right skills and track record. The link is in the description to win from Day one mindset is more important than tactics. I am going to quickly share these first is minimal roadmap so crucial your plans should have three to five items at most, all directly requested by our paying customers. Second is fast iterations. You have to ship small improvements every week or every other week to show you're listening.
[00:13:19] 3. Close customer contact. You should be on a call with at least one customer every single week. Or better yet, go there in the early days. This is how you stay ahead of the competition, believe me. Fourth is about scaling. Only scale up your team or code architecture when growth demands it. This is your new ladder. Number one, Vibe code for a prototype. Number two get a freelancer or a small software house for the mvp. Number three Build your own team for the product at scale. All right, that's the entire framework. As a quick recap, we broke it down the full playbook into one the research where you hunt for a painful, expensive problem. Number two, the prototype where you visualize the solution to gain clarity both with yourself and your customers. Number three the concert MVP where you get paid to validate your idea manually. Then the build where you run a professional process to hire the right developer. And the roadmap where you let your paying customers guide your growth. So remember how in the beginning I said that while everyone else was burning cash and giving away equity, there was a different playbook. This framework is that playbook. You can now have a system designed to replace guesswork with evidence and fear with a professional process. But even with the right framework, bridging the gap between strategy and execution could still be challenging. And so that's exactly why I built MVP Mastery, which is a lean coaching and matchmaking service that provides the roadmap vetted team and a fractional CTO to give you the guidance that you need. So we'll we'll help you turn the idea into a launch profitable SaaS MVP in as little as two to six months without you having to learn to go to or give away any sort of equity and without any guesswork. So if you're ready to launch without the rookie mistakes, the link is in the description below. Thank you for watching and I'll see you in the next video.
