top of page

How to Build An MVP That Scales Without Costly Rewrites

  • Writer: Brainz Magazine
    Brainz Magazine
  • 3 days ago
  • 8 min read

Alberto Zuin is a CTO/CIO and the founder of MOYD, helping startup teams master their tech domain. With 25+ years of leadership in software and digital strategy, he blends enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, and AI know-how to guide fast-growing companies.

Executive Contributor Alberto Zuin

I’ve seen too many promising digital products crumble under the weight of their code. In early-stage tech, speed matters, but if your first version can’t evolve with your business, it’ll slow you down when momentum is everything. This article is for founders, product owners, and tech leaders building software or IT services: how do you move fast without locking yourself into a costly rebuild later? Whether you're launching a mobile app, SaaS platform, or internal tool, the principles here apply to any digital product.


A laptop displaying lines of code is placed on a desk beside a pair of white over-ear headphones, suggesting a programming or development workspace.

What is an MVP?


MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product, but despite being one of the most used terms in startup culture, it is also one of the most misunderstood.


Many founders assume an MVP is just a scrappy version of their final product. Others confuse it with a prototype or a proof of concept. These distinctions might seem subtle, but they lead to very different technical decisions.


Let’s break it down:


  • A Proof of Concept (PoC) is used to test whether something is technically feasible. For example, can we integrate with this third-party API? Can we process audio in real time? A PoC is usually built quickly, often as throwaway code, and it’s not meant for users.

  • A Prototype is used to explore usability or design. Think of a clickable Figma mockup or a non-functional app that shows flow and layout. It helps validate how the product might feel, but it doesn’t work yet.

  • A Minimum Viable Product (MVP), by contrast, is a working product with just enough features to solve a core problem for early users. It is not a demo, a sketch, or an internal test tool. It’s your first real step into the market.


The goal of an MVP is to learn. Learn how users interact with your idea. Learn what features matter and which ones don’t. Learn what breaks, what scales, and where the value truly lies.

But just because something is "minimum" doesn't mean it can be fragile. And just because it's "viable" doesn't mean it has to be built for the long haul. The magic is in the balance.


Common founder mistakes


When it comes to building an MVP, most mistakes don’t come from bad technology. They come from making the right decisions at the wrong time. Based on years of mentoring early-stage founders, these are two of the most common patterns:


Overengineering too early


Founders sometimes build like they’re already at Series B: setting up complex architectures, container orchestration, and distributed microservices all before they have a single paying user. While these tools solve real problems at scale, they create friction early on.


A study from Stripe estimated that “the average developer spends more than 17 hours per week dealing with maintenance issues and four hours a week on 'bad code,' which equates to nearly $85 billion lost annually.” 


Overengineering makes this worse.


Treating the MVP like a throwaway


At the other extreme are MVPs built with the mindset that they’re disposable. Founders assume the code will be thrown away later, so they skip tests, avoid documentation, and glue things together with minimal structure. The problem? If the MVP gains traction, that code often becomes the bedrock of the actual product.


When this happens, yesterday’s shortcuts become tomorrow’s liabilities. The time saved during early development is quickly lost to bugs, instability, and rewrites. In fact, a 2020 McKinsey report revealed that CIOs estimate technical debt accounts for 20% to 40% of the total value of their technology estate. Worse, 10% to 20% of budgets meant for building new features are instead consumed by fixing issues caused by this debt. One CIO noted that, before tackling their tech debt, 75% of their engineers' time was spent managing its consequences, a figure they reduced to 25% through intentional efforts.


Prioritise what matters


With limited time and budget, founders must ruthlessly prioritise. But how?


Support core user flow


Ask: What is the simplest version of the user journey that proves our value? Build that. Everything else is noise.


For example, if you’re building a marketplace, your MVP flow might be: search → add to cart → checkout. Don’t start by building notifications or review systems: focus on the core flow.


Use mature, boring tools


Your MVP is not the time to get fancy with untested tools. When speed and clarity are critical, reliable, well-documented frameworks can make or break your momentum. According to GitHub’s 2021 Octoverse report, projects with strong documentation see up to 50% higher productivity in open source and enterprise settings.


That’s not a coincidence. Mature frameworks like Django or Express.js have large communities, predictable behaviour, and plenty of online support. They reduce onboarding time and make it easier to debug, iterate, or hand over the project later. When your goal is to move fast without tripping over your tools, boring tech is often your best friend.


Secure the essentials


You don’t need enterprise security, but you must protect user data. Encrypt passwords, store API keys securely, and enforce basic access controls.


According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024, the global breach cost for small businesses was $4.9M. The earlier you bake in security basics, the better.


Know what you’re deferring


Deferring work is fine, but write it down. A simple README or decisions.md file can help new team members (or future you) understand what was skipped and why.


Lean, scalable choices


When building an MVP, scalability doesn’t mean preparing for ten million users: it means avoiding choices that will break the moment growth starts. Lean doesn’t mean rushed or sloppy. It means being deliberate about where you spend effort and where you borrow efficiency.


Favour managed platforms


Choosing a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering helps you avoid spending cycles on DevOps before it's necessary. Managed platforms like Render, Railway, or AWS App Runner abstract deployment, scaling, logging, and SSL. While these platforms may introduce limitations, the productivity gain is measurable.


In a 2023 survey by Stack Overflow, over 41% of developers reported using PaaS (Heroku, Vercel, Netfly) offerings to reduce operational overhead. Similarly, according to a Forrester report commissioned by Heroku, teams using managed platforms reduced complexity, improved productivity by over 40%, and translated into faster time-to-market for MVPs.


Founders often worry about vendor lock-in or cost. These are valid concerns, but only once you’ve validated your product. At the MVP stage, the time saved is worth the trade-off.


Automate small, repeatable tasks


You don’t need a whole DevOps team; even a lightweight CI/CD pipeline can save hours. For example:


  • Use GitHub Actions or GitLab CI to deploy staging on every push

  • Add a test or linter step to prevent basic issues

  • Schedule error log exports to S3 for basic traceability


According to the 2023 Puppet State of DevOps Report, teams implementing even minimal automation in early stages shipped 30% more frequently than teams managing deployments manually.


Even two-person startups benefit from pipelines that let them ship confidently, especially when velocity is critical.


Design for change, not scale


Startups rarely scale exactly as expected. Features change, user types evolve, and pricing models shift. Designing an MVP with adaptability in mind makes more sense than optimising for hypothetical scale.


Research from Failory shows that successful startups often evolve beyond their original idea. Startups that pivot once or twice grow significantly faster and raise more funding than those that don’t pivot at all or pivot excessively.


This means your initial codebase should be easy to change. For example:


  • Prefer configuration files over hard-coded logic

  • Use feature flags to test new functionality

  • Organise code for clarity, not abstraction


If your architecture can absorb change without requiring complete rewrites, you’ve built flexibility into your foundation.


Your MVP is a learning tool


Founders often think the goal of an MVP is to build something that works. But that’s only half the story.


The real purpose of an MVP is to learn about your users, your assumptions, your market, and your product’s actual potential. The most successful MVPs aren’t just functional; they’re designed to maximise insight per line of code.


Measure learning, not features


A common trap is equating progress with features shipped. But more features don’t mean more value, especially early on. What matters most is what you learn with each iteration.


In “The Lean Startup” book, Eric Ries calls this "validated learning": the process of empirically demonstrating that a team has discovered valuable truths about a startup’s present and future business prospects. In his model, MVPs are learning vehicles that reduce the most significant risks before scaling costs increase.


Build for feedback, not perfection


Your MVP should be opinionated, not overbuilt. A feature-rich MVP might impress you, but if it muddles the core value for users or prevents fast pivots, it fails its real purpose.


For example, Basecamp launched as a simple project tracker for agency clients. It didn’t include Gantt charts, resource management, or integrations, just enough to validate its thesis: that project communication was broken. Today, it supports millions of users, but that clarity of purpose still defines its product DNA.


You can mimic this approach by identifying your product’s “golden path”: the flow that reflects why users come. Then, optimise your tech decisions around capturing feedback on that journey. Track where users hesitate. Ask why they churn. Watch what they ignore. And if you're not sure what to build next, start with what you’re still unsure about.


Build like someone else will take over


Even in small teams, the MVP’s codebase often outlives the founding developer. That’s why clarity and changeability are more important than optimisation.


The same GitHub survey that was already mentioned found that over 68% of open-source contributors cite unclear code and undocumented decisions as the leading blockers to contributing to unfamiliar projects. This lesson continues: your early architecture should allow learning, not just execution.


For instance, clearly naming things, keeping logic local, and resisting premature abstractions all contribute to a codebase that is easy to adapt when user feedback forces a pivot, which it often will.


Treat your MVP as a test rig


Think of your MVP not as a mini version of your future product, but as a testing platform for value, usability, messaging, and even pricing.


According to CB Insights, the No.1 reason startups fail (38% of cases) is “no market need”. That’s not a technical failure; it’s a failure to validate the core assumption early enough.


Smart founders bake validation into their product from day one. They track which features get used, which onboarding steps cause drop-off, and which messages convert users. They structure their MVP so that every interaction produces a valuable signal.


When you see your MVP as a learning engine, you stop asking “Does this work?” and start asking “What does this teach us?”


Final thoughts


Startups rarely fail from choosing the wrong backend: they fail when they build in the wrong direction for too long. A well-crafted MVP gives you the clarity to course-correct early, before it’s too late.


If you're building your MVP today, here's how to stay fast without getting fragile:


  • Build lean, but with intention.

  • Choose simplicity over sophistication.

  • Defer consciously, not carelessly.


If you’re in the MVP stage now and unsure how much is “enough,” I’ve compiled a free guide called the Founders Tech Toolkit. It covers early decisions around architecture, AI, security, and delivery, without overwhelm.


Grab your copy here.


Follow me on LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info!

Read more from Alberto Zuin

Alberto Zuin, CTO/CIO

Alberto Zuin is a fractional CTO/CIO and the founder of MOYD, Master of Your (Tech) Domain. With over 25 years of experience in tech leadership, he helps startups and scaleups align their technology with business strategy. His background spans enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, AI, and agile delivery. Alberto holds an MBA in Technology Management and several top-tier certifications, including CGEIT and CISM. Passionate about mentoring founders, he focuses on helping teams build secure, scalable, and purpose-driven digital products.

Sources:



bottom of page