Design and development for startups
Design and development for startups, at every stage
From the first landing page to the MVP and the launch website: fixed-price sprints for founders, with every price published before you ask. One senior designer-developer, no agency layers.
Updated October 2026 · By Shaheer Malik, senior designer & developer
The problem I solve
- ✕Agency quotes priced for a Series B when you are still pre-seed
- ✕One freelancer for design, another for code, and nobody owning the gap between them
- ✕Weeks of scoping calls before anyone will name a price
Quick answer
Startups should buy design and development by stage: a $700 discovery sprint or landing page first, an MVP from $2,500 in 30 days once the product is decided, and a $1,999 website around a raise or launch. Every price here is fixed and published before work starts.
How I approach it
Startups need different things at different stages, and buying the wrong one early is the most common waste I see: a full brand system before anyone has signed up, or a polished website for a product that has not been decided. So I sell by stage. Each step is a fixed-scope sprint with a published price, and each one leaves you with something you can use on its own.
Early on, the job is learning fast. A 5-day discovery sprint decides what to build and what to leave out, and a 5-day landing page tests whether anyone wants it, $700 each. Then the MVP: a working SaaS product with auth, billing and a real database from $2,500 in 30 days, iOS and Android apps from one React Native codebase for $2,500, or a prototype built with AI tools made ready for production from $1,999.
Around a raise or a launch, the website becomes the thing investors and customers check, so a full site is $1,999 in 14 days, built in Framer so your team can edit it. After that, ongoing work runs as a monthly partnership at $2,500 a month: one request at a time, design through to deploy, paused or cancelled monthly.
Built for
Pre-seed and seed founders who need to show something real, fast
Built for
Technical founders who can build but need the design decided
Built for
Non-technical founders who need design and code from one person
What you get out of it
Bought by stage
Pay for what this stage needs, not a package sized for a later one.
Prices published
Every sprint has its price on the page, agreed before work starts.
One owner
The same person designs and builds, so nothing falls between two contracts.
What's included
By stage
What a startup needs at each stage
| Stage | What you need | Fixed-price option | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Idea | Decide what to build, for whom, and what to leave out | Product discovery in 5 days | $700 |
| Pre-launch | A page that collects sign-ups or demo requests | Landing page in 5 days | $700 |
| Before engineering | Every screen and state decided before developers start | Product design in 14 days | $1,999 |
| MVP | A working SaaS product with auth, billing and a database | SaaS MVP in 30 days | from $2,500 |
| Mobile MVP | iOS and Android apps, submitted to both stores | iOS + Android in 30 days | $2,500 |
| AI prototype | A prototype from Cursor, Lovable, Bolt or Replit made ready to ship | Vibe-coded prototype to production | from $1,999 |
| Raise or launch | A full website investors and customers will check | Website in 14 days | $1,999 |
| After launch | Ongoing design and development without a hire | Monthly partner | $2,500 a month |
What it costs
The price is agreed before the work starts
Fixed quotes, never hourly. If it takes me longer than I planned, that is mine to absorb rather than yours to pay for.
Landing page
$700
flat · one page
One conversion-focused page — designed, built, deployed and wired to lead capture.
Bumper offer
$1,999
flat · all-in
A complete custom-coded website or app — designed, built, and deployed live.
Monthly partner
$2,500
per month
Your on-call senior designer-developer for continuous design + build work.
Anything larger gets a fixed quote within 24 hours. See what each tier includes or pick a deadline.
How we'll work
A process built for speed
Scope
A short call or brief; you get a fixed quote and timeline within 24 hours.
Design
Direction first, then high-fidelity screens in fast review loops.
Build
The same hands that designed it write the code. No drift.
Launch
QA, performance, SEO, and a handover your team can own.
Why this works
Why founders pick me
Senior-only, always
No juniors, no outsourcing — the expert you hire is the expert who delivers.
Days, not months
First designs within days; most projects live within 2–6 weeks.
One accountable owner
Design and development under one roof means one timeline and one name on the result.
“Shaheer has been one of the best freelance web design / developer contractors I've ever worked with. Great attention to detail, good creative sensibilities, fast turnaround and revisions as necessary. Will absolutely work with him again.”
Joshua Otten · CEO, NIL Data Solutions AIRecent work
Proof in production
Common questions
Questions, answered
A SaaS MVP with auth, billing and a real database starts from $2,500 in 30 days. iOS and Android apps are $2,500 in 30 days, and a web app starts from $1,999 in 21 days. The price is fixed before work starts.
As little as gets you learning. A 5-day discovery sprint and a 5-day landing page are $700 each, which is enough to decide what to build and test whether anyone wants it before spending on an MVP.
Usually the marketing site in Framer, so the team can edit it without a developer, and the product in code. A site that needs app-like features, heavy integrations or full control of hosting is better built in code from the start.
Yes. The product design sprint is design only: every screen and state, a component library and a clickable prototype, handed to your developers for $1,999 in 14 days.
You own everything it produced and can stop there. If you want to keep going, book the next stage's sprint, or move to the monthly partnership at $2,500 a month, paused or cancelled monthly.
Further reading
Ready to start?
Send a brief and get a fixed quote within 24 hours.
Explore more