The product that stayed a spreadsheet.
Most founders and product managers have one: an idea tested in a spreadsheet, priced by a supplier, and shelved because the first version was too expensive to risk. That price was set before AI. Worth checking again.
The first version is the one that got cheap. It is also the one that matters.
A new product dies on one question: will anyone use it? The honest way to find out is a first version in front of real users. For twenty years that first version was the expensive part: a team, a quarter, a budget line to defend before there was any evidence. So most ideas stayed ideas.
That is the part AI changed. The plumbing, the forms, the tests: the cost of a first version came down far enough to answer the question before the budget meeting instead of after it. What did not change: knowing what to build, knowing when to stop, and building it so that version two is not a restart. That is what we are for.
Three products that exist because somebody started before the budget did.
Real products: all three are on the market, and all three are written up in full in our cases.
Practice software for vets
A group of vets and agricultural entrepreneurs came to us convinced their existing software could be better. We built it together, co-invested, and the plan is that the vets become the owners, as a cooperative. Our own product, so its risks are ours to carry first.
Read the case Case · KlasMastrA learning platform for teachers
De Rolf Groep bought a platform from a third party and had little say over its features. We built a new one together, as partners rather than supplier and client: we do the engineering, they do content, marketing and sales, and the income is shared. Without a quotation and without a timesheet.
Read the case Case · WeAuctionAuctions for high-value goods
One founder with a long history in auctions and an idea the sector had not seen before: a platform on which B2B parties run their own auctions, online, offline or both. Everything from horses to electronics is now auctioned on software we built together from the first sketch.
Read the caseThree ways to build your product with us.
Which model fits depends mainly on one question: who should own the product in five years? You can own it yourself, we can build it together as partners, or we can build it for the people who will use it, as we are doing with Yessa. In the first conversation, we tell you which one we think suits your idea best.
The classic route, with a fixed first step.
A Factory Sprint turns the idea into a fixed quote in five days; six weeks later a secure MVP runs on Entry, with the quality checks you approved. Then you decide, with running software in hand, whether to continue. The code is yours from the first commit.
Partners, with the income shared.
We put in engineering, you put in the market, and the income is shared. This is the KlasMastr model. It only works when both sides would lose something if it failed, so we choose these partnerships carefully, and you should too.
Built for a sector, handed to the sector.
Yessa is being built so that the vets who use it can own it as a cooperative. The model we are proudest of, because it makes the software answerable to the people it exists for.
The first conversation about the IT side of an idea comes before any paperwork. No form to fill in first.
The MVP: start with a skateboard.
The smallest thing that rolls: a whole skateboard, not one perfect wheel. An MVP is not a proof of concept: with an MVP, you actually go to market, with a minimal working product that is enough for your users and nowhere near your end goal.
Our four questions.
- Who pays for it in year two, when the launch money is gone?
- What does the first version deliberately not do?
- Who uses it on an ordinary Tuesday, and what did they use before?
- What happens if it works? Who has to say yes then?
- The business plan. A page is enough to begin.
- Your budget range. An engineer looks at the idea first; the budget comes later.
- A commitment. The first conversation comes before any paperwork.
Bring your idea. One page is enough.
One page, or none at all. You get an engineer’s honest view on the IT side, with no obligation.
From idea to product, since 2006