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Is a Minimum Viable Product Right for You?


You have an idea. You’re excited. Maybe you’ve even sketched it on a napkin or spent late nights imagining how it will change the world. Then comes the question: Should I build an MVP?

It sounds like the obvious first step. But here is the honest truth: a Minimum Viable Product isn’t right for everyone at least, not right away. Before you hire developers or start writing a spec sheet, it helps to ask yourself three specific questions. The answers will tell you whether you should.

1. Do you know the one thing your product must do?

An MVP isn’t a smaller version of your big vision. It isn’t your full app with half the features missing. A true MVP is a learning tool.

If you can’t articulate your product’s single core job in one sentence, you aren’t ready for an MVP. You’re still in the problem-definition stage. And that’s okay - that’s exactly where strategy comes in before a single line of code is written.

2. Are you trying to build, or are you trying to learn?

This is the most common trap for non-technical founders. We treat the MVP like a milestone - “once it’s built, we’ve started.” In reality, the MVP is the start of the research, not the end of it.

Most MVPs fail for reasons that have nothing to do with technology. They fail because founders validate too late. They build features nobody asked for. They prioritize what’s easy to code instead of what’s critical to test.

A founder who needs an MVP to prove their idea is viable is ready. A founder who needs an MVP to prove they can build something is often better served by a discovery phase first.

3. Do you know the difference between “viable” and “sellable”?

Here’s a subtle shift in thinking that changes everything. NCrypted uses an approach called MSP-first: Minimum Sellable Product.

An MVP asks: Can we build it?

An MSP asks: Will someone pay for it?

That distinction matters. You don’t need a beautiful admin panel or advanced analytics to answer the second question. You need a clean user flow, rapid onboarding, and a core action that delivers value instantly. That’s it.

If you’re a non-technical founder without a CTO, this is especially relevant. You don’t need to know how to code. You do need to know what “value” looks like to your first paying customer.

When an MVP isn’t right for you

Let’s be practical. An MVP may not be your best first move if:

You haven’t spoken to 20+ potential users. Validation happens through conversations, not contracts.

You’re jumping to features before defining the user journey. A fragmented experience with crammed features won’t attract funding or early adopters.

You expect the MVP to be cheap and final. An MVP is an iteration, not a finish line. It’s the start of a conversation with the market.

When it is right for you

An MVP is powerful tool to get in depth market experience. When you’re ready to listen to what real users do, not what they say.

Founders like David Mortellaro (Sophosi) and Robert Strauss (RePredict.ai) didn’t start with massive budgets or fully-formed technical teams. They started with a partner who helped them focus on what mattered, treated their product like a shared mission, and built a foundation that could scale without a costly rebuild.

An MVP isn’t about building less. It’s about proving the right thing. If you know the problem, you respect what you don’t yet know, and you’re ready to learn - you’re exactly the kind of founder an MVP was designed for.

And if you’re still unsure? That’s not a weakness. It’s a sign you’re thinking like a founder.

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