AffordableMVP
Now booking2 MVP slots open this month

Why pay $20,000 for an MVP when $5,000 gets it shipped?

AffordableMVP is a one-person, senior-engineer-led consultancy. No account managers, no junior devs learning on your dime, no six-week discovery phase. Fixed scope, fixed price, working software in weeks.

Start your projectSee pricing

affordablemvp — sprint/acme-marketplace

Marketplace MVP

Week 3 of 4 On track

Scope

Proposal

Build

Ship

Price

$5,000

fixed · 0 change orders

Commits

142

+18 today

Scope

11/12

items shipped

Uptime

99.98%

last 14 days

Scope shipped

Us Agency
W1W2W3W4

Fixed scope

  • Email + OAuth sign-in
  • Postgres schema + migrations
  • Stripe checkout + webhooks
  • Listings → booking flow
Fixed price$5,000
Timeline2–4 weeks
Engineer1 senior · no hand-offs
Code ownership100%, day one
Proposal turnaround48 hours
Post-launch support2 weeks
01The difference

Same MVP. None of the overhead.

Agencies price in layers you never see — account management, bench time, junior developers cutting their teeth. You're not paying for better code, you're paying for their org chart.

4×

cheaper

5×

faster to ship

0

change orders

timeline — agency-vs-affordablemvp.gantt

Typical agency

Discovery workshops
4–6 wks
Project management
included*
Design pass
included*
Development, 2 devs
8–12 wks
Scope change fee
billed/hr
Total$15–30K+

AffordableMVP

Shipped · week 4
Scoping call
30 min
Fixed proposal
48 hrs
Build sprint, 1 engineer
2–4 wks
Production deploy
included
Post-launch support
2 wks
Total$5,000
02Services

Whatever stage you're at, engineered by someone who's shipped it before.

Auth
Postgres
Payments
Deploy
01

MVP Development

One core flow, built right. Auth, database, payments, deploy — the smallest thing that proves your idea works, shipped in weeks.

Move jobs to a queue#212

@@ worker.ts

- await sendAll(emails)

+ await queue.enqueue(emails)

Approved with 2 notes
02

Fractional CTO / Technical Advisory

Senior technical judgment on tap — architecture reviews, vendor decisions, hiring your first engineer, or a sanity check before you commit.

FounderCEO
DevFrontend
AffordableMVPSenior · joined
03

Team Augmentation

Need a senior engineer embedded with your team for a sprint or a quarter? Direct contribution, no ramp-up theater.

p95 latency840ms → 120ms

refactor shipped

04

Post-MVP Scaling

Traction changed the requirements. Refactor the parts that need to hold up, keep the parts that don't — scoped and priced honestly.

03How it works

Four steps. No procurement theater.

process.mov — 4 chapters

Scoping call

● 00:24:18

The MVP must prove: renters will book & pay for a studio without talking to the owner first.
ChatReviewsAdmin panel
Chapter 01
04Why AffordableMVP

Founder-led. Engineer-run.

AffordableMVP is run directly by a staff software engineer — not an agency that resells junior labor at senior rates. The person scoping your project is the same person writing your code.

No junior devs
Every line is written or reviewed by a staff-level engineer. You're not funding someone's first production project.
Fixed scope, fixed price
The proposal is the contract. No hourly billing, no change-order surprises three weeks in.
You own the code
Repo access from day one. No vendor lock-in, no holding your MVP hostage until final payment clears.
Built to be handed off
Clean commits, a real README, and a walkthrough — so your first hire can pick it up without archaeology.

acme/mvp — git log

main

❯ git log --oneline --author=affordablemvp

a41f9c2 feat(booking): confirm + receipt email

9be03d7 fix(stripe): idempotent webhook retries

5c2e8a0 chore(ci): preview deploy per PR

31d7b44 docs: README, runbook, env reference

0e9a1f3 test: booking flow e2e (14 cases)

c7720be feat(auth): magic link + Google OAuth

❯ cat OWNERSHIP

Copyright © Acme Inc. All rights assigned.

Collaborators: founder (admin)

142

commits

87%

test coverage

1

README that works

05Pricing

Simple pricing. No hourly rate to negotiate.

Technical Advisory

Custommonthly retainer

Fractional CTO support for founders who need senior judgment on tap.

  • Architecture & vendor decisions
  • Code and PR reviews
  • Hiring your first engineer
  • Async access
Book a call

MVP Sprint

Start here
$5,000fixed price

One core flow, shipped and deployed in 2–4 weeks.

  • Scoping call + fixed proposal
  • Auth, database, and one core user flow
  • Production deploy included
  • Direct access to the engineer building it
  • Full source code ownership
  • 2 weeks of post-launch support
Start your project

Scale-Up Build

Customscoped project

Traction changed the requirements. Rebuild what needs to hold up.

  • Scoped after an MVP or audit
  • Performance & reliability focus
  • Same senior engineer, full context
  • Fixed price, agreed upfront
Book a call

06 — Get started

Your runway is finite. Your MVP invoice shouldn't be.

Tell me what you're building. I'll tell you honestly whether $5K and a few weeks gets it done.

Build something with us
07Start your project

Let's scope it out.

Send a few lines about what you're building. I read every message myself and reply within a day — usually with a straight answer on whether it fits the $5K MVP model or needs a different approach.

new-inquiry.md