Principles Q&A
Questions and answers from the Varstatt Principles handbook. Tech stacks, MVP costs, async collaboration, and how software actually ships.
How do you know if your idea is worth building?
The discovery questions that separate good ideas from projects destined to fail.
Why should you think of software as a business cost, not a craft?
Reframing software development from an art form to a predictable business expense changes how you build.
Why does Varstatt use weekly retainers instead of sprint-based contracts?
How continuous priority queue work differs from sprint-based development cycles.
Why do software projects fail?
The root causes of scope creep, budget overruns, and misalignment that waste time and money
How does software get shipped without breaking things?
Continuous deployment, feature flags, monitoring from day one, and safe-to-fail design replace big-bang releases and lengthy QA cycles.
What happens when a client wants to stop or pause?
Weekly billing, full client ownership, and no lock-in mean stopping or pausing is mechanically simple and penalty-free.
How does async collaboration work without daily meetings?
Async-first communication replaces status meetings with written updates, full transparency, and documentation that builds itself.
How should non-technical founders evaluate developers?
You can't fully evaluate a developer before working with them. The goal is to minimize risk until you have enough real data.
What do most founders get wrong about building AI products?
AI is a tool, not a product. What makes a product valuable is domain expertise. AI amplifies good domain knowledge — without it, AI products are generic and replaceable.
When should you build custom vs buy off the shelf?
Default to buy. Build only when the custom part IS your product's value. Everything else is glue.
How should a startup choose its tech stack?
There is no best stack. There's a best stack for your specific situation. Match the stack to business reality, not trends.
How should founders think about SaaS development costs?
SaaS development isn't a one-time build. It's a weekly investment. The real question is how much per week you're willing to invest.
What's the difference between freelancer, agency, and retainer?
Three service models with different incentive structures. The key insight: productize the workflow, not the service.
How much does it really cost to build an MVP?
The $5K-$500K ranges you see online are mostly noise. They reflect service model and overhead, not code quality.
What makes a good project brief?
A good brief describes the problem and the business, not the deliverable. Bad briefs say 'build me a mobile app.'
How do you scope an MVP that ships in weeks, not months?
Six-week appetite-based planning. Fix the time, flex the scope. Shape the solution to fit the constraint.
How do you go from idea to working product?
The real path from idea to product is discovery of the problem first, then solution. Most founders skip this entirely.