Four Ways to Build Your MVP (And What to Watch Out For)

A guide for non-technical founders figuring out who to trust with their product

You’ve got the idea. You’ve talked to customers. Now you need to actually build something — and if you’re not technical, that’s where things get difficult fast.

Hire a freelancer? An agency? Try to vibe-code it yourself? Each path has tradeoffs, and the wrong choice can cost you months.

Here’s our thoughts about the four main options:

1. Vibe Coding: Fast but Fragile

Vibe coding is a real lever now. You can get an MVP-ish demo without waiting for a team or spending much money.

The main problem? Trying to build the whole product in one prompt. You’ll get a pile of code that seems to be working fine until you touch it — then it starts falling apart.

What you should do:

• Start with a boring template that shows your idea (auth + database + basic UI)

• Narrow what you require from each interaction: one screen → one action → one output

• Ask validate your idea by asking members of your target audience

• Repeat

Who’s this best for: Technical-ish founders who want to move fast and cheap, and don’t mind debugging.

The problem: Watch out for over reliance on AI! The more you vibe code, the messier your code base can get and it may become a tangled mess! Make sure you look through the changes made before approving.

2. Finding a Co-founder Online: Free but Fragile

Communities like Indie Hackers, Twitter/X, and various Discord servers are full of technical people looking to team up with founders. It’s tempting — you get a “co-founder” without spending any cash.

But there are three problems we see constantly:

No traction = no commitment. When someone joins for equity alone, their motivation is tied to seeing results. If growth is slow (which it usually is early on), they start to fade. There’s no contract keeping them around, and no paycheck making it hurt to walk away.

They still need to eat. Your co-founder has a day job, freelance clients, or other commitments that actually pay their bills. Your MVP will always come second to whatever keeps the lights on. Development slows to a crawl, and suddenly that “technical co-founder” is really just someone who commits code on occasional weekends.

Different stages need different people. The scrappy hacker who can duct-tape an MVP together isn’t always the right person to architect a scalable system — and vice versa. Startups evolve, and sometimes the co-founder who was perfect for stage one becomes a bottleneck at stage two. When that happens with a hired contractor, you part ways professionally. When it happens with a co-founder who holds significant equity? You’re looking at difficult conversations, potential legal disputes, and the kind of messy breakup that can derail a company. Co-founder divorces are one of the top reasons startups fail, and they’re much harder to navigate when the relationship started casually in a Discord DM.

Best for: Founders with a very compelling early vision and some traction or funding to make the opportunity feel real. Founders should also be -re-ared to have honest conversations as the company evolves.

Watch out for: Misaligned expectations. Be honest about what you can offer and what pace of development you actually need. A co-founder who ghosts after two months sets you back further than starting solo.

3. Agencies: Technically Capable, But Not Aligned

Agencies can deliver solid work. They can also leave you with a product that’s expensive to maintain and impossible to evolve.

The core problem? Their incentive is revenue, not your product’s future. An agency gets paid whether your startup succeeds or fails. They’re not thinking about your next funding round or how the codebase will hold up in twelve months — they’re thinking about closing the project and moving on to the next client.

Red flags we’ve seen again and again:

• If they can’t deploy it, you don’t have an MVP. Not “it runs locally.” A URL. A login. The happy path working.

• If the repo lives in their account, you’re renting your own startup. You need to own: repo, hosting, domain, database, API keys.

• Charging for maintaining features. If anything breaks, you have to pay them to fix it — even though it was working in production all along.

• No opinion on scope. A good partner pushes back when you’re overbuilding. Agencies often just say yes, because more features = more billable hours.

Three questions before hiring any agency:

1. “Show me something you deployed recently.”

2. “What does ‘done’ mean for each week?”

3. “What’s the plan for maintenance?”

Best for: Founders with very clear specs who can manage the process tightly and don’t need strategic input.

Watch out for: You’re paying for execution, not judgment. If you’re not sure what to build yet, an agency will happily build the wrong thing on your dime.

4. Venture Studios: When You Need Judgment, Not Just Code

A venture studio makes sense when your bottleneck isn’t engineering — it’s scope, decisions, and execution cadence.

A good studio helps you cut scope aggressively, define “done” clearly, ship in weekly slices, and avoid building the wrong thing with confidence.

With a venture studio building your product, you will be able to dedicate time and effort for fundraising and validation. The backing of a studio helps with credibility for your project as well.

Best for: Founders who want a partner that pushes back and helps make tradeoffs, not just a team that builds to spec.

What if you don’t need a full build? Sometimes you don’t need an ongoing partner — you just need to move fast on a specific piece. That’s where fixed-scope proof sprints come in. Instead of building an entire product, you build a focused slice: a working demo, a key feature, something concrete you can put in front of users or investors. It’s the same thinking-partner approach, just compressed into a defined deliverable.

For non-technical founders specifically seeking a partner who will build with you (not just for you), Centaur Lab offers a collaborative, equity-aligned model designed to transform seasoned domain experts into confident, technically literate founders. Whether you need a full build or a focused sprint, learn more at centaurlab.ai or reach out directly at shane@centaurlab.ai.

Too messy? A Quick Rule of Thumb

• Vibe coding → You want speed and you’ll handle the mess

• Vendors → You have clear specs and can manage tightly

• Venture studio → You want a thinking partner, not just executors

• Proof sprint → You need a defined deliverable on a deadline

About the Author

Centaur Lab is a New York–based venture studio that serves as the technical co-founder non-technical founders can’t find. Designed for visionary entrepreneurs with deep industry knowledge, Centaur Lab partners with founders to build AI and human-centric tech ventures through a hybrid cash-equity model that ensures mutual commitment to success.