Back in 2008, two friends in San Francisco couldn’t pay their rent. They had a simple idea: “What if we rented out an air mattress and a room in our apartment to visitors in town for a big design conference? “They built a basic website, added photos of their apartment, and called it “Air Bed & Breakfast.” 

That simple version was their MVP. It wasn’t fancy, it wasn’t packed with features, but it proved one thing. People were willing to pay to stay in someone’s home. That small step turned into what we now know as Airbnb.

The takeaway? They didn’t wait to build the full product. They built just enough to test the idea. And that’s exactly what an MVP does.

So, how do you know when it’s the right time to build your MVP?

Planning to build your own product or MVP? So, what is the best tech stack for startups? One of the first real challenges you’ll hit is figuring out how to bring your idea to life. You might feel stuck deciding what tech to use, what to learn first, or where to host everything once it’s built. It can get overwhelming fast, especially when you're building solo or with a small team.

And honestly, most of that confusion comes from not choosing the right tech stack for MVP related to your skill level and product needs. So, which tech stack is best for building an MVP? Let’s break it down and look at a few reliable, beginner-friendly stacks that’ll help you get your product up and running without getting buried in setup. 

You’ve probably heard the horror stories of how projects blew the budget, went months (or years) off schedule, and ended up delivering nothing useful. So, what actually goes wrong and why do software projects fail? It’s usually not bad developers.  It’s not always a lack of money. And it’s rarely about a bad idea.

The real culprit? A poor start. Yep. Most projects fall apart before a single line of code is even written. Let’s break it down and understand what not to do if you should succeed.

A founder I spoke to recently had a solid idea for a product in the healthcare space. He’d done some groundwork, figured out the user problem, and even mapped out the key features. But when it came to building the first version, he hit a wall.

“How much will it cost to build an MVP?” he asked.

It’s a simple question, but the answers he found online were all over the place. Some said $5,000. Others said $150,000. Most didn’t explain why. And that’s a problem, because the MVP development cost isn’t just about how many screens or buttons you build. It’s about what you want to learn, how you plan to build it, and what’s at stake if you build it wrong.

So let’s break it down properly. Here’s what the real MVP cost looks like in 2025. We will also discuss what affects the budget, what founders usually miss, and how you can make smarter decisions, whether your budget is $10K or $100K.