The gap between a working prototype and a product people trust with their money is mostly unglamorous engineering: auth, billing, and not losing data.
Get the foundations right
Real authentication, reliable backups, and a way to take payments matter more than any clever feature. These are the things that quietly lose customers when they break.
Sequence the work
- Ship a narrow version that solves one problem completely.
- Add observability before you add scale.
- Automate onboarding so you are not the bottleneck.
Resist the urge to build for a million users on day one. Build for your first ten, then your first hundred, and let real demand drive the architecture.