How much does it cost to build an AI MVP?

An AI MVP with Zero to Ten typically starts with The Discovery Sprint (2-4 weeks) to validate the concept and define scope before any build investment. Full MVP development costs vary widely depending on complexity, but working with a solo fractional CTO like Rick Deacon is significantly more cost-effective than a dev agency.

How long does a Discovery Sprint take?

The Discovery Sprint runs 2-4 weeks. By the end, you have a Problem Validation report, Solution Architecture, AI Integration Map, Security Foundation recommendations, and a Launch Roadmap.

What's the difference between a fractional CTO and a dev shop?

A fractional CTO is embedded in your team, setting technical strategy, making architectural decisions, and being accountable for outcomes. A dev shop executes tickets and hands off code.

Do you work with non-technical founders?

Yes. Most clients are non-technical founders who have a clear problem and market insight but need a technical partner to translate that into a product.

What industries do you specialize in?

Rick Deacon has deep experience in cybersecurity, Web3, fintech, automotive, and B2B SaaS, spanning companies from Y Combinator-backed startups to Fortune 500 security clients.

What AI tools and frameworks do you use?

The stack depends on the use case. Common tools include OpenAI and Anthropic APIs for LLM integration, LangChain and custom agent frameworks for AI workflows, Supabase for real-time data and auth, and React/Vite for frontend.

How is this different from hiring a development agency?

Agencies are optimized for throughput across many clients. Zero to Ten is optimized for your outcome. Rick works directly on your product, no project managers, no handoffs, no scope creep.

What happens after the Discovery Sprint?

After the Discovery Sprint, you have three options: proceed to Build & Launch with Zero to Ten, take the deliverables to a team of your choosing, or use the roadmap to raise funding. No obligation to continue.

Do you offer ongoing support after launch?

Yes. After launch, ongoing support is available as a retainer covering technical strategy, AI systems maintenance, team hiring and management, and continued product development.

Why should I choose a solo builder over a firm?

Firms add overhead. With Zero to Ten, you pay for Rick's time and output directly. His background includes co-founding a YC startup (Apozy, W17), building and exiting RADwood to Hagerty, and launching Interlock to 30,000+ weekly users.

Startups

What Y-Combinator Actually Taught Me

2026-02-15 · 9 min

Talk to Users (No, Actually Talk to Them)

The single most repeated piece of advice at YC is "talk to your users." It sounds obvious. But when I went through W17 with Apozy, I realized how few founders actually do it. We'd been building browser security features based on what we thought enterprises needed. Three weeks of customer conversations completely changed our roadmap.

The conversations revealed that IT admins didn't care about the technical sophistication of our sandbox. They cared about deployment simplicity and the ability to prove to their CISO that browsing threats were being handled. We'd been selling technology when we should have been selling peace of mind.

Do Things That Don't Scale

Paul Graham's essay on this became our operating manual. Early on, we manually onboarded every enterprise customer. I personally configured browser extensions, ran security audits, and sat in on IT team meetings. It was exhausting and completely unscalable. It was also the only way to understand what our customers actually needed.

The insights from those manual onboardings shaped our self-service product for years. Features we never would have thought of from behind a desk became our most compelling selling points because we'd watched real users struggle with real problems.

Speed Is a Feature

At YC, the expectation is that you ship something every week. Not plan something, not discuss something, ship something. This cadence forces you to make decisions fast, cut scope aggressively, and learn from real usage instead of hypothetical planning sessions.

We shipped our first enterprise deployment in 6 weeks. It wasn't perfect. But the customer feedback from a real deployment was worth more than six months of planning. The speed forced us to be honest about what mattered and what was vanity.

The Network Effect

The YC network is the real product. Having access to 4,000+ founders who've been through the same crucible is invaluable. When Apozy needed introductions to CISOs at large companies, the YC network delivered. When we were negotiating our first enterprise contract, a YC alum walked us through their playbook.

The network also kept us honest. When you're surrounded by founders who are shipping weekly and growing fast, you can't hide behind planning and strategy documents. The peer pressure to execute is real and productive.

What Still Applies

Every startup I build or advise today uses the same principles. Validate before building. Talk to customers constantly. Ship fast and iterate based on data. Do things manually before automating. The tools and technologies change every year, but these fundamentals are permanent. They worked in 2017 at YC and they work in 2026 with AI-assisted development.