I'm Rulian. I make software.

A better question is, "What is the least I need to do or spend to know if my idea will work?"

Budgets are hard to talk about because ideas vary so much, but the math itself isn't complicated. I charge $150 an hour. That covers coding plus all the small things around it. Planning. Talking. Thinking. Fixing. The invisible work you don't see on a timeline.

I don't give "Your project will cost X" promises. Instead, we break your idea into parts. I price part 1 clearly. If we work well together, we move on to part 2. This removes risk for both of us. You're never locked into a giant unknown.

Fixed cost per phase works well because we both know what we're committing to. The tradeoff is zero scope creep. Changes go into the next phase. Otherwise things become open-ended and nobody wins.

Yes. That is exactly how you should start.

Have a direction, but take small steps. Figure out the important parts first. There is no formula that guarantees success, so your job is to avoid wasting time, money, and energy.

The safest way to build is to risk small, learn quickly, and stack wins. Or take small, tolerable losses that teach you something. Ask "What can we do this week?" Not "What will this look like six months from now?"

Some people will say "yes" here. I don't agree.

A v1 is not about being beautiful or finished. It's about offering real value. That doesn't give you permission to be sloppy or careless. Especially if you're asking people for money.

If someone is going to switch from what they're doing now, or pay for yet another product, the problem you're solving has to be painful or valuable enough that the trade is worth it. The return has to be high.

The quality of your work shows people how much care you put into it. People want to feel like they're in good hands, not like they're beta testing something you threw over the fence.

So I don't like "crappy." I like minimal, focused, and intentional. I'd rather a v1 do very few things, but do those things well, than do twenty things poorly. That's part of being a craftsperson. You care about the details. I don't want to ship something that makes people feel like I didn't care.