From a need in your business to a solution you can use
A first useful version of your tool, usually in six weeks
You can arrive with a clear idea or just with a need: tasks that repeat, data scattered across spreadsheets, customers waiting for something you do by hand today. We start by understanding how you work, agree on what is worth building first, and deliver a first version you can use and test with your team or your customers. We call it the agile MVP, for minimum viable product: a first version with a bounded scope, a fixed price by milestones (as a reference, USD 8,000 for a complete first web version), and the code in your name.
Request the free 30-minute discovery call
On that call we see whether we can help and where to start. If an existing tool solves your case better, or if changing the process is enough, we tell you right there.
In short
- Who it is for: companies that need a tool of their own and founders with an idea to test, with or without a technical team.
- What you get: a first version in use, with the agreed features, tests, documentation, and handover.
- Timeline: about six weeks, two of definition and architecture and four of construction.
- Price: as a reference, USD 8,000 in total for a first web version of about six weeks, with the definition phase (USD 3,000) included; the exact price is fixed in that phase and is lower for smaller scopes. Mobile app separately: as a reference, USD 5,000, depending on its complexity.
- On your side: someone who decides and two short meetings a week; on ours, a technical owner from start to finish.
Who it is for
- You have a clear need in your business, even if you don’t yet know which tool solves it.
- You have an idea with users or customers waiting and you want a first version to test it.
- You are not technical, or your technical team is stretched thin, and you need someone who builds and answers for the result.
- You want a fixed scope and price before starting, with a small team and no intermediaries.
Situations you will recognize
Four examples of what a first version can solve. They are illustrative possibilities, not delivered work; on the call we tell you whether it is worth building, whether an existing tool solves your case better, or whether changing the process is enough.
| What happens today | What can be explored |
|---|---|
| Orders arrive through the online store, by email, and on WhatsApp, and someone copies them by hand into a spreadsheet to know what is still to be delivered. | Bring the orders and their status together in one place, with alerts when something is late. |
| Appointments or bookings for several technicians or rooms are coordinated by messages and the schedules collide. | A shared calendar with real availability and automatic confirmations. |
| The same customer or product data is typed into invoicing, inventory, and support, and it never matches. | Record it once and connect it to the systems you already use. |
| People who work in the field (technicians, sales reps, delivery staff) report over WhatsApp with loose photos, and nobody at the office knows what is still pending. | An app on their phones to record each visit with photos and location, even without signal, and a dashboard at the office with everything up to date. |
How we work with you
Get the right things done.
- Understand your current work. A free 30-minute call: what your company does, who is involved, and where delays, errors, or repeated tasks appear. If we can help, we propose the definition phase.
- Explore options and choose. Definition and architecture phase (the architecture sprint): two weeks, USD 3,000, included in the MVP price. We pin down the priority problem, who will use the tool and how, which features go into the first version and which wait, with a clickable prototype of the main flow and a fixed proposal with weeks, milestones, and price. It is useful even if you build with another team.
- Build a first useful version. Usually four weeks, with a demonstration every week and written acceptance criteria for each milestone. “First” does not mean defective: it ships with automated tests and monitoring, installed and running on your own accounts.
- Test and decide the next step. Delivery with documentation and a handover session; 30 days of defect fixes and two weeks of questions by email. Then you decide whether to extend, adjust, or stop; each extension has its own scope and price.
What you get
If you are not technical, all you need to know is that you get a complete, secure, ready-to-use tool, with what any team needs to continue it. For your technical team, in detail, the first version includes:
- A documented backend and API (REST, with an OpenAPI specification), authentication, and data model.
- Three to five business flows, the ones that validate the idea, with a clean, standard web interface.
- An admin panel to operate the tool from day one.
- Integrated payments and email (Stripe or similar) when the tool needs them.
- Automated tests, observability, and CI/CD deployment on your cloud account.
- Documentation and handover: the code is yours and any team can continue it.
Mobile app, as a module
If your tool needs to live on the phone as an installed app, we build the iPhone and Android app from a single codebase on the same API, in parallel from the third week of construction, and publish it to the stores with your accounts; store review times are outside our control. As a reference, USD 5,000 and about three more weeks on top of the six of the web version; the price depends on the app’s complexity, and price and timeline are fixed in the definition phase.
We have mobile engineers who work under our technical direction, with the same code review as the rest of the project; they use Flutter by default, or React Native if your team already uses it. The code is yours, like the rest of the MVP.
If you only need to validate, the web app is used from the phone’s browser and the API is ready for the mobile app later.
What we need from you
- A product owner who answers decisions within 48 hours; otherwise the milestone pauses.
- Two 30-minute meetings a week to review the demonstration and decide.
- The accounts in your name: cloud, domain, payments and, if there is an app, the stores. You pay those services directly.
- Content and brand: copy, logo, and colors. We use a standard interface; elaborate visual design comes later.
Price and terms
- Definition and architecture phase: USD 3,000, at the start, over two weeks. It is useful even if you build with another team; if you build with us within the following 60 days, it counts as part of the MVP price.
- Agile MVP: as a reference, USD 8,000 in total for a first web version of about six weeks, definition phase included; the price is fixed for the scope set in that phase and is lower for smaller scopes. With a USD 8,000 MVP, after the definition you pay USD 5,000.
- Mobile app: as a reference, USD 5,000, as a separate module; the exact price depends on the app’s complexity and is fixed in the definition phase.
- Payment by milestones of the amount remaining after the definition: 30% when the build starts, 40% with the MVP running in a staging environment, and 30% on delivery. Each milestone is paid before the next one starts.
- Changes outside the scope: USD 1,800 per additional week, agreed in writing before the work.
- The code and the intellectual property are yours with the payment of each milestone, except SIMYL’s reusable components, which we license to you at no cost for your product; it is the same rule as in How we work.
- Electronic invoice: in Colombian pesos for clients in Colombia, with the amount fixed in the proposal; in US dollars or euros for clients in other countries, paid by international bank transfer.
General terms are in How we work.
It is not for you if…
- you want to validate the idea without code: a landing page or a no-code tool serves you better and costs less;
- you are looking for a team by the hour without a defined scope;
- you expect us to decide for you: we help you define and choose, but the decisions about your business are yours.
Why us
Team members have built products from scratch, such as a property platform for several companies (multi-tenant) and the simulation backend of a startup; see Experience. We publish open-source code and benchmarks you can check.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to know what a backend or an API is? No. We explain every decision in terms of what your team or your customers will be able to do; the technical detail stays in the proposal and the documentation.
Which technology do you use? Ruby on Rails or Django when the tool is a full web application; Go when the API is the product; Flutter for the mobile app, or React Native if your team already uses it. We choose in the definition phase according to the product and who will maintain it afterwards.
Can I change the scope during the build? Yes, in writing: what comes in replaces something of the same size or is quoted as an additional week. What we don’t do is change the scope without deciding it together.
What happens after the MVP? You can continue with your own team, with a milestone project for the next version, or with our monthly advisory.
How do you invoice? As stated under “Price and terms”: electronic invoice, in Colombian pesos for clients in Colombia and in US dollars or euros for clients in other countries.
Request the discovery call or write to us at contact@simylresearch.com.