I’m collecting real-world red flags founders and devs have seen when selecting a mobile app development partner—so others can avoid expensive mistakes.
I’m writing a small “avoid-the-landmines” follow-up to my mobile app dev partner checklist, and I want real-world input from founders + engineers.
The Question
What’s your biggest red flag when a startup is hiring a dev agency (or contractors) to build an MVP?
Examples I’ve seen (pick one, or add yours)
- Unrealistic timelines (“complex app in 2–3 weeks”)
- No discovery phase (“we’ll figure it out as we code”)
- Vague proposals (no scope boundaries, no definition of done)
- You can’t meet the actual devs who will build it
- No QA plan (or “QA is you”)
- Repo/IP weirdness (they want to own the code, or you don’t get access early)
- Super low pricing with unclear exclusions / hidden change orders
- Post-launch support is missing (“we deliver and disappear”)
Two bonus questions (if you feel like it)
1) If you could add one line to every startup contract to avoid pain later, what would it be?
2) What’s the one question that reveals whether a vendor is legit?
If you want context, here’s the checklist post this discussion is based on: [https://dev.to/budventure_technologies_5/the-startup-checklist-for-picking-a-mobile-app-dev-partner-3951]
I’ll summarize the best answers in the next post (and credit usernames if you want).
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