There are only three startups. Small companies spending nothing and figuring it out. Large companies spending tons to scale a proven thing. Companies trapped spending too much.
Ask any founder and they can tell you the definition of an MVP: the smallest viable product that solves a market's problem.
But what happens if the MVP doesn't solve the market's problem? No one scraps the MVP, they add to it. They implement new features.
And now they don't have an MVP.
Rinse and repeat this a half dozen times and now you have a product that still doesn't solve a market's problem and requires between six and eight developers to implement new features while maintaining the existing product.
This is a trap and it kills more companies than just about anything else for tech startups.
An MVP isn't something you do once and then say "f*ck it".
The real challenge is launching a true MVP over and over again until it finally clicks.
If you haven't found success with your MVP, the question to ask yourself isn't "what should we add?" but rather "what can we remove?"