How to choose an MVP development agency: 9 questions

Hiring an MVP development agency is one of the biggest decisions a non-technical founder makes. You are handing most of your early budget, and several months of runway, to people you have met on a video call. Most agencies are honest and capable. When projects go wrong, it is usually because of something nobody asked about at the start: who owns the code, what happens when the scope changes, what "finished" means.

These nine questions bring those things out in the first call or two. Ask them of every agency on your shortlist, including us, and compare the answers side by side.

1. Is the price fixed, and when is it fixed?

There are two common ways to pay for a build. With hourly billing (often called time and materials) you pay for the hours worked. It suits a project whose scope is genuinely unknown, but the risk of it running long sits with you. With a fixed price, the agency carries that risk, but only for what is written down.

Neither model is wrong. What matters is that the price rests on something concrete. A fixed price quoted after one sales call is a guess, and guesses get corrected later through change requests. Ask what the price is based on, what it includes, and what it leaves out.

We agree a fixed price at the end of week one, once the feature list and a map of every screen are written down.

2. Who owns the code, the designs and the accounts?

This is the question founders most often forget, and the hardest one to fix later. Ask specifically about:

• The code repository. It should live in your company's account, or be transferred to it. GitHub explains how transferring a repository works.
• The design files. Source files, not only exported images.
• The App Store and Google Play accounts. Apps should be published under your company's developer accounts, not the agency's.
• The domain, hosting, email and payment provider. All in your name, with the agency invited as a user.

A good answer is simple: everything is yours from day one, and the contract says so. With us, you own the code, the designs and every account.

3. Will I see working software every week?

A status report tells you what someone says has happened. A link you can open on your own phone shows you. Ask how often you will see the real product, not slides or screenshots, and in what form.

Weekly is a good rhythm. It is often enough to catch a misunderstanding while it costs a day to fix rather than a month. We send a fresh preview link every week of the build.

4. Can I see products you have shipped, and speak to a client?

Design mockups show taste. Live products show that a team can finish. Ask for links to products that are live on the web or in the app stores, and try them yourself.

Look for products with a similar shape to yours, such as a marketplace, a booking app or a dashboard, rather than the same industry. Then ask to speak to one or two past clients. Ask those clients whether the project launched on time, how problems were handled, and whether they would hire the team again.

Our work page lists the 15 products we have shipped, with the stack each one uses.

5. Who will actually work on my product?

The people on the sales call are not always the people who build the product. Ask who will design it, who will write the web, mobile and backend code, and who will be your day-to-day contact. Ask whether they are in-house or subcontracted, and whether the same people stay on the project from start to finish.

If you are in Europe, the UK or North America and the team is elsewhere, ask how many working hours you overlap each day and how quickly questions get answered. A one-day delay on every question adds weeks to a build.

6. What does the process look like, week by week?

An experienced MVP development agency can describe its process without notes: how scoping works, when design happens, how the build is split up and what launch involves. Ask for a sample week-by-week plan for a product like yours.

Ours has the same shape on every project: a blueprint in week one, design in weeks two and three, the build in weeks four to eleven, then launch. We have written up how long it takes to build an MVP, week by week, if you want to compare plans.

7. What happens when I change my mind?

You will. Users will tell you something in week six that changes a feature. Ask how changes are handled before you sign, not after.

Good answers are specific. A new feature might replace one of similar size, move to a version-two list, or come as a written change with its own price and its effect on the launch date. Be careful with promises of unlimited changes. Either they are priced in somewhere, or the date will slip.

8. What happens after launch?

Launch is when real users find the bugs. Ask what support is included, for how long, and what it covers. Then ask what your options are afterwards: a monthly arrangement, help hiring your own developers, or a clean hand-over.

A good hand-over includes setup instructions, a list of every account and service the product uses, and code another developer can pick up. Ask to see an example. We fix bugs for 30 days after launch, and the code and accounts are already yours if you take the product elsewhere.

9. What would you cut from my idea?

This is the most revealing question on the list. A thoughtful team will push back, because a smaller first version launches sooner and teaches you more. If an agency agrees to build every feature you mentioned, it has either not thought about your product yet or quoted for all of it.

Bring your feature list to the call and ask them to sort it. Our guide on how to scope an MVP shows the method we use.

Red flags when choosing an MVP development agency

None of these proves an agency is a bad choice, but each deserves a clear answer before you sign:

• A firm price before anyone has asked about your users or your screens.
• App store, hosting or code accounts set up in the agency's name, with no plan to transfer them.
• No working software to look at until the end of the build.
• No live products to show, only mockups.
• A team you never meet, or one that changes halfway through.
• Pressure to sign quickly, such as a discount that expires this week.
• Agreement with every feature you suggest, and no questions back.

How we answer these questions

Short version: a fixed price agreed after week one, you own the code, the designs and every account, a preview link every week, 15 shipped products you can look at, and 30 days of fixes after launch. The details are on our MVP development page.

If you are comparing agencies, ask us all nine questions. Send us a note about your product and we will answer them in writing, alongside a plan for your first version.