At Bedrock, we've been in your shoes. We've experienced the excitement of a new idea and the pressure to get it right. We've seen what works and what doesn't when turning concepts into products. Whether you're a founder with a breakthrough idea or looking to develop new features for an established product, here's how we think about MVPs.

Start Small to Learn Fast

Dream big—you should. But let's be real about what needs to be built today.

That urge to add "just one more feature" before launch? We feel it too. But we've learned something important: your first version isn't about perfection—it's about starting conversations.

Real insights don't come from market research alone. They come from putting something in users' hands and watching what happens. A rough product actually invites better feedback than a polished one. Polish can create distance; rough edges invite collaboration.

What Actually Belongs in Your MVP

When we sit down with you, we'll focus on identifying the one core problem you're solving. If your target users have an urgent need, they'll embrace solutions that address it— even extremely simple ones. We've found that focusing on impact early on rather than completeness creates the shortest path to valuable learning. Once you’ve started to find traction, then it’s time to invest in a more complex and comprehensive solution.

Many successful products started incredibly focused:

• Airbnb launched without the payments or maps we now take for granted

• Twitch began with a single channel

• Stripe's early users had their accounts set up manually

  
  

These weren't compromises—they were choices that enabled speed and learning.

Find Your First True Fans

We've seen it work time and again: start with people who genuinely need what you're building. Not people who might be interested someday—people who would use your product today, even with its limitations. Even just one user giving feedback on your MVP is worth more than 100 users churning from an over-engineered solution.

These early power users don't expect perfection; they're looking for progress on a problem that matters to them. They'll stick around if they see you listening and evolving.

Where many products go wrong is trying to anticipate everyone's needs from day one. Through our work with dozens of clients, we've found that clarity comes from cycles—build, ship, learn, repeat. Each cycle reveals something new about what actually matters.

When It's Time to Grow

There's a difference between "not enough" and "too early." If a feature doesn't help answer your core questions about the product, it can probably wait.

When we work with you, we'll focus on the fastest path to learning whether you're solving a real problem. The MVP isn't the destination—it's how we start the journey together.

The Bedrock Perspective

We're not just a dev studio developing products—we're helping you navigate crucial early decisions. We've learned that scaling isn't about building more features sooner; it's about recognizing exactly when expansion makes sense.

If you want to see how we can bring your idea from idea to high-impact MVP, check out our portfolio update blog!

Ready to build something impactful today? Let's talk.