The Costly Mistake Founders Make When Hiring a Dev Agency (And How to Avoid It)

Building a software product is expensive. Founders know this. They budget for development, allocate funds for marketing, and plan for growth. But what many don’t realize is that most of the money wasted on software development isn’t spent on writing bad code—it’s spent on building the wrong things in the first place.

We get it—everyone is eager to start building. You want something real in front of users so you can get feedback and iterate. That’s the right instinct. The problem is, if you’re not set up to learn the right things, you’ll just burn time and money. We’ve seen it too many times: A founder hires a dev agency to build an MVP, thinking they’ll refine things as they go. But without the right foundation, features are built based on assumptions, iterations happen in the codebase instead of on paper, and before long, the project veers off course. Deadlines slip. Budgets balloon. And when the product finally launches, customers are confused, key workflows are clunky or incomplete, and the features you thought would be a hit are either ignored or causing more problems than they solve. Suddenly, you’re scrambling to figure out what went wrong—without a clear way to pinpoint the issues or a plan to fix them.

At Ready Steady, we’ve stepped into these situations over and over again—usually when a founder is already deep in frustration, wondering why their product isn’t working the way they envisioned. By that point, they’re facing blown budgets, missed timelines, and difficult conversations with investors or customers. The reality is this: If you don’t invest in structured planning before development starts, you will pay for it later—many times over.

Where Founders Go Wrong

Take one of our clients, an early-stage SaaS founder. They outsourced their entire MVP build to an agency, assuming they’d figure things out along the way. But instead of defining the must-have features and how they’d measure success, they kept adding new ideas mid-build. The dev agency, reacting to new ideas as they came up, just kept building—without questioning whether those features were necessary. The result? A product overloaded with features but missing the basic functionality that customers actually needed. They had a dashboard full of charts—none of which helped users make decisions. Fixing it after launch cost them six figures.

Another example: A direct-to-consumer startup wanted to move fast, so they hired freelancers and jumped straight into development without mapping out how customers would actually use the product. When the platform launched, users struggled to complete basic tasks—checkout buttons didn’t work in certain cases, account creation had unexpected roadblocks, and support requests started flooding in. The team scrambled to patch issues after launch, but every fix created new problems elsewhere. Their budget tripled, and their go-to-market timeline slipped by six months.

In both cases, the root problem wasn’t the developers. It was the lack of structure before development even began. Founders assumed the dev team would fill in the gaps, but that’s not how successful software projects work.

Why Your Dev Agency Won’t Save You

Many founders assume that a development agency will act as a strategic partner—helping shape the product and making sure the right things get built. But most dev agencies are optimized for execution, not strategy. Their job is to write code based on what they’re given, not challenge assumptions, validate product direction, or refine vague ideas.

The most common gaps we see in dev agencies:

• Jumping straight into coding. If no one is verifying whether features solve real user problems, you’ll end up with functionality that looks good in a demo but fails in practice.
• Building on assumptions. If requirements are unclear, developers make their best guess—which often leads to expensive rework.
• Lack of visibility. Founders only realize critical issues once a feature is built, when changes are far more expensive.
• Short-term thinking. Quick fixes and workarounds accumulate, leading to long-term technical debt that’s costly to unwind.

This isn’t to say all dev agencies are bad. Some do provide strategic guidance, but they’re rare—and expensive. If you’re hiring a typical dev shop, you need to take ownership of product direction yourself.

The Role of Strong Product & Engineering Leadership

A well-run development process doesn’t happen by chance. It requires clear leadership in both product and engineering—people responsible for making sure the right problems are solved in the right way.

Before a single line of code is written, you need answers to:

• What problem are we solving, and for whom?
• What must the first version of the product achieve?
• What’s the minimum we need to launch and learn—without overbuilding?
• How will we measure success and adjust along the way?

A development agency isn’t responsible for answering these questions. That’s the job of a product leader and an engineering leader. Without them—whether in-house or fractional—software development becomes a black box where things get built, but no one is sure if they’re building the right thing.

At Ready Steady, when we step into struggling projects as a fractional CTO or CPO, the first thing we do is bring structure:

• Create a clear plan, not just a list of ideas. Everyone—from developers to investors—needs to know what’s being built, in what order, and why it matters.
• Make decisions before development starts. Prioritize features based on real needs, not last-minute ideas that derail progress.
• Keep communication tight so nothing gets lost. Founders shouldn’t be blindsided by unexpected delays, missing features, or technical surprises.
• Define what "done" actually means. Without clear expectations, features get stuck in endless tweaks, and development never really finishes.

The impact? One founder went from a six-month delay to an on-time launch. Another saved $80,000 by scoping only what actually mattered. A SaaS team that was drowning in feature creep finally got their MVP out the door in three months.

How to Set Your Project Up for Success

If you’re about to start a dev project, pause and do these five things first:

1. Get specific about your problem and customer. You might think you already know this, but most founders start too broad. If your answer to “Who is this for?” is “everyone” or “small businesses,” that’s a red flag. Narrow it down—who is the exact person who needs this, and what’s the one problem they can’t solve without you?
2. Define the absolute must-haves for launch. Every founder wants a product that “does it all,” but trying to build everything at once is the fastest way to blow your budget. What’s the smallest, most valuable version you can launch to start learning? Cut everything else—at least for now.
3. Budget for reality, not best-case scenarios. Development always takes longer and costs more than you expect. Assume 20-30% more time and money than your initial estimate. If your plan only works if everything goes perfectly, it’s not a plan—it’s a gamble.
4. Vet your dev agency like you’re hiring a key employee. Don’t just look at portfolios—ask them how they handle shifting priorities, roadblocks, and trade-offs. If they can’t clearly explain how they communicate changes or why they’d push back on a bad idea, that’s a red flag.
5. Launch isn’t the finish line—it’s the starting point. No matter how much planning you do, your first version won’t be perfect. The real goal isn’t to launch the product—it’s to launch a product you can learn from. Success comes from testing, gathering real customer feedback, and improving fast.

The Bottom Line: Make It Count

Startups don’t get unlimited shots at product-market fit. On average, it takes 50-100 iterations to get there, but most founders only have enough runway for two or three real attempts. That’s why every decision—what to build, when to build it, and how to test and learn—matters.

We don’t just want to help you launch a product. We want to help you build something that customers will actually use and pay for, so you can learn what works, adapt quickly, and make real progress toward product-market fit.

If you’re dealing with shifting priorities, a development team that keeps missing the mark, or a product that isn’t landing with customers the way you expected—let’s fix it now, before you waste more time and money heading in the wrong direction.

✅ Book a Free Consultation – We’ll help you figure out what’s working, what’s not, and how to move forward efficiently.