The 'Feature Creep' Trap: Why Most MVPs Never Launch
Stop trying to build everything. Learn how to focus on your core value proposition and launch faster.
There is a silent killer of startups. It kills more products than bad code, bad design, or bad marketing combined.
It's called Feature Creep.
It starts innocently: "I need a dashboard." "Users will want to change their passwords." "I should add a blog for SEO." "Wait, I need a dark mode toggle."
Suddenly, your "Simple MVP" has turned into a 6-month development slog. And the worst part? You haven't even validated if anyone wants your product yet.
The "Must-Have" Illusion
As developers, we confuse "Necessary for Business" with "Necessary for MVP."
Yes, a mature SaaS needs password resets, email notifications, and invoice downloads. But does your Day 1 MVP need them? Probably not. You can manually reset passwords in the database. You can manually email invoices.
The goal of an MVP is not to be perfect. It's to answer one question: "Will people pay for this?"
The Core Feature Rule
Your MVP should do one thing exceptionally well.
- Uber's MVP: It didn't have fare splitting, scheduled rides, or UberEats. It just hailed a car.
- Dropbox's MVP: It didn't have team folders or file versioning. It just synced files.
If you are building more than one core feature, you aren't building an MVP. You are building a distraction.
How Sabo Solves Feature Creep
We built Sabo to solve a paradox: "I need standard SaaS features (Auth, Billing, Dashboard) to look professional, but building them distracts me from my core product."
Sabo gives you the best of both worlds. It includes all the "boring but necessary" features pre-built:
- Authentication & User Management
- Stripe Subscriptions & Customer Portal
- Responsive Dashboard Layout
- Blog & Changelog System
Because these are already done, you don't have to think about them. You don't have to "creep" your scope to include them.
You can spend 100% of your time building that One Core Feature.
Launch Before You Are Ready
Reid Hoffman famously said, "If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late."
Don't let Feature Creep delay your launch. Use a boilerplate to handle the basics, build your one core feature, and ship.
The market doesn't care about your feature list. They care about their problems.
Stop building boilerplate. Start shipping your MVP with Sabo.