“I honestly think the MVP not just in our category but I'd say most categories the whole concept of it is rarely applicable... the viable part might actually take a little more time these days than it ever has in the past.”

The Viable Bar in MVP Has Never Been Higher — Plan More Time, Not Less

When smartphone apps were new, curiosity drove downloads and a rough MVP could find an audience. Now people install fewer than 10 new apps a year and are set in their habits — so competing in any mature category means the product must be genuinely complete before expecting anyone to switch. Val spent years building Monarch's data-cleansing intelligence layer before launching publicly because in personal finance that infrastructure was table stakes, not a v2 feature.