MVP Startups in 2023: Updates and Market Changes

Perhaps, the roaring 20s are going to become a must-have feature of each century. There is no need to explain what happened in the 1920s when the whole financial and economic world collapsed and significantly impacted the overall level of life.

Nowadays, the market crash in 2023 seems a very realistic scenario, and it seems that the world goes crazy and the number of different events, each of which somehow impacts the business routine worldwide is extremely high. As soon as the world community started to deal with the Covid Pandemic, trying to get back to the same economic growth as it was in precovid times, Russia decided to conduct a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, regular conflicts in the Middle East, etc. However, some organizations like International Monetary Fund, are being optimistic, as can be seen in their recent World Economic Outlook.

Among the latest horrific markers of a market crash in 2023, we can also name the collapse of a few major banks like Silicon Valley Bank, which were directly related to the world of innovative technologies. Additionally, numerous cryptocurrencies struggle with an unstable situation with prices, which also impacted the overall number of different crypto and blockchain projects. So, today we would like to talk about how to survive a market crash with the use of startup MVP development.

What is MVP Startup in 2023?

The MVP abbreviation stands for Minimum Viable Product. Basically, it is a basic version of a software product whether it is an application or service. Yet, while regular applications propose a full-fledged functionality and various additional features, MVP startups include mainly only the most essential services and core features for an app or service to keep existing.

To make it simple, it is similar to the mobile app beta testing, allowing the business owner to develop the required minimum of the whole project and publish it online, making the software product reachable by regular users and potential customers, designed according to the product to the market concept.

Some people may say, that MVP startups are a spread practice only when the development budget is limited. Frankly, it is only partly true. It is definitely a great choice in cases when you want to get a full-fledged product with a working application functionality as soon as possible. So, in developing an MVP startup, you, as a business owner, get a chance to get a “raw” version of the final software product, allowing your target audience to use it and give you valuable feedback, while you are gradually developing and integrating other future enhancements, which are not essential, yet impact the user experience or extend the user interface functionality, give other activities or provide new services, etc.

However, it is also true, that tech startup MVP development is almost an ideal solution, regardless of your budget or development terms. For instance, in case you are going to embody a totally new revolutionary software solution, having all the needed resources. Yet, due to the fact, that your app is totally new and there are not enough data on such concepts, and their cases are not examined enough, building MVP will save the situation.

Instead of developing a full-scale application from scratch, you can design and integrate the key functionality, which will be cheaper and much faster, than creating a complete app with different extensions. Then, as a business owner, you can gather the active users' responses and use them to improve the application. Alternatively, if there will be not enough reaction or won’t be in demand, then you will get a chance to avoid risks and spend more resources.

MVP Startup Pros and Cons

Frankly speaking, there is a lot to say about MVP development for startups and the benefits it can bring. Therefore, let’s divide and define the most essential benefits and drawbacks of adopting startup MVP development.

Advantages of MVP Startups

Some of the advantages of this list were briefly mentioned before.

• Startup MVP development cost is much cheaper, compared with the development of a complete full-fledged application. So, in case you are limited in your resources, you can develop an MVP version and then gradually integrate new features and extend the functionality of your application. Moreover, it gives an opportunity to gain your target audience and improve the application, according to the potential user feedback.
• MVP startup is a much faster solution in terms of development from scratch. So, if you are targeting a new market and want to be the first one, who proposes specific services, or you simply have a limited time for development, then MVP might be a great choice for your software project.
• Finally, MVP development for startup is a much easier task, than the rest alternatives. As a result, it is possible to say that even an inexperienced development team of software engineers can deal with such type of project, in case they have a clear understanding of the requirements. Additionally, it gives a great possibility to outsource MVP startup development.

If you decided to choose an MVP development approach for a successful startup, then, most likely, it will be easier for you to find potential investors, due to the fact, that the cost of such apps is lower, compared to all other types of applications, as well as the level of risk is extremely low.

In case, if you are looking for a dedicated team of software engineers, who can develop a high-quality MVP startup, that will meet all your requirements, and in case of business model success can keep improving the app by developing and integrating other additional features - we welcome you to contact us to discuss all the potential details, as well as estimating how much time and resources it can take to embody your business ideas.

Challenges of Startup MVP Development

Nevertheless, despite all the benefits of the MVP development approach, there should be also some drawbacks. However, it seems, that drawbacks are the wrong term when it comes to MVP startups. Afterward, it is still a full-fledged application, which has all the essential functionality, even if it lacks some extra useful features, it was designed to perform specific tasks under any conditions. Therefore, we prefer to use “challenges”, when it comes to imperfections of such development methods instead.

One of the most difficult challenges, when it comes to MVP development, is to correctly define the key features. As was said before, MVP is a compilation of the most vital features and functionality, chosen by the business owner and developers. Of course, it does not include various backend or other IT infrastructure software implementations. When we talk about these key functionalities, we talk about a few specific features, that correspond with the business logic of the future product, i.e. these are minimum features, designed to provide concrete services, that make an app useful.

To cut a long story short, MVP startup development requires detailed planning steps, when the whole team has to decide which functionality is the most important and must be included in the minimum viable product. Additionally, it is worth making a gradation or rating of the rest extra features, which can be added to the product later, after the successful product start. As a matter of fact, it helps to prevent the next critical challenge - scalability.

Actually, we were not totally correct, when we said, that even an inexperienced dedicated team can develop such a software project. Indeed, the software development process shouldn’t cause any issues. Still, a very common mistake, made in terms of MVP software projects, is related to choosing the wrong tech stack.

For instance, developers regularly aim to choose the most suited and convenient software solutions for MVP, which will allow them to create an efficient and simple software product, forgetting about the possible scalability possibilities. As a result, inexperienced outsourced developers can use programming languages or frameworks, suited for simple and small applications, yet if the project will succeed and the business owners will decide to scale the app and integrate new features, then issues may appear. Therefore, the whole application should be redesigned and transferred to other technologies. Additionally, the tech stack, designed for simple applications makes it more difficult to predict the behavior of the same app when it will become more scalable.

How to Survive a Market Crash with MVP Startup

Finally, it is time to answer the question from the very beginning of the article - whether there will be a market crash in 2023, and how to survive it.

Frankly speaking, we are not qualified enough to make predictions on whether there will be a market crash in 2023 or any other year. Instead, judging from our experience, we can tell that some financial difficulties in the IT industry in recent years are an actual threat, which is faced by numerous experts, investors, and software development companies.

Also, we cannot guarantee, that all MVP startups will manage to survive the market crash, in case it will happen. Still, it is an undeniable fact, that the minimum viable products, as well as their owners and investors, have much more chances to avoid or minimize their potential losses in such an unpleasant scenario.

Summing up all the above, it is clear, that MVP startups have fewer financial risks, compared to developing a complete application from scratch. They take less development time, cost less than the alternatives, and are much easier and cheaper when it comes not only to development but application maintenance as well.

It is hard to overestimate the relevance of such types of applications even in general terms, not to mention their numerous benefits in terms of potential market crashes or other unfavorable conditions. For instance, among the TOP minimum viable product examples, we can name Amazon, Dropbox, Instagram, and Facebook. Additionally, for more details, we recommend you check other case studies, which also include other MVP startup cases.