For tech startups · healthtech · mental-health tech
Health apps that skip planning get built twice
The waitlist page has been up for months. The feature list keeps growing. Maybe a previous developer already vanished mid-build. Usually that means nobody has drawn the boundaries yet: what’s in scope, what’s regulated, what ships first. We draw them in days, then build inside them.
Why startups burn two builds before launch
The rebuild spiral, and where it starts
The rebuild starts weeks before any code, in decisions that felt too small to write down. Here are four, usually in this order.
No scope boundary
The feature list grows in every meeting because nothing was ever formally out. Build one absorbs six months of “while we're at it”.
Hero-dev risk
One freelancer holds the architecture in their head. They get busy, get bored or get a better offer, and the codebase becomes an archaeology site.
No QA owner
Testing means the founder tapping through happy paths the night before a demo. The first real users find the bugs your process should have.
The verdict: “easier to rebuild”
A new team inherits undocumented code, declares it unsalvageable, and the spiral restarts, with less money and less founder credibility each time round.
A 5-day planning sprint prevents every item on that list by producing scope, backlog, roadmap and acceptance criteria before anyone writes code. It costs $1,500, credited toward the build.
Plan before I buildThe compliance boundary, in writing
A compliance-heavy product needs scoping, not a refusal
We map every workstream into one of three lanes, in writing, before any quote. That way nothing gets promised that we can’t deliver, and no account is turned away over one feature that might be regulated later.
We own this outright
- Product strategy, scoping and roadmaps
- Prototypes and MVPs on synthetic data
- Brand, landing pages and launch assets
- Marketing with your approved claims
- Functional QA and release readiness
- Engineering on non-clinical workstreams
We do this behind a written boundary
- Features handling real user health data
- Provider- and clinician-facing workflows
- Integrations with clinical systems
- Sensitive-data architecture decisions
Qualified specialists, not us
- Diagnosis and clinical decision support
- Crisis and safety-critical flows
- Regulatory submissions and certification
- Clinical validation and legal review
We do not certify clinical safety, HIPAA compliance or regulatory readiness. We make sure those dependencies are mapped, priced and owned by the right people before they become emergencies, and the Healthtech & Mental Health MVP Blueprint is how we do it.
Sound familiar?
Six signs the problem is planning, not talent
The waitlist page is aging
“Coming soon” has been up long enough that early subscribers have forgotten why they signed up.
Feature sprawl, no PRD
Every advisor call adds a feature; nothing ever gets cut. Priorities change by the week because nothing is written down.
The last team vanished
An agency or freelancer went quiet mid-build, leaving repos you can't evaluate and invoices you can't explain.
Rating under 4.0, crash reviews
The live product hasn't shipped an update in 6+ months and reviews are doing your QA in public.
A release with no QA owner
Launch is weeks away and 'testing' is whoever has time that afternoon. Go/no-go will come down to how the team feels that day.
You can't explain it to investors
The product makes sense in your head, but pilots, providers and investors keep asking the same confused questions.
Sprints and prices
Start with a sprint, not a contract
Every engagement starts with a short, fixed-price deliverable that’s yours to keep even if you stop there. Planning sprints are credited toward the build.
MVP Planning Sprint
Scope, backlog, roadmap, architecture options and a build estimate. Credited toward the build.
Start hereHealthtech & Mental Health MVP Blueprint
The planning sprint plus intended-use boundary, sensitive-data and claims inventory, crisis/clinical dependency map, and a phased roadmap. Not legal, clinical or regulatory certification.
Start hereApp / Product Rescue
Full technical assessment of a broken or abandoned product, plus a fix plan and quote.
Start hereQA & Release Readiness
Test strategy, critical journeys, defect report, regression checklist and a go/no-go recommendation.
Start hereLaunch Foundation
Positioning, message system, landing page, demo funnel and launch assets, so pilots and investors understand what you do.
Start hereAI/ML Discovery
Scoping sprint for AI features such as agents, pose analysis, food recognition and recommendations. Credited toward the project.
Start hereWant a second opinion first? Start at $99.
Product audit
$99A UX and performance review of your live app or web product, with what we'd fix first.
MVP scope review
$99We read your feature list, plans or PRD-in-progress and tell you what's an MVP and what's a version three.
QA smoke test
$99We test one critical flow end to end and report what breaks, where and how badly.
When the plan says build
What we build, and what it costs
These are ranges. A firm number needs an agreed scope, which is what the sprints produce.
$12k – $25k
MVP builds
Mobile apps, web platforms and AI products with a bounded scope, a release roadmap and acceptance criteria agreed before the first commit.
$3.5k – $10k
Health & mental-health prototypes
Clickable or coded prototypes on synthetic data, to test usability, align stakeholders and raise funds before touching regulated territory.
$25k+
Full custom builds
For funded startups and products replacing off-the-shelf tools: mobile, web and AI, engineered for the roadmap past version one.
From $1,000/mo
App maintenance
A live product with no in-house team, kept updated, monitored and shipping, so “no updates in 6 months” never describes you.
FAQ
Health tech MVP questions
Our product touches health data. Can you even work with us?
Almost certainly yes. The question is which parts, and we answer it by scoping. Product strategy, prototypes on synthetic data, brand, marketing with your approved claims, and functional QA are workstreams we own outright. Work involving real user data or provider workflows gets a written boundary first. Diagnosis, crisis flows and regulatory submissions belong with qualified specialists, and we'll tell you that in the first call.
Why plan for $1,500 instead of just starting the build?
Because unplanned builds get built twice. The sprint produces the scope, backlog, roadmap, architecture options and a build estimate in 5 days, and the fee is credited toward the build. If you take the plan to another team instead, it's still yours. Either way you stop paying developers to discover your requirements.
Our previous agency disappeared mid-build. Where do we start?
App / Product Rescue. In 10 days we assess what exists (code quality, architecture, what works, what's unsalvageable) and give you a fix plan with a quote. Sometimes the verdict is 'this is 80% good, finish it'; sometimes it's 'rebuild these two modules'. You decide on the facts.
Do you certify HIPAA compliance or clinical safety?
No. We build to sound engineering practices and map where qualified compliance, clinical, security and legal specialists are required; the Healthtech Blueprint identifies those dependencies before they get expensive. HIPAA has no official certification, so none of our quotes include one.
How much does a build cost?
MVP builds run $12k–$25k, healthcare and mental-health prototypes on synthetic data run $3.5k–$10k, and full products start at $25k. Ongoing maintenance starts at $1,000/mo. We don't quote a build before scoping it: the planning sprint or blueprint comes first, so the number rests on an agreed scope.
Services
How we work on health products
Work with us
Send us the feature list you're afraid to build
A $99 scope review separates the MVP from later versions, flags what's regulated and estimates the cost, before you spend anything on development.