The Common Misconception About "MVPs"

Welcome to the Dave vs. Startups.

Everyone talks about MVPs, but most people get the concept completely wrong.

People know they ought to get something “out there” quickly, but instead try to make something perfect right out of the gate.

That's not what an MVP is about at all.

An MVP is about building something that you continuously iterate on to solve a real problem for real customers.

The MVP process is pretty straightforward:

• Build something basic

• Get customer feedback

• Measure results

• And rebuild

With AppArmor, our first MVP was just a simple single-button app.

But what made it work is that we worked directly with campus security to understand exactly what they needed.

That collaboration was everything.

The customers weren't just testing our product, they were helping us build something that actually solved their problems.

But here's the trap that catches most founders: don't get stuck in endless MVP cycles.

Over time, customers with whom you're building your product might accidentally lead you astray.

They'll keep asking for more features and more changes, and if you're not careful, you'll end up building forever without ever launching anything.

You need to know when to move from minimum viable to market ready.

The key is to remember to work with real customers and keep iterating until minimum market demand clicks.

But don't mail it in either.

You want a half product, not a half-assed product.

There's a difference between building something minimal and building something poorly.

Your MVP should be simple, but it still needs to actually work and solve the problem you set out to solve.

The goal is to get something functional in front of customers as quickly as possible so you can start learning what actually matters to them.

Thanks for reading!