5 Critical Mistakes Early-Stage Startups Make with Their MVP

Technical founders love to build. But when it comes to MVPs, that passion often leads to over-engineering and missed market opportunities.

Mistake #1: Building Features Instead of Testing Assumptions

The Problem: Founders build what they think users want instead of testing what users actually need.

Mistake #2: Perfectionist Code in an Imperfect Market

The Problem: Technical founders apply production-grade engineering standards to experimental products.

Mistake #3: Building for Scale Before Finding Users

The Problem: Optimizing for problems you don't have yet.

Mistake #4: Feature Creep Disguised as User Feedback

The Problem: Adding features based on individual user requests without understanding if they solve the core problem.

Mistake #5: Ignoring the "Viable" in MVP

The Problem: Building a minimum product that isn't actually viable for real use.

The Bottom Line

Your MVP isn't about building the minimum product. It's about maximum learning with minimum effort.

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