Devcinch
Subscription based Software Development for Start-Ups
Here are the top 3 mistakes I see startups making when building their MVP (and how I help avoid them)..
1. Building for scale too early
Startups often over-engineer their MVP.
Preparing for millions of users when they don’t even have ten.
This leads to unnecessary complexity and wasted time.
Your MVP should prove the idea works, not handle huge scale.
- Choose simple, proven tech
- Think in terms of weeks rather than months
- Manually handle early edge cases
- Ignore more complex architecture patterns like micro services
2. Trying to build everything
Instead of focusing on the core problem, startups add too many features.
The result? A bloated product that takes too long to launch.
An MVP should be the simplest version of your idea that delivers value.
- Define a single core problem
- Prioritise ruthlessly
- Fake it before you build it
3. Skipping user validation
Some startups build what they think users want—without talking to actual users.
An MVP should be tested early, with real feedback shaping development.
Otherwise, you risk building something nobody needs.
- Talk to users first
- Capture interest from a landing page or score card
- Release something as early as possible
Keep it simple, get early feedback, and iterate fast!
Another long overdue update!
It's hard to keep up when you are so busy!
The last 6 months has represented a good period of stability for Devcinch, with existing clients continuing to renew our service and plenty of opportunities for new clients.
Unfortunately to make sure we maintain a fantastic level of quality we increased prices and limited new subscriptions, during the new year, as we grow the team we will revert this change.
Devcinch has continued to grow over the last 6 months but there have been a number of challenges and consequently, changes!
We are currently at our highest number of subscribers ever and closing in on $40,000 recurring a month.
The biggest change for us has been embracing a different method of "Sign up".
Not many companies are willing to just subscribe via Stripe without a due diligence process and other more formal discussions.
With this in mind we have embraced these companies and put in a considerable effort to streamline bringing them onboard.
One unexpected positive here is that with payments managed outside of Stripe we can cut down on fees and transfer times, this is not insignificant for a growing business such as ours.
Devcinch has continued to progress well but is constantly evolving.
There have been a number of changes to try to make things easier for our clients.
The biggest of these is offering more flexibility in payment, many clients prefer to pay using a more typical invoicing and bank transfer method and a lot of these transaction exist outside of stripe, which isn't ideal for us but we are making it work.
As well as this we are also adjusting to focus more on cloud optimisations. They are proving quite popular with a number of clients, particularly in terms of cost optimisation. It is a relatively easy sell to be able to charge a client X but save them multiples of X on their cloud costs.
We are in the process of designing a specific cloud cost optimisation package with a "no cost saving no fee" angle.
It has been nearly a month since the last update and lots of things have been going on!
We have been keeping our Devcinch clients happy and have had some fantastic feedback about the value our services are providing!
There is continued interest in what we are offering and what appears to be an abundance of companies that are looking for services with the flexibility we offer!
While flexibility is a key part of our model, e.g. you can cancel / pause your subscription at any time, it has also proven to be an element of confusion for a number of really good prospects.
Our focus on the "output" rather than the number of "dev days" offered by our plans is proving to be a point of contention.
Rightly or wrongly, customers want to know how many "days" they are getting for their subscription fee, only a few customers have been able to see the "bigger picture", where the number of days doesn't matter only the final output.
I think this is happening for a number of reasons but the one we are seeing most often is customers comparing our product directly to a service provider who offer X days dev at Y price. It isn't easy for the customer to compare and so it is hard for them to be sure of the value.
With this in mind we have started a move to include a definitive minimum number of dev days in our packages.
Devcinch Value: Minimum of 1 day
Devcinch Basic: Minimum of 4 days
Devcinch Standard: Minimum of 12 days
Devcinch Plus: Minimum of 15 days
All of our plans can still be paused / cancelled easily by the customer and there is no commitment. We are determined to keep that flexible element that makes it easy for our customers to choose us!
Recently we introduced new pricing plans, Basic, Standard, and Plus!
From next month we have two new customers starting on the Basic plan. This plan is proving to be quite popular with start-ups and indie hackers!
We can't wait to get started with our new customers and see who else this plan can work for!
One of the big learning points with the Devcinch launch was pricing!
Specifically it really hurt not having a cheaper offering.
Devcinch is relatively expensive (£4,999/month). The pricing is below what you would expect to pay for a seasoned senior software engineer on either a permanent salary or a day rate contract.
Around 70% of leads so far have shown great interest but could only make it work at a lower price point. Most of these are early-stage startups without much funding or indie hackers with a limited budget.
I should have anticipated this and tried to make the product work at a range of price points.
Today we are introducing a basic plan, at £499/month, this gets you access to the same high quality engineering and technical knowledge but at a much lower price point!
I'm really excited to see who might make use of this plan and of course helping them grow so that they become Standard, or Plus customers in the future.
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Nobody told me it wasn't @Mmarkwoodhall
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Hey man how many costumers do you currently
Have-
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Currently have 4-5 concurrent customers with varying degrees of into pricing and full pricing.
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July was the first full month for Devcinch and it couldn't really have gone any better.
We on boarded two new customers and both have been really happy with the service so far.
Devcinch generated $10K in revenue in the last 30 days.
Revenue data is verified by Stripe and doesn't include payments that Devcinch may have collected via other means. Updated daily.
I expected quite a large number of teething problems with the early customers but that hasn't really been the reality, both customers have been super open minded about how things would work and I like to think they are seeing the benefit now.
Devcinch has been included on the growth archive and Micros SaaS Idea.
We have 3-4 really good customer leads that should start to progress through August and an exciting new customer who is starting in September.
Hopefully this will allow revenue to increase and remain stable.
Interest has also been really high from start-ups and indie hackers who are looking for equity partners and co-founders.
We are currently running a discount on a monthly Devcinch subscription for Indie Hackers users.
You can checkout using the link below and enter code INDI3HACKERS for a 15% discount.
Exciting news for us! Devcinch has been featured on the Growth Archive newsletter.
https://www.growtharchive.xyz/startups/devcinch
The Growth Archive is a discovery of early growth methods Startups used to get their first sales and beyond.
It was interesting to reflect on our first month!
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