Ship it ugly first

The instinct to make something perfect before anyone sees it is strong. I get it — nobody wants to show rough work. But perfectionism is one of the biggest killers of momentum I've seen in startups.

The ugly version teaches you everything

When you ship something rough, you learn immediately whether the core idea works. Does anyone care? Does the flow make sense? Are people willing to pay for it?

You can't answer those questions in Figma. You answer them by putting real software in front of real people.

What "ugly" actually means

I'm not talking about shipping broken software. The thing should work. It should be reliable. But it doesn't need:

• Custom animations
• A perfect color palette
• Pixel-perfect responsive design
• A fancy onboarding flow

Those things matter — eventually. But not on day one.

Polish is a reward for validation

Once you know something works, then you earn the right to make it beautiful. Until then, every hour spent on polish is a gamble.

Ship it ugly. Learn fast. Then make it great.