MVP development in Austin
Hardware start-ups in Austin reach a point where the board works on the bench and the pilot customer wants to see its data. What they need next is not the product. It is proof: a device reporting to a backend, a dashboard the customer can open, and enough reliability that a dropped connection does not look like a failed product. The firmware team is fully occupied, and nobody is free to build the software around it.
We build that smallest honest version. The device sends readings to an API designed for clients that go offline, retry and run old firmware for months. Readings are stored with the device's own timestamps, and the dashboard shows gaps as gaps rather than drawing a line through them. Sign-in, per-customer access and deploys are built properly from the first week, because the pilot customer will become the second and then the tenth. The fixed-price two-week starter is sized for exactly this: the first reading on the first chart.
The city's centre of gravity is enterprise SaaS and consumer fintech, and both bring the same backend problem early: multi-tenancy that was bolted on after the first enterprise deal, and a permissions model that started as a role column. Then the large customer asks for custom roles and SSO, the board asks for usage-based pricing, and the schema was built for neither. Unpicking that while the product keeps selling is most of what an Austin engagement looks like in the first month. On the fintech side the same pressure lands on the mobile app and the ledger: transfers that must never send twice, and balances that have to match what finance sees.
Austin has also been a hardware and semiconductor town for decades. The fabs and equipment suppliers produce tool telemetry, inspection images and test results in volumes most software companies never see, and the hardware start-ups around them reach the point where a board works on the bench and a pilot customer wants to see its data. Their engineers are process, yield and firmware specialists. The software around the hardware, from the device API and the dashboard to the pipeline that turns readings into something a customer can open, is a defined piece of work that suits an outside team.
Then there is timing. Austin has an unusual density of Series A and B product companies, and they tend to raise, hire aggressively for two quarters, then freeze. A mid-level engineer costs around $145,000 base before equity and benefits, and the platform or infrastructure hire is usually the one that waits longest. We are frequently the answer to "we have the roadmap and the budget, but the req is frozen until next quarter", because an engagement is an invoice rather than a headcount. It starts with a fixed-price two-week piece, and it can grow into an embedded engineer for as long as the roadmap needs one.
We move our working day for Texas. Four hours of every working day overlap with your morning in Central time, so stand-up, code review and the design conversation happen live with the engineer who writes the code. The code lives in your repositories from the first commit, and runbooks and architecture notes are written as we go, so whoever you hire next inherits work they can read.
We are the right fit when the roadmap is ready and the req is frozen. A defined piece of work, such as a permissions model, a device backend or a cloud setup brought under control, starts with a fixed-price two-week piece. Senior capacity arrives within days, and agencies can put the work under their own name.
Four ways this arrives.
Every feature is marked essential. We work with you to find the one journey a user must complete for the idea to be proven or disproven, build that properly, and write the rest down as a list for after launch.
It was built with a no-code tool or over a weekend, and real users are now finding its limits. We keep what works, move the data somewhere you own, and rebuild the parts that break without taking the product offline.
A demo that works in the meeting and then has to become the product. We build it on a real database with real sign-in from the start, so the version you demo is the version you keep, not a mock-up you throw away.
You need someone to make the technical decisions and explain them in plain language. We write down every choice that is expensive to reverse, why we made it and what changing it would cost, so whoever you hire next can pick it up.
Began in 2024 as a script that turned monthly exports into charts, and grew step by step into a web app, a mobile app, a technician phone page and the one backend under all three.
Read the write-up →Asked by Austin teams.
How do you work with teams in Austin?+
We are in Bengaluru and move our working day for Texas, so four hours of every working day overlap with your morning in Central time. Stand-ups, code reviews and design calls happen live in that window. We work in your tools, whether that is Slack, GitHub or Linear, and the person on every call is the engineer who writes the code.
Why do Austin product companies come to you?+
Austin has an unusual density of Series A and B product companies with a strong front-end team and no infrastructure hire yet. That is precisely the seat we fill: the multi-tenant backend, the permissions model, the cloud setup and the deploys that nobody senior owns. It is why more of our US enquiries come from Texas than from the coasts. We build it in your codebase, alongside the team you already have.
How does your rate compare to hiring in Austin?+
A mid-level software engineer in Austin earns around $145,000 base before equity and benefits. Our published rate is $35/hour, or $5,400 a month for an embedded engineer, with a $5,000 minimum. There is no recruiting time and no employment overhead, and work starts within days of the call. The first piece is a fixed-price two-week engagement at $2,800, so you judge us on what ships.
Our req is frozen until next quarter. Can you cover the gap?+
Yes. It is a common Austin situation, and a good fit for an engagement, because an invoice is not a headcount. The roadmap keeps moving while the req waits. Start with a fixed-price two-week piece, or embed an engineer at $5,400 a month. Runbooks and architecture notes are written as we go, so when your hire does start, they inherit work they can read and extend.
What does the fixed-price two-week starter cover?+
A defined slice of the product, agreed in writing before we start. For an MVP it is usually the core flow, working end to end against a real database. It costs $2,800. You get something running at the end and you keep the code either way, so you can judge us on output before committing to the rest of the build.
How long does an MVP take?+
It depends on what the smallest honest version is, which is why we scope before we quote. The two-week starter usually answers the question: by the end of it one flow works, and you have a written estimate for the rest with its assumptions listed. We would rather cut scope with you than promise a date we would miss.
Why Next.js and PostgreSQL?+
Because they are boring in the right way. Both are widely known, so you can hire for them later. Postgres will carry you a long way past your first paying customers, and Next.js gives you a web app and an API in one codebase. If the product is mobile-first, we build the app in React Native on the same backend.
Will we have to rewrite it later?+
Not if we do our job. The shortcuts we take are in scope, not in structure: fewer features, plainer screens, manual steps behind the scenes. The data model, sign-in, permissions and deploys are built properly from the first week, because those are the parts that force a rewrite when they are wrong.
Who owns the code and the accounts?+
You do, from the first commit. Repositories, hosting, domains and payment accounts are created in your name, not ours. If we set something up ourselves to save time, we transfer it to you before the first invoice. An MVP you cannot take to another team is a liability, not an asset.