How to Launch an MVP for My Startup: An Investment Attraction Guide

Launching a minimum viable product (MVP) is one of the most critical aspects of any startup. According to Eric Ries, the key aim of a minimum viable product launch is to test your product idea with real active users and validate your app idea.

In addition, launching an MVP helps attract investors quickly, as it’s a real product that can be sold and used. It’s one of the main reasons that make MPV attractive to inventors and doubles your chances of raising money.

In this article, ProCoders will explore how to launch an MVP, define the right business model, the first steps to start developing your MVP, its launch, and the right approach to investors, serving as a step-by-step guide for launching an MVP!

Introduction to MVP

Building a minimum viable product (MVP) is a foundational step in the development process for any startup or new software venture. A minimum viable product is a basic version of your product that includes only the essential features needed to address your target audience’s core needs and validate your business idea.

By focusing on only the essential features and core functionality, you can quickly bring a product to market, gather valuable feedback from real users, and test your assumptions before committing significant resources to a full-fledged product.

The primary goal of building an MVP is to minimize development costs and risks while maximizing learning about your target market. By releasing a basic version of your product, you can observe how users interact with it, what features they value most, and where improvements are needed.

This approach allows startups to iterate rapidly, refine their value proposition, and increase their chances of achieving product-market fit. Ultimately, a well-executed minimum viable product MVP helps entrepreneurs validate their business ideas, attract early adopters, and lay the groundwork for future growth.

Steps on Launching MVP to Attract Venture Investors

Imagine you want to create a delivery app, and you’re ready to get started. However, before you even start to think about launching your minimum viable product into the market (or pre-launch MVP), it’s essential to have the right preparation to start developing a digital product itself. This includes taking the time to conduct market research to validate your idea and understand customer needs.

Analyzing the market landscape is also crucial to identify opportunities and gaps that can set your product apart. Remember, how many founders’ journeys end prematurely because they skip these critical steps in the MVP process.

A good checklist can help ensure that you’re ready for any challenges that come your way. Here is one from ProCoders:

Step 1. Do preliminary market research and analysis.

This will help you understand the current state of your industry, identify the main pain point your product will solve, and the market opportunity for your business.

Here’s how to get started: complete a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. This exercise will help you better understand which areas of your business need improving and where there might be more opportunities for growth within the industry.

Additionally, analyze the needs and preferences of your target users to ensure your product addresses their specific pain points.

Step 2. Define your business model.

A business model is a framework for understanding and evaluating the opportunities and challenges of an organization. It provides a structure for developing strategies, making decisions, and evaluating results. A business model identifies the core activities of an organization, including the value proposition and cost structure.

A company’s business model is often referred to as its value proposition, which describes how it will deliver value to customers to generate shareholder returns. As part of your business model, you should also consider how to convert users into paying users, since this is crucial for monetization and assessing the viability of your business.

Business models are essential components of strategic management — they describe how an organization creates value for stakeholders (customers, suppliers, employees) and how it captures that value.

Step 3. Create a business plan.

A business plan is a written document describing how you plan to start and grow your company and how much money you’ll need. A good business plan helps investors understand what makes your idea unique, why it can succeed in the market, and how much money will be needed to make it happen.

A typical business plan has three sections:

• Executive Summary (or Abstract) – a high-level overview of the entire document;
• Company Description – an overview of your company, including its history/background/mission statement; products/services offered; market opportunities; management team experience and skillsets (including resumes); financial statements (if available); other key metrics such as revenue growth projections;
• Business Plan Strategy & Execution – this section includes detailed information about each part of your strategy for achieving success in terms of product development/innovation cycle times; marketing plans for different target audiences based on psychographic data from user surveys etc.; details on distribution channels used by competitors so you can improve upon them if possible; estimation of customer acquisition cost as part of your financial planning to evaluate marketing efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Step 4. Build your core team.

A strong team can make or break your business, so it’s important to find people who are not only talented but also aligned with your goals.

• Determine what type of relationship you want with prospective teammates. For example, we at ProCoders prefer direct and informal communication. Why? Here are some reasons:
  • such communication helps explain the work goals better;
  • it helps to create a friendly atmosphere;
  • our employees don’t feel under professional pressure.
• Find people who have a proven track record, not just what they say they’ve done before;
• Look for individuals who have complementary skills and experience.

If you don’t have time for the hiring process, ProCoders can help! Over the years, we have gathered a team of experienced engineers, that is why you can be sure that if you come to us, we will provide you with a team of professionals to meet your requirements! Don’t hesitate to contact us today.

Step 5. Build a prototype or beta version.

A prototype is a mockup of the intended design, ready for testing by real customers (or users). At this stage, it is crucial to assess the technical feasibility of your idea to ensure it can be practically implemented.

You should remember that if you don’t have a prototype, there’s almost no chance you would find an investor, as nobody likes to invest their money in something they can’t feel and use in real-time.

Besides, consider using such services as the Discovery Phase. This is a roadmap of how your project will be created.

Step 6. Formulate a marketing strategy.

Your marketing strategy should be based on the product’s target audience. You can do this by segmenting customers into groups most likely to buy your product and finding ways to reach them.

The next step is to align your marketing strategy with your product vision and goals, which will help you determine how much money you need for advertising and who should be involved in creating the campaign. Collaborating with your marketing team is essential to ensure the effective execution of your promotional strategies.

Finally, ensure that your positioning (a statement about what makes you unique) is reflected in all aspects of your marketing plan, from website copywriting to social media posts! If possible, try testing various platforms until one works best for reaching out to customers (i.e., Facebook vs. Instagram).

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Development and Quality Assurance: Building Investor Confidence

The MVP development process is a strategic journey that begins with thorough market research and user research to understand your target audience, their pain points, and the competitive landscape. By identifying the most pressing needs of your users, you can define the core features that will deliver the greatest value and set your product apart from existing solutions.

This focus on essential functionality ensures that your development team invests time and resources where they matter most.

Once the core features are defined, the development process moves into design, development, and rigorous testing. A high-quality MVP is not just about speed—it’s about reliability, usability, and scalability. Quality assurance plays a critical role in this stage, as it ensures your MVP meets industry standards and provides a seamless user experience.

Demonstrating a commitment to quality and user satisfaction builds investor confidence, showing that your team is capable of delivering a robust product that can scale as user demand grows. By prioritizing quality throughout the MVP development process, startups can establish credibility, attract investment, and set the stage for long-term success.

MVP Launch Approaches

Here’s a more concise table with added pros and cons:

Launch Type	Description	Pros	Cons
Soft Launch	Limited MVP release, often internal	– Allows for controlled testing- Minimizes risk	– Limited user feedback- Low initial visibility
Hard Launch	Full public release	– Maximizes exposure- Rapid feedback and adoption	– High pressure to perform- Risk of negative feedback
Dark Launch	Limited feature release to select users	– Controlled feature testing- Manageable feedback	– Limited feedback scope- Can confuse users

You’ve put in the work and finally got a product ready to launch (for example, you have created a transportation app). But how do you go about it?

Careful planning is essential for a successful launch, ensuring your product is validated and refined before reaching a wider audience. You should consider three main approaches in your MVP launch strategy and include them in your MVP launch plan:

• Soft Release. This is when you’re still testing your product without telling anyone outside your team about it, often involving early users to gather valuable feedback.
• Hard launch. A hard launch is when you push your product to the public and it’s live.
• Dark launch (also known as “stealth mode”). What happens here is that only certain users will get access to whatever updates come along with dark launches.

During your MVP launch, using a landing page can help you collect user interest and feedback, supporting your validation process and increasing your chances of a successful launch.

Tips on Launching a Minimum Viable Product without Bootstrapping

To launch your MVP without bootstrapping, consider the following:

• costs and coding speed: the faster the product is available in Appstore/Google market, the faster you will move to the next step of its improvement; efficient MVP software development practices can help you optimize both costs and speed;
• focus on the features that can attract customers and investors, not just the technical perfection of the product (one of the main issues of tech geeks); it is important to follow a structured process to build an MVP that validates your idea and reduces risks;
• tech stack: the issue is that startup guys usually choose the stack they can code by themselves (so no criteria like cost-effectiveness, security, scalability, etc., are considered). Usually, they can’t complete the MVP by themselves and are trying to find someone to complete it. At this stage, they face issues like a lack of talent, high rates, low coding speed, and sometimes the decision to change the stack and start from 0. Because of that, ProCoders recommend making the Discovery Phase for your project before even deciding on the tech stack you will use.

For startups looking to optimize their MVP development process, adopting the lean startup methodology is highly recommended.

MVP Presentation: Technical and Entrepreneurial Success Tips

To ensure that your MVP presentation is successful and memorable, it’s essential to be well-prepared. You should know precisely what you are going to say and how you are going to say it. When preparing your presentation, consider these tips:

If you are doing a presentation for the first time, pay attention to the formal and technical aspects:

• speak no more than 5 minutes;
• don’t overfill the slides with text;
• use high-quality images;
• only one slide per thought;
• showcase the user interface to highlight usability and design.

What’s more: before the event, check that all equipment is set up and that there will be no problems during your performance.

Make sure you take the time to test your MVP before sharing it with people. Ensure the basic functionality works as intended. The best way to do this is by hiring a professional tester. ProCoders can help you do this because it’s not reasonable to hire someone for 2-3 weeks of testing.

Instead, you might want to use outstaffing services. Knowing that everything is tested will make you much calmer and more confident when presenting your product to an audience.

You should clearly state your business model so investors understand how you plan to make money from your application or website. If your market research, marketing strategy, etc., are convincing enough, the investment will come soon!

Rehearse as much as you can. It may seem silly to say something standing in front of a mirror, but it can help you see your performance from an outside perspective and highlight all your weaknesses. You won’t get a second chance to make a first impression, so get over your embarrassment and get going!

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How to Measure the Success of Launching an MVP with User Feedback?

To measure the success of launching your MVP, you need precise criteria. A successful MVP is one that is carefully planned, focuses on core features, and is iteratively improved based on user feedback. Strategically using minimum viable products allows you to validate ideas, reduce risks, and inform future development.

This will also not help you see what can be improved, but it can also be shown to your investors and make a report accordingly, using MVP metrics to achieve product-market fit. ProCoders recommend using the following ones:

Insights gained from the MVP stage are crucial for refining and developing the final product.

Have an MVP launch checklist

The most common mistake ProCoders see when our clients evaluate their MVPs is that the main goals set at the beginning are lost. The key point here is to evaluate your product or service according to its purpose, ensuring that all the features included are necessary for the MVP and contribute to its core value.

Focus on basic features that address the main problem your product aims to solve. It’s important to understand what problem you’re solving for your customers and how your product solves this problem better than competitors do.

Follow the right metrics

When launching an MVP, your chosen metrics must be measurable and actionable. Also, these metrics should be relevant to your business goals and specific enough so that the team knows what they need to do next. Here are some examples of good measures:

• Click-through rate (CTR). It lets you know where users drop off in the funnel and how much work is needed before converting it into sales or signups.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS). This measure asks customers whether they would recommend a company’s product or service; its calculation uses responses of 0-6, where six means “definitely recommend” and 0 means “would not recommend at all.”
• Conversion Rate. This measures how many users sign up or purchase from your site or app.
• Collect feedback from users to inform product improvements and align features with their needs.
• Track customer feedback through surveys and interviews to better understand market needs and refine your product.

Focus on KPIs

The most important aspect of measuring the success of your MVP is user engagement. You should measure how often users open your app or website and how long they stay engaged. Gathering early feedback from initial users is crucial, as it helps you identify areas for improvement before a full-scale launch.

Establishing a feedback loop to collect early user feedback ensures you continuously gather insights to guide your MVP development.

You can also measure how frequently users share their experience on social media after using your app or service and how many people tag you in their posts or stories.

In addition to user engagement, you should track retention rates for each new application version or every time you release a new feature on the website. This will allow you to determine which features are working best for retaining users and which ones aren’t.

Using real-world feedback from your users will help you refine your MVP and improve your KPIs.

Post-Launch Evaluation and Growth

Launching your MVP is just the beginning of your startup’s journey. After release, it’s essential to actively collect and analyze user feedback, track key performance indicators (KPIs), and monitor user behavior to understand how your product is performing in the real world. This feedback loop provides valuable insights into what’s working, what needs improvement, and which features resonate most with your users.

By leveraging analytics tools and user testing, you can identify areas for enhancement, prioritize new features, and make data-driven decisions that drive user engagement and satisfaction. The post-launch evaluation phase is crucial for iterating on your MVP, expanding your user base, and moving closer to achieving product-market fit.

Startups that continuously refine their product based on real user feedback are better positioned to grow, adapt to market trends, and increase revenue. Remember, the path to a successful product is paved with ongoing evaluation, learning, and improvement.

Customer Lifetime and Retention: Proving Long-Term Value

For startups aiming to attract investors and achieve sustainable growth, demonstrating strong customer lifetime value (CLV) and retention is essential. Customer lifetime value measures the total revenue a business can expect from a single customer over the course of their relationship.

Focusing on customer lifetime and retention not only increases revenue but also reduces customer acquisition costs, making your business model more attractive to investors.

To maximize customer lifetime value, prioritize building lasting relationships with your users by delivering consistent value, offering personalized experiences, and providing exceptional customer support. Regularly updating your product, responding to user feedback, and fostering a sense of community can significantly boost retention rates.

By proving that your startup can keep customers engaged and satisfied over time, you demonstrate long-term viability and growth potential, key factors that investors look for when evaluating new business ideas.

Why Choose ProCoders as Your Partner When Building And Launching a Software MVP?

Money is given to investors based on the idea of the project, its team, MVP, and business model.

However, it is important to understand that money flows not only from investors but also from users. And if you have an interesting product, then users will be attracted by it, which is a very important factor in helping your business grow.

If you think about building an MVP, you should ensure that your team is prepared for what’s coming. The team should include people who can implement your ideas in technical terms. Also, remember that if you hire effective people and at the same time remain cost-friendly, this will show investors that you can manage their money wisely.

Don’t forget about scaling: first, you need a designer, then developers, and testers. Don’t hire everyone at once, as developers wouldn’t have work till designers make a prototype, and testers till developers develop this prototype.

As your product gains traction, make sure your infrastructure is ready to handle increased user demand by upgrading servers, databases, and implementing scalability measures.

Also, a good team can offer you the most effective solution because they have experience and know “shortcuts” to achieve your goals (because they’ve come across similar problems and either already know how to solve them or understand how to figure it out).

Remember: the main thing for investors is that they see prospective projects and have confidence in them. And we at Procoders are experienced in this kind of cooperation.

ProCoders provide a wide range of development services, including web and mobile app development, backend and frontend development, blockchain development, and cryptocurrency wallet app development. Besides, we have different services for different launch MVP stages of your project:

• Discovery Phase, which will transform your business plan into the development roadmap;
• A self-managed Dedicated Team that will be built according to your requirements, but at the same time, you will have complete control over the development process and be able to easily make changes as the project evolves;
• Outstaffing Service if your project is already running, but you lack developers, designers, QA specialists, etc. We offer backend as a service, along with frontend, testing, and maintenance, if needed.
• We help clients avoid limited functionality in their MVPs by carefully selecting and implementing essential features to ensure user satisfaction and retention.
• We create landing pages to support MVP launches and lead generation, helping guide potential customers from awareness to conversion.

When working with us, you can expect the following:

• Our developers are well-tested, and we have all the HR and administrative processes in order;
• we care about your project and will do everything we can to help you succeed;
• ProCoders are available for short-term projects that require additional resources or extra development services to meet urgent deadlines;
• We are open and transparent throughout the entire process, beginning with naming realistic terms, continuing through choosing a relevant technology, and ending with actions taken to solve problems;
• ProCoders don’t need more than 40 minutes to answer your questions during working hours;
• Our developers have extensive experience building websites and apps from scratch (this ensures that everything will function smoothly during the launch of the MVP of the product).

We also offer free consultations, so feel free to reach out!

Conclusion

We know that launching an MVP is not an easy task. It requires a lot of hard work, investment, focus, and just luck on your end.

However, if you follow our recommendations, you will be able to attract the investments for your business:

1. Do a preliminary market analysis;
2. Define your business model;
3. Create a business plan;
4. Create and motivate your core team;
5. Test the product idea out with potential customers;
6. Build a prototype or beta version;
7. Test and define a marketing strategy;
8. ​​Use agile and lean technologies to move forward with small and clear steps;
9. Choose the MVP product launch model (soft, hard, or dark launch).

After launching the product, don’t forget to measure your success by looking at metrics and analytics to determine whether you have reached your KPIs.

Luckily, many tools are available to guide you in the right direction. If you’re looking for some help in this matter, we would love to assist you with our services at ProCoders.

We can write a development plan for your MVP, choose the right technical and architectural solutions for the product, save money, and help you get investments! Contact us for a free consultation!