In the startup world, securing funding seems to dominate the spotlight, capturing most of the headlines and fuelling the most viral LinkedIn posts. Yet, key milestones like daily active users (DAUs) and annual recurring revenue (ARR)—which are true indicators of product-market fit (PMF) and long-term business sustainability—are often less heralded.

I recently spoke with a Y Combinator founder who said the best thing about YC is they keep you focused on two things: building your product and talking to your customers. Yet, many early-stage founders I meet seem to be hyper-focused on raising capital.

Build First

The common response I hear from founders is, “I don’t have a choice. I can’t afford to build my MVP.”

But in today’s tech landscape, that’s rarely a valid reason. Almost every idea can have a simple MVP built for free. Take the classic Aussie example of Mr Yum—its MVP was nothing more than an Airtable connected to a QR code. That was enough to demonstrate to investors problem-solution fit and traction.

If a no-cost, hacked-together version isn’t feasible due to customer expectations or required functionality, no-code platforms have made it easier than ever to build a fully functional MVP at a fraction of the cost of traditional development.

The reality is, if you as a founder aren’t willing or able to fund even a low-code version of your product, it’s hard to justify asking an investor to take on that risk for you. Yes, there are exceptions: founders with wealthy networks or proven track records, and there are organizations like Antler, Startmate, and Melbourne Angels that do invest at the idea stage. But these are the outliers.

Sell First

There are plenty of ways to validate and sell your product without having an MVP or spending any money. If you’ve spoken to 100 customers, you should have a solid understanding of the problem and, ideally, a growing list of letters of intent (LOIs) or pre-sales commitments.

If you can demonstrate strong interest or pre-sales without an MVP, studios like Mayfly Ventures are far more likely to help build your product.

We met Charlie, the co-founder of VOLI at a workshop we put on. As non-technical founders, they received quotes as high as $1 million to build their MVP, creating immense pressure to raise capital early on—a difficult task, even for a gun founder like Charlie. But because Charlie had LOIs from global brands, we partnered with VOLI and built their MVP at a fraction of the cost,  and today, they’re steadily onboarding enterprise customers.

Conclusion

Many founders are chasing investors who don’t want to talk to them instead of trying to get in front of their customers or building. At Mayfly Ventures, our goal is to help founders launch cost-effectively using low-code solutions. That way you can raise while demonstrating that you have a product with demand, far more powerful than version 15 of your pitch deck.

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