CEO Of MVP Builder Viperdev.io: “We Bring The Power Of Automation To Everyone”

Ideas don’t have value by themselves. In order to innovate and create real experiences for your users, you need to involve them in your development process and learn from them. How can you do this? By building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) which is a product with a minimum set of features that solves a definite problem of your users and allows you to spend as little resources as possible while engaging your first users or early adopters and getting useful feedback from them. Lasse Schuirmann, the founder of Viperdev.io, helps other startups build their MVPs and spoke to us about his experience in building MVPs and running the company behind it.

How would you describe Viperdev.io in a few words?

Viperdev.io helps startups eager to get off the ground but hindered by the lack of software development resources to build their very first fully functional app (as MVP) starting at 3000,00 EUR – often within 30 days.

Why did you decide to pursue your own dreams rather than someone else’s?

The main reason is that I wanted to make an impact.

Back when I worked at a large corporation, I was fighting daily frustration. I was striving to “get stuff done” but there were many structures in place that kept me from doing what I wanted and making that impact. At some point I got the offer to code for a bigger project as a freelancer – I took the opportunity and started a company. Since I’ve started working as an entrepreneur, I get to decide what is important and I can focus on making that very impact for my clients.

Creating MVPs for and with your clients is a very demanding business. Did customers use the service like you imagined it in the beginning?

Certainly, we’ve had our fair share of pivoting. “Back in the old days”, I was targeting large businesses which had problems maintaining their open source projects because I had one client who I delivered a great consulting gig back then. However, I had no further people in my network that were interested in this. We started just trying out ideas and building our own MVPs (as in pushing up different websites and telling people about them) and at some point, people ended up buying them. Since then we’re changing and adjusting our vision and product every month – nothing stays still and all assumptions are and have to be constantly challenged.

With ferocious competition and a booming trend to build new companies: How do you make sure you don’t get lost in the shuffle?

It’s all about the niche. We are focusing on helping early-stage startups creating their initial idea. We not only know how to do that much more efficiently than any generalist company, we know why they want which feature and what parts are actually unnecessary. Sometimes we end up talking them out of hiring us because they’re better off continuing with something else.

Our niche is what makes us powerful because we know everything about it.

Talking about success: In what ways do you measure it and how do you make sure you don’t lose track?

First and foremost, it’s customer satisfaction. We just had a case where our work did not have the desired impact the client was looking for. We fully refunded them and worked out a solution for them so that this will not happen again.

Of course, we measure a lot of other things as well. Since I’ve started alone we’ve scaled up to a full-time developer and 7 part-time colleagues. While earlier projects took three months to fulfill, we brought that time down to roughly one month, delivering the same results faster with every project we work on.

Bootstrapped or financed: What fuels your startup now and what will in the future?

We’re fully bootstrapped at the moment. We are in the lucky position that we always had clients trusting us with their projects, right from the start. Because of that, we are able to grow organically.

What does your typical day look like?

I always get my 8 hours of sleep 🙂 Except for a server meltdown, there’s nothing touching that.

Besides that my routine differs from day to day depending on what’s urgent and important. I’m usually not able to get everything done that I wish for so I usually postpone things that affect only me and get those things done where a client or my team has a benefit.

You mentioned that you grew to one full-time and seven part-time developers. What do you look for in team members and why would a talent join your team?

I’m looking for the ability to get stuff done. Ideally, I don’t pay for someone wasting or not wasting time but for someone solving real problems.
What impresses me most is if someone knows how to get stuff done better than me. For example, I had a meeting with someone who I was looking to hire for marketing. In the initial call, he guided me through a concept that he had in mind, adapted it to my needs and cleared any questions. It was immediately clear that he knew what he was doing and that he could implement his plan better than I could. I ended up making sure that we’d be working together right within that call.

As for why someone would join us – we’re fond believers in being yourself, working whenever you want, getting new, fun projects at all times, and realizing your own (app-) dreams! Viperdev.io is all about having fun and making a living out of it.

What was your most memorable moment so far?

The moment I was trusted with a high 5 digit project. This trust made me aware of what I was capable of and how well I can respond to the responsibility that comes with it. This motivated me and became a turning point where I decided I wanted to start working on my own.

What’s next for Viperdev.io? How will your startup change the world?

We bring the power of automation to everyone, so ideas aren’t hindered by the inability to implement them.

Automation is key in our modern society. With our services, we enable literally anyone with a very small commitment to creating an actual version of their idea that works on real devices and solves real problems. We want to build a powerful and open automation that allows anyone with an idea to get started in no time, bringing the power of automation not only to businesses and startups but even “regular people” who don’t want to spend several thousand euros on an agency.

Finally, what advice would you give fellow founders for their startup?

Adapt to how other people work – and sometimes work with them to adapt to your needs. Communication will be the best tool you have on your side when working with other team members, listening and having clear ideas will help you in realizing your startup.

We are working with an international network of developers, a group of outstanding software developers from all around the world. That can be very challenging in terms of communicating with each other. Asking the right questions is key: “When will this be done?” instead of “Can you do this within a week?”, for example.

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