Andrew Ng
I build production-ready MVPs in 4–6 weeks.
For founders who want to launch fast without hiring a full team.
I'm an independent builder and YC alum. I've been doing this for 25 years and I still love it. My MVP sprints give you a working product, a clean codebase, and a clear handoff. Then you keep going without me.
Already have a team? I'm also available for short-term engineering engagements.
The Sprint
A fixed-scope engagement. We spend the first week defining exactly what gets built. Then I build it. Weeks 2 through 4 are heads-down development. Weeks 5 and 6 are polish, deploy, and handoff.
You leave with a real product you can use, test, and build on. Authentication, database, core product flows, integrations, deployment, analytics, error tracking, documentation. Not a prototype, not a half-finished codebase, and not a fragile AI-generated mess.
During an MVP sprint, communication is async by default. One or two calls per week. No daily standups. No Slack channel. You make decisions, I make progress.
What's outside the sprint
The sprint covers a defined product and handoff, not ongoing development or roadmap ownership. I'm responsible for launch, not growth. If you need me working alongside your team on a focused project, that's a separate engagement.
Pricing
$50,000 to $100,000 depending on scope. This is what it costs to skip the 3-month hiring process, the $200K agency engagement, and the months of false starts.
After Launch
Post-MVP Enablement (optional, 2–3 weeks)
Some founders want a short follow-on to get set up to keep building. I can help with hiring the first engineer, setting up AI-assisted development workflows, and onboarding you or your first hire to the codebase.
This is not a retainer and not fractional CTO work. It's a fixed handoff phase. After this, you're on your own, and you'll be ready for it.
25 Years of Shipping
I started in chip design. Verification architecture for Bluetooth radios, cache-coherent routing ASICs, the SoC that powered the original iPod Shuffle. MS and BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon, with a minor in piano performance.
Then I switched to software and never stopped building.
Lightmist Coffee
What I'm building right now. A specialty coffee brand built from the ground up: sourcing, branding, e-commerce, community, all the tooling. Built entirely with AI-assisted workflows. I also rebuilt the Excelsior Running Club website from scratch in a few hours, including Cloudflare Workers for newsletter webhooks and integrations. This is what convinced me that one experienced builder with AI can do what used to take a team.
Priime (YC W15)
Built from scratch with my cofounders in 3 months. #1 in Photos & Video. #3 Top Paid overall in the US App Store. Apple Best New App. Editor's Choice. 200K+ installs in days. Zero marketing spend.
Healthi
Principal Engineer, 5+ years. Led product and engineering across iOS, Android, and web. Built a team of 3 engineers and 1 QA with zero attrition. Incubated and launched HealthiCare, the company's GLP-1 product line.
Pullfolio
SaaS platform I co-founded and ran for 13 years. Test-driven Rails from day one.
“Why should I pay you $100K when I can build this with AI myself?”
You should try. Seriously. If you can ship a production-quality product with AI tools on your own, you don't need me.
But here's what I've learned building full products with AI agents over the past year: the code generation is the easy part. What's hard is knowing what to build, how to structure it so it stays maintainable, how to test it so you can actually verify features work, and how to set up the development workflow so you can keep iterating after launch.
I write tests before features. Not because it's fashionable, but because when AI generates your code, tests are how you know the feature actually works and that the next feature doesn't break the last one. Without that discipline, AI-generated codebases become unmaintainable fast.
I've been writing production software for 25 years. I've built at the chip level, the OS level, the app level, and the web level. The AI tools make me faster, but the judgment about architecture, scope, testing, and deployment comes from decades of doing this. That's what you're paying for.
Is the MVP Sprint for You
Yes, if:
You're a funded founder with a clear idea and urgency. You can make decisions quickly. You want to validate with a real product, not a prototype. You'd rather pay for speed and quality than spend months hiring.
No, if:
You're still exploring ideas or want someone to run engineering long-term. The sprint needs a defined scope and room for me to build independently. For hands-on work alongside your team, see the short-term engagements below.
Short-Term Engineering Engagements
Alongside MVP sprints, I take on focused engineering projects with startups and established teams. I can work with your engineers to ship a critical project, get a launch over the line, or work through a difficult technical problem.
I bring 25 years of engineering experience, with work across iOS, backend, and full-stack development. AI-assisted workflows help me move quickly; architecture, testing, and maintainability still get the attention they need.
I'm based in Taipei and welcome remote engagements. For the right project, I'm also happy to travel to the US and work on-site with your team. New York and San Francisco are particularly convenient, but I'm open to other cities too.
Let's talk about what you need to ship.
Get in Touch
If you're building something and want to move fast, send me a short note about what you're building and where you're stuck.