From deck to something people use
A tested prototype or a narrow first release that turns angel interest into a conversation about real users.
MVP development · London
MVP Development for London Startups
For London founders heading into pre-seed or seed conversations: we scope, design and build the first version of your product around the one thing investors and early customers need to see working — starting with a discovery workshop and showing you progress every fortnight.
- A demo of working software every fortnight
- Fixed-price build once scope is agreed
- Code and IP owned by your company
The London squeeze
Building a first product in London’s startup scene.
London has one of Europe’s deepest pools of angels, accelerators and seed funds — and one of its most competitive markets for engineers. Investors will take a meeting on a strong deck. The questions that follow are about usage, and usage needs a product.
That creates a familiar squeeze. A founding engineer can take months to hire. Contractor day rates eat into a pre-seed round quickly, often with IR35 questions attached. And funding windows do not wait for your recruitment pipeline. Founders end up choosing between building slowly and raising on a deck alone.
An outside team closes that gap if it is set up properly: scoped around the assumption your next round depends on, built on mainstream technology your future hires will recognise, and handed over cleanly when you are ready to bring engineering in-house. That is how we work with founders.
- Scope set by what your next round needs to see
- A stack your first engineering hire will know
- Code, IP and accounts in your company’s name
- A clean handover when you build your own team
Who we work with
Founders we build for, stage by stage.
From a hot desk near Old Street to a lab near King’s Cross, the stage changes what the MVP has to prove. The discipline — a narrow scope, built properly — stays the same.
Build during the programme
A version one planned around your programme dates, so demo day shows a working product with early users rather than a roadmap slide.
Spend the round on learning
Get to paying users while you recruit, on a codebase your first engineering hire will be glad to inherit.
Technical decisions, written down
Architecture, hosting and vendor choices explained in plain English and recorded, so a future CTO or an investor’s technical adviser can follow the reasoning.
Research into a product
Teams from London universities and the Knowledge Quarter turning a proven technique or dataset into software that non-specialists can use.
Fast, without the old mistakes
You know what over-building costs. We work to a tight scope, a clear budget and weekly written updates you can forward straight to your investors.
What we deliver
What London founders get from us.
Everything a first release needs to be credible with users and investors — and nothing it does not.
Discovery workshop
A structured session on video to pin down who the first users are, what must be true for the business to work, and the least you can build to find out.
See an example plan
A prototype worth showing
Something investors and early customers can tap through in a meeting — realistic enough to get honest reactions, cheap enough to throw away.
UX and prototyping
The production MVP
Sign-up, the core workflow, payments if you need them, an admin panel and analytics — on real infrastructure you own.
Startup MVP services
Metrics investors ask about
Analytics set up around activation, retention and conversion from launch day, so your updates quote real usage rather than page views.
A codebase ready for scrutiny
Tests, documentation, a written architecture record and clean IP assignment — the things technical due diligence tends to ask about.
New to MVPs?
Our UK MVP page covers the basics: what counts as an MVP, web versus mobile first, AI MVPs and a typical build plan.
Read the MVP basics
How we work
From first workshop to first users.
The same seven stages as every build we do, compressed for founders: a short discovery, a prototype you can put in front of people, then fortnightly releases.
- 01
Discovery
A discovery workshop on video, followed by customer interviews and a hard look at the riskiest assumption.
MVP brief and the assumption to test
- 02
Strategy
We cut the feature list to what your next conversation with investors or customers needs, and fix the price and the dates for version one.
Scope, dated plan and fixed quote
- 03
UX & architecture
User journeys, wireframes and a clickable prototype, alongside the architecture, data model and integration plan that will carry it.
Prototype and architecture decisions
- 04
Development
Fortnightly sprints with a demo you can forward to co-founders and investors, a staging link that always works, and a written update every week.
A working product every fortnight
- 05
Testing
Automated tests written as we build, then manual QA, accessibility and performance checks before anything goes live.
Test evidence and a release checklist
- 06
Launch
Go live — on the web, in the app stores or both — with product analytics, error alerts and a simple back office, timed where possible around your raise or programme dates.
Live MVP and a metrics dashboard
- 07
Optimisation & support
Iterate on what users do, or hand over to your first engineering hire with documentation, walkthroughs and a period of overlap.
Iteration plan or clean handover
Example timeline
An example MVP plan, mapped to a raise.
How a focused MVP might line up with a pre-seed or seed process — shown as an example, not a template.
An illustration only. Real timelines move with scope, third-party integrations and how fast decisions get made, and the funding timeline is yours to judge. Your actual plan, with dated milestones, is agreed before any build work begins.
- Weeks 1–2
Discovery workshop and scope
A workshop on video, customer interviews, the riskiest assumption agreed and version one cut down to fit it.
Written scope and fixed quote
- Weeks 2–3
Prototype for early conversations
Screens people can tap through, put in front of a handful of target users and ready to show in investor meetings.
Tested, shareable prototype
- Weeks 3–8
Build in fortnightly sprints
Working software on staging from the first sprint, a demo every fortnight and a written update every week.
Feature-complete MVP
- Weeks 8–9
Launch to first users
Final QA, production release or app store submission, with analytics and error tracking live.
Live product with real users
- After launch
Evidence for the next round
We watch what early users actually do, smooth out the places they get stuck and ship improvements, so your next investor update is built on data.
Usage data for your raise
Funding context
SEIS, EIS and your build budget.
Many London angels invest through the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), which give investors tax relief on qualifying shares. If your round relies on them, they shape your timeline: advance assurance from HMRC, when shares are issued and how the money is spent all come into it.
We are not tax advisers, and nothing on this page is tax advice — ask your accountant or a specialist about eligibility and conditions. What we can do is make the practical side straightforward: quotes in pounds with clear milestones, invoices to your company rather than to a founder, and a build plan you can share with investors alongside your use of funds.
The same applies to R&D tax relief. Some software development qualifies and some does not, and your accountant decides. We can keep a record of the technical problems we work through, which is the kind of evidence a claim relies on.
- Milestone-based invoices to your company, in pounds
- A build plan to sit alongside your use of funds
- Technical records if you explore R&D tax relief
- Eligibility questions answered by your accountant, not us
Engagement models
Engagement options for London founders.
A paid discovery sprint first, then a fixed-price build with milestone billing. Teams who have just raised sometimes prefer a managed team from day one.
Discovery sprint
From £2,000 fixed fee
You have an idea or a problem, but not yet a scope you would trust a quote against.
- Workshops with your team
- Prototype or technical spike
- Written scope, plan and estimate
Fixed-scope project
Quoted after discovery
A defined build — an MVP, a rebuild or a feature set — with milestones and a fixed budget.
- Agreed milestones and deliverables
- Milestone-based billing
- A demo at the end of every sprint
Managed product team
From £9,500 per month
A small cross-functional pod — engineering, QA and delivery lead — that owns an outcome.
- One accountable delivery owner
- Sprint planning and reporting
- QA and code review included
Prices are in GBP. Every estimate is confirmed in writing after a discovery call — the figures above are where engagements start, not a quote.
Relevant work
Products we have designed and built.
A fintech app, a social discovery app and a restaurant platform — early-stage products that went from a brief to real users. Each case study sets out what was built and with which stack.
All case studiesFintech · Mobile
Sendora
Mobile-first money transfer and card app for a cross-border fintech.
React NativeNode.jsMapboxStripe
Read the case studySocial · Mobile
Pademi
Social discovery app for events, meet-ups and friend introductions.
React NativeNode.jsSocket.ioPostgreSQL
Read the case studyHospitality · SaaS
Teppe
Restaurant operations platform: QR ordering, kitchen displays and loyalty.
ReactNode.jsStripeFirebase
Read the case studyWhy Techsleight
What working with us is actually like.
No inflated numbers — just how we run projects, and what you can hold us to.
Product engineering, not ticket-taking
We ask what the software is for before we estimate it — and we will tell you when something should not be built, or should be bought instead.
AI where it earns its place
LLM features, retrieval and automation built with evaluation, guardrails and cost controls, and plain software where that is the better answer.
Full-stack under one roof
Design, frontend, backend, mobile, cloud and QA in one team, so nothing falls between suppliers.
UK-focused delivery
UK business hours, estimates in pounds, and a contract with a UK company. Our engineers are based in the UK and India.
Flexible engagement
A fixed-scope project, dedicated developers or a monthly retainer — and you can move between them as the work changes.
You own everything
Code, IP, cloud accounts and documentation are yours from day one. We sign an NDA before discovery if you need one.
Support after launch
We stay on for fixes, upgrades and new features, or hand over cleanly to your in-house team with the documentation to match.
FAQs
Questions we get asked.
Straight answers on scope, cost, timelines and how we work. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
How does the discovery workshop run?
On video, with co-founders or an early adviser joining from wherever they are, and the decisions written up so everyone works from the same page. After that, delivery is remote: a shared Slack channel, video calls, a demo every fortnight and a written update every week, all on UK hours.
We are a small founding team. How much of our time will this take?
The most at the start: discovery needs real time from whoever owns the product. After that, it is a demo every fortnight, decisions in a shared channel as they come up, and a short written update each week. We batch our questions so you are not interrupted all day.
What does an MVP cost compared with hiring in London?
Discovery starts from £2,000; at the end of it you get a fixed price for the build, billed against milestones. Scope drives cost far more than platform, so the cheapest route is usually a narrower first version. A contractor team, by contrast, bills every day whether or not the scope is right.
Will investors mind that an outside team built our MVP?
What they care about is whether it works, whether you own it and whether it can be built on. We assign the IP to your company, keep code and accounts in your name, and document the architecture, so a technical due diligence review finds a normal, well-kept codebase.
Can you build in time for demo day or a funding deadline?
Give us the date on the first call and discovery is planned back from it. If the full scope does not fit, we will say so and help you choose what to show — a smaller product that works beats a bigger one that is half-finished.
Does SEIS or EIS affect how we pay for development?
The schemes give your investors tax relief on qualifying shares and come with conditions on how the money raised is used. Your accountant should confirm eligibility and conditions; we keep the practical side simple with milestone invoices to your company and a build plan you can share.
Who do we sign with, and do you sign NDAs?
You sign with Krapton IT Consultancy, the UK company behind the Techsleight Labs name, and pay in pounds. We can sign an NDA ahead of discovery, and the agreement assigns the code and IP to your company.
Can our first engineering hire take over from you?
Yes, and we plan for it from the start. Handover includes documentation, architecture decision records, recorded walkthroughs and time pairing with your new engineer. You can also keep us alongside your first hires for a while and step the engagement down gradually.
What if we pivot halfway through the build?
Then we stop and re-plan rather than finish the wrong product. Scope changes are priced before we make them, and work already done is kept wherever it still fits. Fortnightly demos mean a pivot usually shows up early, while it is still cheap.
Do you only work with London startups?
No — founders anywhere in the UK work with us the same way, remotely on UK hours. This page is written for London founders because the London context — hiring, the funding rhythm, investor expectations — shapes how we plan the work.
Start a project
Building a first product in London?
Send a few lines on the product, the customer and the milestone you are working towards — a raise, a pilot customer, a demo day. We will reply within one working day with honest questions and a suggested first step.
What happens next
- 1A senior engineer reads your brief within one working day, and replies with questions or a first view.
- 2A 30-minute call to understand the goal, constraints and what good looks like — no sales script.
- 3A written proposal with scope, milestones, team and a GBP estimate you can take to your board.
Techsleight Labs is a trading name of Krapton IT Consultancy.
Explore