App development for startups: MVP scope, investor-ready builds and budget spent only where it moves the needle.
Sen
Sen
MyAstrology
MyAstrology
Future Mode
Future Mode
UniFriends
UniFriends
Ignite
Ignite
City Search
City Search
Build the first version, not the whole vision
Every founder arrives with a feature list. Almost none of it belongs in version one. The real work in app development for startups is finding the single thing your product has to do brilliantly, shipping that, and leaving everything else written down for later. It is the difference between launching in four months on the money you have and stalling at eighty per cent complete with nothing to show a lead investor.
That decision is not a spreadsheet exercise. It comes from having watched enough launches to know which features people say they want and never open, which integrations quietly double a timeline, and which corners are safe to cut in a first release. We have been doing this since 2016 and hold 30+ verified reviews on Clutch averaging 4.9.
What early-stage teams need that agencies rarely give them
Honest scoping. A fixed number before you commit rather than a day rate that drifts. And somebody senior who will tell you when an idea is going to cost more to build than it will ever earn. Digiruu is a small, senior team by design, which means the people who scope your app are the people who build it. Nothing gets promised in a pitch and rediscovered as a problem three sprints in.
We also work with founders who are not ready to build at all yet. A Blueprint plus a designed, clickable prototype is often enough to raise on, and it costs a fraction of a full build. Our own app, Subconsciously, won Best Social/Lifestyle App at the Best Mobile App Awards 2023, so we have been on the founder side of this as well as the agency side.
AWARD-WINNING
App development for startups, scoped so you do not run out of runway
App development for startups is a different job from building for a company with a product team and a budget cycle. You are proving something — to users, to a lead investor, sometimes to yourself — with a fixed amount of money and no second attempt. Digiruu has been building first versions for founders since 2016 from our studio in Shoreditch, London, and most of the value we add is in deciding what not to build.
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SERVICES
What early-stage founders get from us
MVP Definition
The hard part is the cut list. We work out the smallest build that proves your idea and document the rest for later.
Investor-Ready Prototype
A clickable prototype you can put in front of a fund or an accelerator before you commit build budget to it.
One Codebase, Two Stores
React Native where it fits, so a first-time founder ships on iOS and Android without paying for the same app twice.
Product Design
Screens designed to convert signups and hold on to them, not just to look good in a pitch deck.
Payments and Onboarding
Stripe, Apple Pay and a signup flow that does not quietly lose a third of your users at step one.
Fixed-Price Blueprint
A written scope and a real number before you commit to a build, so there is no open-ended invoice arriving later.
Launch and Store Review
App Store and Google Play submission handled, including the rejections that catch first-time founders out.
Runway-Aware Roadmap
What to build now, what waits until after your next raise, and what should never be built at all.
What founders say after working with us
our process
our process
our process
our process
our process
01. Blueprint
Two to three weeks pressure-testing the idea. We define the smallest viable feature set and hand you a costed scope you can take straight to investors.
02. Design
Wireframes, then finished UI, then a prototype you can demo to users and funds. Plenty of founders raise on this stage alone.
03. Build
Two-week sprints with a working app on your phone at the end of each one. You can change direction between sprints, which is rather the point.
04. Test
In-house QA across real iOS and Android devices, with signup and payment flows run end to end before your first paying user ever sees them.
05. Launch
Submission to both stores, listing copy, screenshots and the review process, all handled so your launch date is not decided by a rejection email.
06. Iterate
Once real users arrive the roadmap changes. We help you read the data and decide what version two should actually contain.
Startup work we have shipped
ByErim was built in four weeks and reached the top 100 of the entire App Store, ahead of Missguided, Co-Op and Ikea. It did not get there by having more features than they did. It got there by doing one thing well and launching while the moment was still live.
Amore Pizzeria began as an ordering app for a single restaurant. It has since taken 50,000+ orders and grown into a multi-million pound business, with an Apple Pay checkout that completes in seven seconds.
Epowar is a personal safety app for iPhone and Apple Watch that reads heart rate and motion data. A hardware-adjacent idea from a young founder, turned into a product people actually wear.
Thrive halved the time its users spend on casenote admin. Not a consumer app, and a good reminder that plenty of strong startups are built on an unglamorous workflow rather than a new social network.
The full portfolio, with the story behind each build, is on our apps page.
What it costs, and how founders phase it
- Blueprint, £12,000 fixed. Discovery, requirements, technical approach and a costed scope. A good number of founders stop here, raise on it, and come back funded.
- Pro, £30,000 fixed. Blueprint plus complete UI/UX design and a clickable prototype — enough to demo, test with real users and pitch.
- Max, from £75,000. Blueprint, design and the full build through to launch on both app stores.
These are fixed prices rather than day rates, which means a slow sprint is our problem and not your invoice. We set out the thinking behind the numbers on app design cost in the UK.
Founder questions we get asked most
We are pre-funding. Should we build now or wait?
Usually wait, and take a Blueprint and a prototype into the raise instead. Spending most of a small pre-seed on a full build before you have evidence of demand is the single most common way founders end up with a beautiful app and no runway left to market it.
Will you take equity instead of fees?
No. We are an agency, not an investor, and a fixed fee keeps both sides honest about scope.
How small can a genuinely useful first version be?
Smaller than most founders expect. ByErim launched in four weeks. If your core loop can be demonstrated with a handful of screens and a payment, that is your first release, and everything else is version two.
Can we hire our own developers later and bring the app in-house?
Yes, and several of our clients have. You own the repository, the designs and the Blueprint document from the start. We write the code to be handed over and we will onboard your first engineer when the time comes.
What do investors actually want to see?
Something they can hold. A prototype on a phone, a clear scope with a real number attached, and evidence you have thought hard about what you are deliberately not building. That combination has served our clients better than a deck on its own.
Our app is already live but nobody sticks around. Is a rebuild the answer?
Not necessarily, and rebuilding an app whose problem is retention rather than code is an expensive way to arrive at the same numbers. Start with a UX audit and find out where people are actually dropping out first.
Talk to us before you spend the money
A free call, an honest read on whether your idea is a four-week build or a four-month one, and a number you can plan a raise around. Get started.
