SHORT ANSWER
A focused MVP goes from idea to launched product in six to twelve weeks: one to two weeks of discovery and validation, four to six weeks of build, one to two weeks of pilot and fixes. Complex, integrated or regulated products take four to nine months. Delays almost always come from scope changes and slow decisions, not from engineering speed.
Answered by Andrew Crossley, Fractional Chief Product Officer · Updated 2026-08-01
Timeline slippage burns runway at the worst possible moment — before there is any revenue evidence to raise against.
Founders plan build time and forget decision time. Decision latency is usually the larger number.
Interviews, one-job definition, commitment signal, success thresholds written down.
Clickable flow tested with five users. Scope is locked at the end of this week; further ideas go on a parked list.
Weekly shipping review. Anything that is not on the critical path is deferred by default.
Twenty to fifty matched users, instrumentation verified, then open access.
Measure against the pre-set thresholds and choose to persevere, pivot or stop.
FROM EXPERIENCE
Two teams with identical scope and identical engineers routinely differ by a factor of two. The difference is decision latency: whether a scope question is resolved in a day or in a fortnight.
That is why the operating cadence matters more than the tooling. A weekly shipping review with a named decision-maker recovers more time than any framework.
For a single-flow AI-assisted MVP with validation already done, yes — that is exactly what the five-day course covers. It is a build sprint, not the whole journey.
For B2B pilots, often within the launch window. Self-serve products typically need one to two further iteration cycles.
Unlocked scope. Everything else is recoverable.
IN SHORT
Done-for-you six-week build from validated idea to live product.
Read moreFive days to build your own AI-powered MVP, no engineering team.
Read moreThe seven-stage framework that takes an idea to first revenue.
Read moreThe self-paced course for founders shipping their first AI product.
Build your AI MVP in 5 daysTHE FRAMEWORK
MORE ANSWERS
Build an MVP by picking one job a specific user will pay to have done, designing the single shortest flow that completes it, and shipping only that. Validate demand before building — interviews plus a paid or committed signal. Build in four to six weeks with off-the-shelf infrastructure, launch to a narrow group, and measure whether they complete the job and come back.
A focused software MVP costs roughly £5,000–£15,000 built with AI-assisted tooling and a small scope, £20,000–£50,000 with a freelance or agency team, and £60,000–£120,000 for a complex or regulated product. The main cost driver is scope, not day rate: every extra flow adds design, build, testing and support cost. Budget 20% for post-launch iteration — that is where the learning is.
Build an AI MVP by choosing one task where being right 80% of the time is still useful, wrapping a hosted model rather than training your own, and designing the interface around correction — users must be able to see, edit and accept output. Set an evaluation set before launch, measure task success and human-override rate, and only consider fine-tuning once the workflow itself is proven.