Y Combinator Startup Founder saves time and money by creating MVP in Uizard

TLDR;

• Pepper is a startup from Y Combinator's Summer 2019 batch that's in the business of licensing data to companies in the food space. Richard, CEO and Founder of Pepper, wanted to test his idea without investing too much resources.
• Once he got his hands on Uizard, Richard was able to learn and use Uizard very quickly. He planned to use Uizard to give something that was deliverable to a designer and realized he actually had enough from his work in Uizard to do the handoff directly to a front-end developer.
• Richard saved a lot of resources designing his MVP in Uizard! His subscription for the Pro package ($15 per month per seat) had been tremendously money-saving, as opposed to having to hire a design agency to create a mockup for an idea he just wanted to test.

What is Pepper?

Pepper is a startup from Y Combinator’s Summer 2019 batch.

Pepper is mostly in the business of licensing data to companies in the food space.

Who is Richard Kreger?

One of the earliest customers of Uizard is Richard Kreger, CEO and Founder of Pepper.

I am the founder and CEO of a small startup here in San Francisco. We’ve just pivoted and are now in stealth with our new product.

We’re very excited to share with you the story of how Uizard has been pivotal to the success of this up-and-coming startup.

The Challenge

It all started with Richard having an app idea that he wasn’t able to easily express, as he comes from a non-designer background.

I'm not a designer by trade. My background is actually in enterprise sales, so I had no idea what I was supposed to do.

The main challenge was that he wanted to test his idea without investing too much resources.

We have worked with some design firms in the past, and we are not trying to shell out 100 grand to build this pixel-perfect app. We are just trying to throw something out there and test it.

To keep costs low, Richard decided to mock something up himself that he could then pass on to a designer.

I was planning to mock something up and then basically have a designer recreate and polish it off in Figma or Sketch. Once they have created the assets, they could then give it to a front-end developer that could build the app.

Richard was keen on finding possible ways for him to do this process as efficiently as possible, starting with him being able to create a mockup effectively.

I’d been taking notes and trying to figure out what it is we are going to build at the start of this year. I’d been reading about wireframing and prototyping, and that’s when I stumbled across Uizard.

The Solution

Once he got his hands on Uizard, Richard was able to learn and use Uizard very quickly.

Traditionally, I've used some tools like InVision and PowerPoint to put together mockups and ideas. When I tried out Uizard, I liked it. It is obviously more powerful than PowerPoint, but also a lot friendlier and easier to use than something like InVision or Figma or some of the other more traditional design tools.

It turns out that the biggest benefit was not at all something Richard had anticipated.

I was going to use Uizard in order to give something that was deliverable to a designer. I have since learned, after talking with a few of our designers, that we actually didn't even need to do that. They told me I had enough from my work in Uizard to do the handoff directly to a front-end developer. It was nice to learn that I can skip the whole designer process and just roll with this.

How did Uizard help?

Richard saved a lot of resources designing in Uizard. His subscription for the Pro package ($15 per month per seat) had been tremendously money-saving, as opposed to having to hire a design agency to create a mockup for an idea he just wanted to test.

To summarize his experience, Richard states that:

Uizard is intuitive and easy to use, and there's a low learning barrier. It might not be as powerful as Figma, but I don’t need that. I'm looking for speed and flexibility over pixel-perfect design. I'm trying to crank out an MVP (minimum viable product) as quickly as possible and communicate exactly what it is that I want. If I can skip the designer? Fantastic.

As a startup, it’s important to test quickly and to get to an MVP out there sooner than later. Uizard can help you do that. Sign up for free here.