The Ultimate List - 22 Best Minimum Viable Product (MVP) ExamplesHabba Heimisdóttir, Marketing @ Verticode

May 15, 2024, 12 min read

1. Airbnb

Before Airbnb became the trusted marketplace for short and long-term accommodation that it is today, it started as an MVP – a simple solution to a common problem. Airbnb was launched in 2007 by founders Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky under the name AirBed and Breakfast. It was a way for frugal travelers looking for an air mattress or couch to pay and stay, essentially taking the idea of couch surfing to the next level.

Over the years, the concept expanded, and the platform featured listings for rooms, apartments, entire homes, and even quirky vacation rentals. They continued to refine their product by adding features based on user feedback – despite controversies and scepticism. This innovative MVP eventually became the biggest alternate accommodation platform, making it a go-to option for many travelers.

2. Amazon

Many multinational companies seem to get their start in a garage – and Amazon itself can testify to that statement. As the global giant it is today, no one would’ve guessed that Amazon’s journey with a focused MVP strategy centered on selling books. Jeff Bezos didn’t want to miss his opportunity to capitalize on the internet, so he launched the platform with the intent to create the world's biggest bookstore. The MVP was simple, but it wasn’t until a random survey that he realised he could sell anything through his platform. People wanted what they needed in the moment, and so Amazon expanded and became an “everything” store.

3. Zappos

Around the same time Amazon came into existence, Nick Swinmurn founded Zappos (formerly known as ShoeSite.com) in order to sell shoes online. Shoes were a multi-billion dollar market in the United States alone, and it seemed like a waste not to capitalise on that market. Swinmurn was also frustrated about not being able to find the right shoes in local brick-and-mortar stores, so the internet would provide the perfect platform to fix that problem. Zappos led a niche while Amazon expanded beyond recognition, and their expanded offerings today focus on shoes, clothing, and accessories.

4. Instagram

In the early days of social media, there wasn’t a platform like Instagram. Sure, there was Flickr, where you could show off professional-looking snapshots and Facebook and Myspace, which let you upload personal photos to your profile. But there wasn’t a dedicated photo-sharing app where photos represented the makeup of a person’s profile. 

Thus, Instagram’s MVP was born, a minimalistic app where users could make a profile, upload photos, and edit them with preset filters in a square aspect ratio. It struck a chord with audiences, and they gradually introduced messaging features, Stories, photo and video carousels, IGTV, live streaming, and, of course, removed the photo size restrictions.

5. Uber

Previously, public transportation was unpredictable and inconvenient. Especially without the help of transit apps that told us how long we had to wait, people would have to hope that a taxi would drive by or that the bus schedule was on time. Uber's MVP was UberCab, an invitation-only app that involved a manual ride-booking process through the co-founders. Only their friends could book rides, where they’d receive an app access code, text their pick-up addresses, and UberCab would search for the closest driver available. Today, rather than try to figure out a way to get to the airport, find a safe ride at night, or avoid the hassle of parking, Uber has become a popular solution.

6. Dropbox

Like many great ideas, Dropbox was born to solve a problem. Founder Drew Houston went on a weekend trip with his laptop but forgot his flash drive at home, and thus, he had the bright idea to see whether it was possible to remotely access files without any physical hardware. His startup offered an MVP that didn’t involve an actual product at all. The team went through a lot of hurdles, including difficulty demonstrating a prototype form and garnering interest, so their MVP became a product demo. While the initial target market was individuals, it later attracted many high-value investors and it became a service that was popular with businesses. Today, it has 700 million registered users.

7. Facebook

Facebook's MVP was “TheFacebook”, a basic website launched by Mark Zuckerberg and his college roommates in 2004. It served to connect Harvard students to one another – and it was highly successful. Within the first month alone, over half of all Harvard undergrads were using TheFacebook. Soon enough, Stanford, Columbia, and Yale became part of the network, then Ivy League and Boston-area schools, then universities in the continent, and finally, everyone 13 years old or older with an email address. The MVP initially focused on a niche audience and brought those beloved features to the entire world.

8. Buffer

With the rise of influencers and social media as a business marketing strategy, Buffer caught the wave and provided a way for people to schedule Tweets on Twitter (known now as X). In just seven weeks, Joel Gascoigne built the first-ever version of Buffer. There weren't any analytics or other advanced features you see on Buffer today – it simply provided you with two features: choosing the times you wanted to tweet and adding those said tweets to your “buffer.” By 2011, it was fleshed out into a complete social media toolkit for businesses, allowing you to post on many major social networks and build a global audience.

9. Spotify

Audio streaming services came about in the early 2000s as a way to combat music piracy. One of those services was Spotify, which was an online platform where people could legally listen to all the artists and songs that they wanted to. They launched an MVP that would simply let people stream music online instead of downloading music illegally or paying per song. People could use the free version, get a day pass, or purchase Premium – which had song sharing, playlist creation, and some of the features we know and love today.

Spotify’s big break in the US market was thanks to Mark Zuckerberg, who partnered with Spotify and provided them leverage with its massive user base. Now, they have conquered the market as the most popular audio streaming service, featuring audiobooks and podcasts, a Discover Weekly service, daily mixes, and collaborative playlists.

10. Hubspot

HubSpot responded to the fast-changing attitudes to marketing and advertising, and that’s why they’re worth 32 billion dollars today. The internet was changing how people interacted with each other, how they shopped, and how they explored the world. Rather than focus on a way to reach out, HubSpot founders essentially created what we know as inbound marketing today. They started off as a “hub” for small businesses to carry out inbound marketing with blogging, lead nurturing, email marketing, and social media management features. With just three customers to start, they gradually worked towards their first hundred users through a blogging-led growth approach. It helped them both learn about their customers and build an SEO presence on Google.

11. Shazam

Shazam was founded well before its time back in 1999 and was only available in the UK. It didn’t feature the distinctive logo many of us recognize today, however, as the service initially required customers to dial in from their mobile phones. They’d receive a text message back with the artist and song title, and in later versions, users could even click on a hyperlink to download the song online. At this point, smartphones didn’t exist just yet.

Upon the release of the first iPhone, the Shazam app was downloaded ten million times in 150 countries. All people had to do was tap the button, let Shazam listen, and they’d receive the artist and song name instantly. Shazam has now become a verb in situations where someone needs to identify a song – “I need to Shazam this song” or “Just Shazam it.”

12. DoorDash

Getting food delivered to your door was once only associated with major American pizza chains bringing hot pies to their customers. When smartphones came onto the scene, and the sharing economy started booming, it gave rise to food delivery startups. If pizza can be delivered from restaurant to customer, why couldn’t other types of food? DoorDash started as PaloAltoDelivery.com, a concierge MVP that featured a simple website with PDF menus from local cafes and restaurants. Customers would have to call in the traditional way and then pay when the food was actually delivered. DoorDash is now one of the top food delivery services worldwide, bringing the convenience of food delivery to just about every major city in a variety of countries.

13. Pinterest

The idea of Pinterest came from an initial MVP, Tote, where the vision was to connect consumers with major retailers. Customers could save their favorite items, similar to how Pinterest lets you pin your favorite things, and it would tell them when those items were on sale and show them where they could buy them. It was able to act as an online catalog of sorts, but its use case was so limited that it failed. Since Tote couldn’t turn into an e-commerce site, the concept of Pinterest took over, initially letting users create collections and share them. It became the perfect outlet for creativity and discovery, boasting boards, pins, and search features as a visual discovery platform.

14. Slack

Just about every business uses Slack as a way to communicate with their co-workers and collaborate on ideas. The company that created Slack initially needed a way to manage their internal communications while working on an online video game, mainly for automating file exchanges. The video game wasn’t going anywhere, and so the tool was repurposed into Slack. It retained a lot of the base features, such as chat rooms, direct messaging, and file sharing, but added functions such as integrations and voice conferencing.

15. Monzo

In 2015, three co-workers from Starling Bank came together and crowdfunded Monzo – an app-based neobank that wanted to make banking simpler for the general public. Their MVP was a prepaid bank card, which helped gather initial customers and brought people on board with Mondo (what it was called before Monzo). They soon went from offering just one banking feature to becoming a complete banking platform with personal and business accounts that challenge traditional banking systems.

16. Etsy

Etsy’s MVP wasn’t created in a garage but in a Brooklyn apartment. The founders wanted to create an online marketplace for talented artisans and craftspeople to sell their goods. It started off as an HTML-based site that wasn’t as visually dynamic as it is now – but what mattered was the concept worked. The site garnered hundreds of thousands of registered sellers generating their own income back then and has millions of active sellers and buyers looking for handmade, independent goods.

17. Foursquare

Foursquare honed in on the idea of real-time location sharing and checking into businesses. It functioned like a live map where they could see who was where and explore the city through customised recommendations through their database. As technology evolved, Foursquare did too, and they redesigned their app to become more of an exploration tool where they could browse places by keyword or category. They moved the social networking aspects to a separate app, Foursquare City Guide, and the rest is history.

18. Groupon

Groupon's MVP, The Point, worked to bring people together on a social media platform to accomplish a goal. That goal could’ve been anything, but it ended up being to save money. A group of users banded together and decided to purchase a certain product together in order to save money through a group discount. The power of rallying together proved useful, as merchants wanted a way to sell their products and services, and customers wanted deals. Groupon solidified their purpose as a deal marketplace for locals and local businesses.

19. AngelList

AngelList connects startups with angel investors in order for them to find a way to get funding and raise money. Founded by Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi, who already ran a blog called Venture Hack on financing topics for entrepreneurs, they leveraged their already established audience and sent out email introductions to investors to test out their idea. As they built up their investors list, all that was left to do was scale.

20. Duolingo

The idea of making language learning accessible was the drive of creators Luis von Ahn and Severin Hecker. There was software that helped people learn languages, but no type of free app that was accessible and high-quality. Duolingo was the answer, allowing anyone in the world to learn a language at their own pace. Initially, they offered English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese, and eventually included other major languages, less studied languages, and even made-up languages like Klingon.

21. Rent The Runway

Rent the Runway (RTR), founded in 2009 by Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss, disrupted the fashion industry with its innovative approach to designer clothing rentals. In its initial stages, RTR conducted various MVPs, including in-person trunk shows with university students, allowing them to borrow designer dresses and try them on before making selections. The success of these events, with approximately one-third of attendees renting dresses, validated the concept. Subsequent MVPs further proved demand; about three-quarters opted to rent even when participants could only view dresses. To simulate real-world conditions, RTR devised a third MVP, sending PDFs of dresses to interested women, which confirmed demand in a home setting and solidified the business viability. RTR's evolution from renting dresses for special events to offering access to an on-demand designer closet, as suggested by Diane von Fürstenberg, transformed it into a comprehensive subscription-based platform for renting all kinds of clothing from various designers.

22. Verticode

No discussion about MVPs would be complete without mentioning Verticode itself! Established in 2022 by co-founders Tom Green and Sam Crosher, Verticode was born out of Tom's difficulty with launching a previous startup, hindered by resource constraints. Joining forces with Sam, who had already been working on early iterations of the MVP toolkit that now powers Verticode, they embarked on a mission to empower aspiring founders confronting challenges similar to Tom's own experiences. The early version of Verticode’s tech consisted of basic blocks of code, forming the cornerstone for all MVP builds. Over time, Verticode's technology has undergone continuous development and refinement to meet the evolving requirements of our clientele. This iterative product enhancement process has been facilitated through collaborative efforts with our clients and partners. By deeply understanding their needs, we have been able to chart the course for the company's growth and direction.

Launching a startup? Embrace the power of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to minimize risks and validate your ideas efficiently. At Verticode, we specialize in guiding startups through MVP development, turning visions into reality. Ready to take the plunge? Contact us today to start your journey.