Survey: Cost of an MVP and success rate

Questions
1

Hey guys,

This is very generalized, but kind of deliberate…

Keen to hear from people who have paid for remote devs in the past, people who have paid people ad-hoc to build elements of their product on Bubble and people who have tried to build their product themselves and maybe haven’t been able to or its taken longer than expected.

If you could go back to the start and be guaranteed a product in (let’s say) 2 weeks. How much would you be willing to invest.

Also has anyone had actual success using a third party to build their product, and been satisfied with the result enough to test in the real world?

Paul

2

Not a direct comparison, but maybe an interesting data point. The firm I used to work at charged about $275 an hour, and typically staffed 5 people on a project. That comes out to about $11,000 per week per person, so about $55,000 a week total. For two weeks, you’d be paying around $110,000. A typical project would last at least 8-12 weeks, so the price climbs higher.

There’s plenty of demand, as there are about 25 offices around the globe and the company is worth around $5bn, so the prices don’t seem to be a big issue for the right customers.

4 Likes
3

Hey thanks for you response :slight_smile:

Sure, I definitely get that side of the market. Big agencies in here London charge up to £2k per day per resource and often don’t accept work below £25K. A big build for a large company is rightly in the 6 figures.

However, I am talking about the total other side of the market, early stage testing of a new proposition or product.

1 Like
4

This is a very good point though. Anyone here used Bubble at an enterprise level successfully?

5

No, but I was involved in a Mendix project.

Very painful and that is “enterprise” tech supposedly.

6

The Bubble “black box” makes it tough for enterprises to adopt. If Bubble had a white label licensing option, I could sell the crap out of it to large enterprise or federal customers. The lack of access to “under the hood” has been the primary deal-breaker to the CIOs and CTOs I’ve talked to.

I did get one enterprise customer to use Bubble for an MVP and internal prototyping, but as soon as they validated the approach, they scrapped the Bubble implementation and rebuilt using their own tech stack.

2 Likes
7

Half a year ago, I was quoted about $50k for a MVP, brand development and “launch party” by a local boutique here in Austin.

I didn’t have that kind of money anyway to launch my startup MVP, so I’d like to think I saved at least $50k by building my own product. Not everyone has the luxury of taking a little more time though.

From what I heard of others, remote teams never deliver on time, and many never deliver at all. You’re still on the hook for the bill, obviously. One friend I know is fond of outsourcing design, but leaves the actual product development to his full-time CTO.

I’ve taken 2 months to build, but spent $32 on Bubble hosting, $340 on Code Free classes, $45 on a web wrapper for iOS and Android.

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8

Thanks for your response!

Have you completed the build?

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9

Bubble’s the way to go.
I follow a lean / agile approach requiring multiple iterations which using 3rd party would be non-feasible. The learning curve is initially steep but flattens out and once you build many pages you find yourself re-using components that you built elsewhere.

My philosophy is that every person working on a MVP should know how to make and modify it themselves so they can quickly test out new ideas and adjust the MVP for market fit. Bubble is one of the easier ways to do this.

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10

Yes, have a web app since July, but fighting nitpicky technical pains with getting into the App Store.

EDIT: We are now in the App Store and Google Play Store! :smiley:

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11

I am on the journey, takes me longer though but also went through classes etc. What have you used as a web wrapper for iOS and Android?

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12

I have similar story - $10’s thousands quoted for MVP and 2-3 months for front-end/back-end dev. Hosting was extra. Went the bubble route and saved $10’s thousands and more control of the UX.

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13

Many thanks to you John for making me aware of bubble!

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14
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15

From a solo non-technical bootstrapping founder (the worst kind to be) perspective:
The following is basically a meandering echo of @john3’s answer

I’ve been at it (starting/running an online business) since mid-2014. Man, do I wish I had Bubble in those early days. I didn’t code… At all. So, as any new overly confident founder does, I outsourced my original idea for a marketplace to a company to build (after all, all I need to do is have someone build it, then the hard part is over). After 5 digits worth of my savings account, I launched the site, discovered all the reasons the business wasn’t going to work, and decided I needed to pivot.

Fast forward about a year and a half through trying to find a technical co-founder, paying a couple guys to come on board and build the new and improved “pivoted” site (which also didn’t work), and FINALLY discovering a niche market that WOULD (and does) work for me. Luckily, by then, I had just recently heard about bubble. I learned just enough of the platform and launched what I can only describe as a complete garbage MVP in roughly 3 weeks.

It was garbage, but it was garbage that I understood and would be able to improve on my own. I just wouldn’t be able to sit on my ass watching Family Guy as much.

Since then, I’ve iterated on the platform and continued learning the capabilities of Bubble and am now fairly confident in my abilities. If I had kept my initial “I can’t code, better hire someone” mentality, I would have failed miserably, run out of money and patience, and quit by now. I’m not completely against hiring out development, but I think you should only do it if you can afford follow-on engagements with the developer AND learn a baseline level of “tech speak” to have an intelligent conversation with them. It’s almost never a one-and-done situation. At the end of the day, YOU need to know your platform so you can do what is right for your users going forward.

That said, I’ll answer your initial question:

Q: How much would I invest for a guaranteed product in 2 weeks?

A: Knowing what I know now? Little to none since there will almost undoubtedly be follow-on work and I MUCH prefer having the ability to do it on my own. In my opinion, even spending 6 months on Bubble to get to that same product on my own is worth it for the following reasons:

  1. I now know the platform inside and out so I can change it at will. This gives me MUCH more confidence that I have control over the direction of my business.
  2. I don’t have to worry about getting in touch with a third party and waiting to get something fixed/adjusted.
  3. Having the ability to fix something WHILE you’re messaging with one of your users earns you some good will (and referrals).
  4. Rapid iteration and testing is damn-near impossible when outsourcing.

I consider myself to be of only fairly average intelligence, so I’m certain most people can get a bare bones MVP out the door. From there, it’s just a matter of learning your way forward.

7 Likes
16

Oh I think you’re definitely more than mere “average” - if you were you’d still be pounding your head without Bubble :slight_smile:

Let me know the next time you’re in Boston - we definitely need to have a toast to Bubble :slight_smile:John

1 Like
18

Hope you are doing well, Andrew
As i was looking for an answer and it seems your case look semi to mine. Could you define the average monthly costs of doing an enterprise and saas for MVP using bubble alone? Since i can’t get the “server units” point in their prices and afraid of its escalation.
Thanks in advance.

20

Interesting discussion. Bubble is by far the best tool to build MVPs but it can get complex especially with backend integrations and workflows. Wow £2k / day or $50K for MVP sounds steep for a bubble app but again who can tell without knowing the requirements! For my clients I build a 4 Week MVP for $10K with a reasonable number of revisions at no extra cost . The UX needs to be provided by the client. That works well for most small founders