Build your MVP in a weekend, not a quarter
Most first SaaS products die in month three of a build nobody asked for. You'll cut your idea to one screen, model the data, wire up magic-link sign-in and locked-down tables, build the core feature end to end with an AI assistant doing the typing, and get three real people using it before the weekend's out.
- Your core feature working end to end, from form to database to screen
- A repeatable way to brief an AI coding assistant so it builds what you meant
- A live preview URL with three real people signed in and using it
- The stack from Pick your SaaS stack: a Next.js app in a GitHub repo, deployed on Vercel, plus a Supabase project
- Your validated idea and the notes from Validate before you build
- Node.js 20 or newer and an AI coding assistant you're comfortable with
- A Resend account and a domain you own (for sending sign-in emails to real people)
Cut your idea down to one job and one screen
The fastest way to ship is to build less. Most MVPs fail from scope, not from code.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: the version in your head is version 4. Your job this weekend is version 0.1, the smallest thing that does one job well enough that someone would be annoyed if you took it away.
Write one sentence: "[Who] uses [product] to [one job] so they [outcome]." If you need the word "and" in the job, you've got two products. Pick one.
Then run the one-screen test. Sketch the single screen a user would open every day. If the core job can't happen on that screen, your scope is too big. Everything else (settings, team invites, exports, onboarding tours) is a supporting act that can wait.
Throughout this track we'll use an example called ChaseUp: "Freelancers use ChaseUp to see who owes them money and chase it in one click, so they get paid without awkward admin." One job. One screen: a list of unpaid invoices with a big number at the top.
Now write your cut list. Be brutal. Here's ChaseUp's:
- Cut: teams and roles. One user, one account. Add teams when a paying customer asks.
- Cut: password sign-in, Google sign-in, profile pages. Magic link only.
- Cut: automatic scheduled reminders. A "Chase" button that opens your email app is enough to test the idea.
- Cut: PDF invoices, accounting integrations, multi-currency, dark mode, a mobile app.
- Cut: an admin panel. The Supabase table editor is your admin panel.
- Keep: sign in, add an invoice, see what's owed and overdue, chase, mark paid.
TipEvery feature on the cut list goes into a file calledLATER.md. It costs nothing, it stops the nagging, and half of it you'll never need.CarefulPayments aren't on the MVP list on purpose. You'll add them in Take your first payment with Stripe once people actually use the thing. Charging for something nobody opens twice teaches you nothing.