Mykhailo Kopyl: What I Learned From Building Software Products for 100+ Startups

I kicked off my first startup in 2013, and it took me to something big, but in a completely different way from what I expected. Long story short, it hasn’t succeeded, but the whole journey of building a tech product inspired me so much that I decided to found my own software development company and help others turn their ideas into reality. 

That’s how Seedium was founded with a strong mission to become a reliable tech partner in startup software development. Since then, I’ve been involved in building software solutions for over one hundred early-stage businesses. I’ve seen both successful and failed startups. I saw founders making the same mistakes over and over again, but also those who really made it work. 

In this article, I’d like to share six key lessons I've learned from this experience, which I hope will help indie hackers launch their digital products with fewer mistakes. 

1.  Great Products are Built Not Around Technology

People often put too much emphasis on big ideas or the latest hyped-up technologies as the key to success. In my experience, neither is enough on its own without a solid business strategy. The founders who win are the ones who see the bigger picture: not just what product they want to build, but who their users are, how they’ll reach them, what channels they’ll use to promote, and how it all fits together.

I’ve worked with a team that spent six months perfecting a cutting-edge AI pipeline, but they didn’t have a clear understanding of how to monetize it. We did our best on the tech side, but the startup collapsed a year later, failing to find interest in the market. At the same time, some ‘boring’ SaaS solutions found their users and, over time, turned into complex, innovative projects.

2.  Speed Usually Beats Perfection

I’ve seen long-term, complex projects spend months polishing every feature before launch, and half-built MVPs gaining traction in just weeks, simply because they got into the market fast. And that’s no surprise.

Quick launch helps you discover if people even want what you’re building. You get feedback from real users instead of your own assumptions. Again, I'm not saying to launch a product without a business plan. You should have one. However, your first version of the product will be far from what you wanted it to be and what it will ultimately be for users. And it's good if you can pivot before you invest in something the market doesn't want.

Also, some products are expensive and time-consuming to develop in full. For example, building a collaborative app is challenging and can’t realistically be finished in just a few weeks. But you can start with a minimal version and then iterate based on feedback with power users on the board guiding your efforts.

3.  Vibe Coding Can Get You Started, But It Won’t Get You Far

As AI gets more powerful, I see more and more clients coming to us with vibe-coded products that require scaling at best and complete reengineering at worst. However, I’m not against this approach at all. In fact, I’d even recommend it. This is exactly the way you can quickly create a PoC and get real feedback.

But I get really annoyed with all these articles on the Internet, like ‘How I built a SaaS product in five hours’. The truth is that you built a PoC, at most an MVP, not a full-fledged product with which you can generate revenue for years. 

Vibe coding has an expiration date. Once your app reaches a hundred users, you will start to notice that features don’t scale, the system crashes, and users increasingly report errors. 

This is usually the point where founders tend to look for engineers with the idea that they just need to fix the code a little. In practice, small fixes turn into substantial ongoing development for the engineering team. What started as a “quick patch” became months of rework and frustrated customers.

Vibe coding is fine fuel for launch day. But to go beyond, you need real engineering practices. Otherwise, you’ll burn out before you scale.

4.  Founders Who Understand Tech Have the Advantage

This one became obvious after project number 20 or so. Founders who had at least a basic grasp of technology consistently made sharper decisions. It’s so much easier to communicate with engineers when you’re talking the same language and understand what it takes to implement this or that solution. 

Any experience in tech is practical; it might be some background in engineering, QA, PM, or design. The main thing is understanding the software development process, what to focus on, and what to prioritize.    

On the other hand, I met many non-tech founders who were keen to learn a new domain and listened to the advice of a trustworthy tech partner. That saved their companies months of wasted effort and helped them launch successful products that still operate successfully today. 

5.  The Right Developer Hire Saves You Time and Money

About a third of the clients I work with have gone through this. They hired a developer because he was “affordable.” Six months later, their codebase was a mess, and the developer was gone. I really understand the frustration of such people when they realize we have to throw out almost everything and rebuild to make it work. The cheap hire was the most expensive decision they made.

I also understand that for a startup, price matters, but affordability often comes with hidden costs. Scalable architecture, fewer bugs, and faster onboarding for future hires aren’t just nice-to-haves. In startups, they’re the real multipliers that save time, money, and headaches down the road. 

My advice: don’t let price be the main factor when choosing developers. At a minimum, review their portfolio and past feedback. I may sound biased, but the safest option is often to work with a development company. With a contract and NDA in place, you get real guarantees, rather than leaving your project to the roulette wheel of freelance work.

6.  Successful Startups Aren’t Unique, but They Solve Real Problems

Most of the successful startups I worked with weren’t unique at all. They were in crowded spaces and had competitors. So why did they win? Because they solved real problems that mattered. And they solved them better, faster, or with a sharper distribution strategy.

It’s funny to see copycat products succeed because the founder understood their market better. Actually, these are the best conditions for product development when you know the market, the audience, the competitors, and how to outperform them. Backed by all the factors I shared above, such products skyrocket fast and sustainably without trying to reinvent the wheel.

Wrapping Up

Looking back, every lesson ties together. Strategy beats hype. Speed beats perfection. Vibecoding works in the beginning. Founders who understand tech have an advantage. The right developer hire can change everything. And the startups that succeed aren’t necessarily unique — they’re the ones solving problems that people are actually willing to pay for.

If you’re building your first startup, don’t overcomplicate it. Focus on the fundamentals and remember: an idea is just an idea, and success depends on how you implement it. Good luck with your startup!