The Food Truck Method: Building MVPs That Don't Suck

I've built over 20 MVPs. Most of them sucked.

Not because they didn't work. They worked fine. They sucked because three months later, we'd hit a wall. Adding features became a nightmare. The code was held together with duct tape and prayers. Engineers quit.

Then I figured out the food truck thing.

Here's the thing: everyone talks about "technical debt" like it's inevitable. It's not. You just need to stop building restaurants when you should be building food trucks.

Why Food Trucks Win

A restaurant needs permits, construction, inspections. Takes months. Costs millions.

A food truck? Park it and start cooking.

Your MVP is the same. Every startup thinks they're building Uber when they should be building a guy with a Honda Civic.

Here's what actually matters in a food truck (and your MVP):

• Menu - What you're selling (product strategy)
• Grill - How you make it (core features)
• Engine - What keeps it running (infrastructure)
• Keys - Who can drive it (security)
• Frame - What holds it together (architecture)

The Menu (Stop Using Jira For Everything)

Your first mistake: spending weeks in Jira organizing tickets nobody will read.

Here's what actually works:

1. Write a simple doc explaining what you're building
2. Deploy it with your code so everyone can find it
3. Update it when things change (they will)

I use Docusaurus because it deploys with my code. One repo, one source of truth. Marketing can read it, investors can read it, new engineers can read it.

No more "where's that spec?" Slack messages at 11pm.

The Boring Stuff That Breaks Everything

Keys (Authentication)

Don't build auth. Just don't.

I wasted 6 months building custom auth once. You know what happened? Security breach. Not because I'm dumb (debatable), but because auth is hard and I'm not smarter than the entire Auth0 team.

Use Auth0, Cognito, or Firebase. Pick one. Move on.

Wheels (Dependencies)

Every package you add is a future headache. Choose wisely.

My rule: If the GitHub repo hasn't been updated in 6 months, it's dead. If it has 10 stars, it's a toy. If it's not MIT licensed, it's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Pro tip: Search "awesome [whatever]" on GitHub. Someone already did the research.

Engine (Deployment)

Listen. If you can't deploy in one command, you've already lost.

I use GitHub Actions for everything. Why? Because it's there. It works. And I don't have to explain Jenkins to another junior developer.

# This is all you need
git push main
# Coffee break
# Check production

That's it. No SSH-ing into servers. No "works on my machine" BS. Push code, drink coffee, done.

My entire deployment pipeline:

# .github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test
      - run: npm run deploy

20 lines. That's it. If your deployment file is longer than your README, you're overengineering.

Testing (The Honest Truth)

Here's what nobody admits: 100% test coverage is stupid for MVPs.

You know what I test?

1. The thing that makes money
2. The thing that loses money
3. The thing that broke last week

That's it.

// This is the only test that matters
it('charges the customer correctly', () => {
  const total = calculateTotal(100, 'USD', 'premium');
  expect(total).toBe(95); // 5% premium discount
});

Skip the fancy mocking. Skip the integration test religion. Test the money stuff and move on.

Real talk: I've seen startups die while writing tests for their login page. Don't be them.

The Weekly Demo (Your Secret Weapon)

True story: I once built the wrong product for 3 months because we skipped demos. $300k down the drain.

Now? Demo every Friday at 2pm. No exceptions.

Rules that save lives:

1. Demo from production (localhost demos are lies)
2. Let stakeholders touch it
3. Record everything
4. Send a summary email (CYA)

The best part? When someone says "I thought we agreed on X," you pull up the recording. Discussion over.

Put a feedback widget in your app. I use Marker.io because it screenshots bugs automatically. Saves hours of "can you describe what you saw?" conversations.

The Grill (The Only Part That Matters)

Everything else is just support. The grill is your product.

My first startup died because we spent 6 months on authentication, deployment pipelines, and testing frameworks. You know what we didn't build? The actual product.

Now I follow one rule: Can I demo something valuable in week 1?

If not, I'm building infrastructure nobody asked for.

Start with the steel thread - one feature that works end-to-end. For Uber, that's requesting a ride. For Airbnb, that's booking a room. Everything else can wait.

The Truth About MVPs

Most MVPs fail because they're either:

1. Over-engineered (6 months to launch)
2. Under-engineered (breaks at 10 users)

The food truck method works because it forces you to think small but complete.

You can't add a second floor to a food truck. You can't install a wine cellar. You can only make really good tacos and park somewhere smart.

That constraint is a gift.

Last year, I helped a startup rebuild their MVP using this method. They went from 6-month release cycles to deploying daily. The engineers stopped quitting. The product actually shipped.

Your MVP doesn't need to be perfect. It needs to be a complete food truck.

Get the basics right. Make something people want. Everything else is just seasoning.