Field notes.
§025
2026-07-07
Naman Barkiya
Your MVP is too big. Here's how I'd cut it in one sitting..
An MVP is too big when it contains features that don't test the core hypothesis — the cut rule is three questions applied in order: does this feature test the hypothesis, can the product exist without it, and did a real user ask for it? Most feature lists pass this filter on 70–80% of items, which is why well-scoped MVPs typically ship with eight to twelve features instead of forty.
- mvp
- scoping
- product
- planning
§024
2026-07-05
Naman Barkiya
ONETAPP build postmortem: four calls, three cuts, ten weeks.
ONETAPP is a cross-platform gaming rewards platform — Electron desktop app, landing site, user panel, and admin dashboard — built from concept to live cohort in ten weeks, with three features cut in week one (mobile, social leaderboard, publisher API) because none had users to validate them at launch.
- case-study
- gaming
- desktop
- mvp
§023
2026-07-03
Naman Barkiya
Who owns the code when you hire a developer?.
When you hire a developer, you own all intellectual property from the moment it is written — not upon final payment. The correct contract clause reads 'IP vests in the client upon creation,' the repo lives under your organisation's account from day one with you as admin, and every contract needs an exit clause covering immediate IP assignment, partial refunds at milestone boundaries, and a two-week handover window.
- hiring
- contracts
- ip
- agency
§022
2026-07-01
Naman Barkiya
4 questions before adding AI to your product.
A product needs AI if it processes language or unstructured data, cannot be answered by a lookup or filter, has an evaluation method to confirm correct output, and justifies the inference cost — features that fail two or more of those four conditions are better served by a simpler approach.
- ai
- mvp
- decision
- product
§021
2026-06-29
Abhiraj Sakargaye
Never outsource your core: the honest case for building your first version with a studio.
For a startup in the validation stage, building your first version with an outside studio is the most defensible choice — lower cost than in-house hiring, faster than finding a technical co-founder, and purpose-built to be handed over once the bet is proven. The core protection argument is right; the timing assumption behind it is wrong.
- hiring
- mvp
- outsourcing
- process
§020
2026-06-27
Abhiraj Sakargaye
What to expect from a founder-led product studio: a transparent breakdown.
A founder-led product studio is a small team where the founders stay in the work — writing code, reviewing design, taking calls — rather than managing a delivery team. At SingleBit, that means two founders, four or fewer active engagements per co-founder, a staging URL on day one, and full IP ownership from the first commit.
- agency
- process
- hiring
- mvp
§019
2026-06-25
Abhiraj Sakargaye
How does a non-technical founder actually build an MVP?.
A non-technical founder with a real product to build gets the most reliable outcome from a product studio ($15,000–$60,000, 6–16 weeks); no-code fits throwaway validation, a freelancer fits a contained scope you can manage yourself, and a technical co-founder is the highest ceiling but takes three to six months to find and costs equity from day zero.
- mvp
- hiring
- non-technical
- decision
§018
2026-06-23
Naman Barkiya
How long an MVP takes: a week-by-week breakdown for 2026.
A scoped MVP with one user type and three to five core features takes six to ten weeks. Add a second user type, a payments layer, or custom admin and it moves to ten to sixteen weeks. Six months almost always means the scope was never defined — or the original quote lowballed to win the job.
- mvp
- timeline
- hiring
- process
§017
2026-06-21
Naman Barkiya
Why does the cheap developer end up costing more?.
Hiring cheap for an MVP costs $4,000–$12,000 upfront, but roughly 60% of cheap builds require a $25,000–$60,000 rebuild within 18 months — making the total cost ($35,000–$80,000) higher than a quality build would have cost from the start, and defensible only for throwaway prototypes you do not intend to grow.
- hiring
- mvp
- cost
- agency
§016
2026-06-19
Naman Barkiya
12 questions to ask a dev shop before you wire the deposit.
Before wiring any deposit to a dev shop, confirm twelve things: the named engineer, subcontracting disclosure, bus factor, IP ownership from commit one, repo access before handover, a written scope document, change-order process, post-launch cost, exit clause at milestone boundaries, hidden running costs, milestone payment triggers, and handover documentation. Studios that answer these cleanly are structurally different from those that avoid them.
- hiring
- checklist
- agency
- mvp
§015
2026-06-17
Naman Barkiya
What an MVP costs in 2026: a tiered breakdown.
An MVP in 2026 costs $5,000 to $120,000 across four tiers: no-code ($2,000–$10,000), freelancer ($8,000–$30,000), studio ($15,000–$60,000), and agency ($60,000+). The right spend is the minimum that answers whether users want the product.
- mvp
- cost
- hiring
- agency
§014
2026-06-15
Naman Barkiya
Dev shop, freelancer, or in-house: how to choose who builds your MVP.
For a first MVP a studio is usually the lowest-risk choice, a freelancer fits small self-managed scopes, and in-house makes sense only once the product is proven. Pick the option whose failure mode you can afford.
- mvp
- hiring
- agency