[tweezy]

Is there a way you could do a “Wizard of Oz” or “Concierge” type of MVP for your first 5-10 customers?

So instead of building something functional, you could use no code tools to design a custom front end for these early adopters and then hardcode (manually type in) the parts that will require real code to scale.

You could then deliver these as consulting style projects, and use the revenue you capture from these customers to pay someone to build a code-based version.

Upside to this would be bootstrapped funding for development, a clearer sense of what the app does and the user stories associated with it, and validation that people will actually pay money for the product.

Downside is you will have to manage the customers and the delivery, which can quickly get overwhelming. Especially for a solo founder.

Personally, I’ve found the concierge MVP route to be really effective. I used these early adopters as a Product Advisory Board, and they became excellent advocates and case studies for our product.