MVP development in Pune
Pune's industrial software founders have often worked inside plants before starting a company, so they understand the problem better than any outside team could. What they need is a first version that one real plant will use every day, because in manufacturing a pilot plant is the proof investors and later customers ask about. A slick demo that never touches real machine data does not count.
We build that first version around a single plant and a single problem, in Next.js and Postgres, with the integration to the plant's existing data sources treated as part of the minimum, not an afterthought. Infrastructure, repositories and accounts are in your name. The code is written so your first engineering hire extends it for the second and third plants rather than starting again, and we write down what was deliberately left out.
Pune runs two economies inside one metropolitan area. It is one of India's most important automobile and manufacturing hubs, with plants in Chakan, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Talegaon; Chakan alone hosts vehicle plants for Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Bajaj Auto, Mahindra and Jaguar Land Rover, surrounded by hundreds of component suppliers. It is also one of the country's largest IT hubs, spread across Hinjewadi, Kharadi, Baner and Viman Nagar. And it makes vaccines: the Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, is here too.
The most interesting software problems sit where those economies meet. Carmakers expect their suppliers to exchange schedules, shipping notices, drawings and quality documents electronically, and to keep up when the format changes. Plants want to know why a line stopped, which machine keeps failing and what the real output was per shift, but the data sits in machine controllers, a manufacturing execution system, an ERP and a supervisor's register, none of which agree. Industrial software startups, often founded by engineers who know those plants from the inside, are building products to fix exactly that, and selling them in India and abroad.
Our place is the software above the machines, working alongside your automation partner. We build the integrations that read what your machines and systems already expose, the data pipelines and dashboards that turn it into one picture, the supplier portals, the mobile apps for technicians and inspectors, and the SaaS products that package all of it. Pune also has a deep bench of IT services and engineering services firms, and a firm like ours can take a specialist piece of their larger programme, delivered under their name.
We are in Bengaluru and share your time zone, so the working day is the same on both sides and a problem raised in the morning gets a response that morning. Most of the work runs through your repository and a shared chat channel, and you talk directly to the engineer who writes the code. What we learn about your process, from calls, documents and photos of the floor, is written down as we go, so everyone works from the same picture.
We are the right fit for a defined build, an integration with an end date, or a product that needs to reach its first pilot plant before your own team is hired. Start with a fixed-price two-week piece and judge us on what ships. Pune's IT services and engineering firms can also bring us in white-label, under their 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 Pune teams.
How do you work with teams in Pune?+
We are in Bengaluru and share your time zone, so calls, reviews and releases fit inside your normal working day. We work in your tools, Slack, GitHub and Linear or whatever your team already uses, and you talk directly to the engineer writing the code. Photos, short videos and a walk-through call from the floor go a long way, and everything we learn is written into your repository as runbooks and architecture notes.
Can you connect to our machines and plant systems?+
Yes, through the data they already expose. We integrate with what your manufacturing execution system, historian, SCADA or machine gateways publish, whether that is a database, an API, a message broker or exported files, and build the pipelines, dashboards and apps on top. We work alongside your automation partner, who looks after the controllers, and help you specify any new data points worth adding to the line.
How does your rate compare to hiring in Pune?+
PayScale puts a mid-career software engineer in Pune at about ₹14 lakh a year. Our published rate is $35 an hour, with a $5,000 minimum. That buys a senior engineer who writes the code, works in your Slack, GitHub and Linear, and starts within days, with no recruiting round, notice period or employment overhead. Begin with a fixed-price two-week piece at $2,800 and judge us on what ships.
Can you work white-label for our IT services firm?+
Yes. Work ships under your name, in your client's repositories and through your delivery process, and we sign an NDA before specifics. We stay behind your team unless you want us in the room. It works best for a well-defined specialist piece inside a larger programme, such as a data pipeline, a mobile app or an infrastructure migration, and the code belongs to your client from the first commit.
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.