How We Build Startup MVPs With No Upfront Payment — Our Outcome-Based, Phase-by-Phase Process

Most MVP engagements start with an invoice. You pay a deposit, sign a fixed scope, and hope the team delivers something close to what you imagined a few weeks later. The problem is obvious: you are paying upfront for a product nobody has validated yet, and the agency has already been paid whether the result moves your business or not.

We build MVPs the opposite way. The work is outcome-based and split into phases, you pay only at the end of a phase, and only when you are happy with what you see. There is no deposit and no paying for a pig in a poke. This article explains exactly how the process works, what each phase produces, how pricing is structured, and who does the work — so you can judge the approach before you ever talk to us.

Why we don't take upfront payment

Upfront payment quietly works against you. Once an agency has your deposit, the incentive to move fast, cut scope honestly, and tell you hard truths weakens. There is room to stretch timelines, manufacture the appearance of progress, and bill for motion instead of outcomes. Removing the deposit removes all of that. We get paid when a phase is done and you approve it — so our only path to revenue is real, visible progress you actually want to pay for.

This cuts both ways, and that is the point. Because we are not locked in by your money, we are also free to be honest in the other direction. At the start of a project — or even partway through a phase — we can tell you 'no, this is not the right move,' hand over whatever we have produced, and stop before either of us wastes more time. Our goal is either a long-term relationship or a short, honest win-win. Neither of those is served by dragging out work nobody believes in.

How we split an MVP into phases

An MVP is rarely one big deliverable. We break it into phases, and the first phase is chosen around where you actually are and what you are trying to prove next — not a fixed template. We look at what you already have on the day you reach out, and what the MVP is actually for.

• If you already have a clear product vision and have done real research into user pains, the first phase can go straight to wireframes and user flows.
• If that groundwork is missing, the first phase is often a Business Model Canvas, a Kano model, and research into user pains — so we design the right thing instead of a polished version of the wrong thing.
• If the goal is to raise money, the first phase might be the design of a waitlist landing page, or the first few slides of a pitch deck — whatever proves traction or tells the story fastest.
• From there, later phases typically move into high-fidelity product UI, a clickable prototype, and the build itself, until you have something real enough to launch, test, or show investors.

How you pay: fixed price or time and materials

Before a phase starts, we agree on how it will be priced. Two models cover almost every case.

Fixed price has a risk buffer baked in, because we are absorbing the cost of unlimited revisions. Time and materials removes that buffer, so when you trust us and revisions stay minimal, it usually saves you money. We recommend the model that fits your situation honestly — including telling you when fixed price is the safer choice for you.

What you actually get: design plus working code

An MVP that only exists in Figma is not an MVP. In most cases we deliver design plus working code — a product you can actually put in front of users, investors, or a paying market. The stack is chosen to fit the product, not the other way around.

• The Pacifica — a lead-capture landing page for penthouse buyers, delivered as design plus a Webflow build.
• MyChessRating — design plus a native iOS app built in Swift (case study coming soon).
• An algorithmic trading bot for a prediction market (client under NDA) — one strategy in Python, a faster strategy in Rust, parallel testing of strategies in paper mode, and one-click promotion of a proven strategy to live trading on a real balance with no manual babysitting.

That range — from a marketing site to a native mobile app to a data-heavy backend — is the point. We design the product and build it, rather than handing you a beautiful file and wishing you luck with engineering.

Who does the work

MVPs at 99 Francs are founder-led. Alexander leads product and strategy, working with a small group of senior specialists assembled around the scope — usually one or two people, at most three. There is no layer of account managers or juniors learning on your budget, which is a large part of why two to three weeks is realistic rather than aspirational.

The credibility behind that is personal rather than a wall of agency review badges. Alexander has eight years in product design and five years in outsourcing, with 55+ recommendations on LinkedIn — including from people he has worked alongside who have also worked at companies like SpaceX and Google. If you cannot find a pile of reviews about the agency brand, that is because the track record lives with the people doing the work.

When an outcome-based MVP is the right fit

This approach fits founders who want to move from idea to a testable product quickly, who value honesty about scope over a long feature list, and who would rather pay for outcomes than for hours of activity. It is especially useful when hiring a full-time senior product team is too slow or too expensive for the stage you are at.

It is a weaker fit if you only need a single small asset, if your product direction is genuinely undefined and you are not ready to test assumptions, or if you expect design and code alone to replace talking to customers. In those cases we will say so — and often point you to a smaller first phase instead of a full MVP.

How to start

Starting costs you nothing but a conversation. We scope the first phase around what you have today, agree on the deliverable and the pricing model, and begin — with payment due only when that phase is done and you are happy with it. You can read more about our MVP service, the product design and web development work that goes into each build, or — if you are still deciding how to buy — our guide to the best design subscription for an MVP.