Building Systems, Not MVPs: The Inddev Approach
Why we spend time building robust systems from day one instead of rushing to minimum viable products that break at scale.
Building Systems, Not MVPs: The Inddev Approach
Most startups rush to build MVPs. We build systems. This isn't about perfectionism—it's about understanding that the problems we tackle require foundations that can grow.
The Problem with MVP Culture
The Minimum Viable Product approach works for many consumer applications. Build fast, ship faster, iterate based on feedback. But when you're working on:
- Rural FPO management systems (RootOps)
- Edge intelligence for informal markets (Naarad)
- Stray animal welfare at city scale (Strayyo)
...the "minimum" often isn't viable at all.
Why Systems Thinking Matters
1. Complex Problems Need Robust Foundations
Take RootOps—our operating system for rural farmer producer organizations. An MVP might handle 10 farmers and basic inventory. But FPOs scale to 500+ members across multiple villages. They need:
- Multi-language support from day one
- Offline-first architecture for poor connectivity
- Integration with government schemes and banking systems
- Role-based access for farmers, managers, and auditors
Build these as afterthoughts, and you're rebuilding everything.
2. Rural and Informal Systems Don't Forgive
Urban consumers might tolerate app crashes and redownload later. Rural farmers using Strayyo to track community animals? They'll abandon a unreliable system immediately. Trust, once lost, doesn't return.
3. Embedded Intelligence Requires Architecture
Naarad combines device telemetry, structured logs, and human context for edge intelligence. This isn't a CRUD app—it's a distributed system that needs to handle:
- Real-time data streams
- Local processing for low-latency decisions
- Graceful degradation when networks fail
- Schema evolution as we learn more about edge patterns
You can't retrofit this kind of architecture.
How We Build Systems
Start with the Hard Parts
While others prototype UIs, we design:
- Data models that can evolve
- API contracts that won't break
- Database schemas optimized for real usage patterns
- Deployment pipelines that work in resource-constrained environments
Ops-First Development
Every feature ships with:
- Monitoring and alerting
- Backup and recovery procedures
- Documentation for field teams
- Performance baselines
Cultural Integration
For ApnaSanatan (our spiritual commerce platform), we didn't just build an astrologer booking system. We built workflows that respect traditional consultation practices, pricing models that work for both urban and rural practitioners, and content systems that handle Sanskrit, regional languages, and English.
The system understands the domain, not just the software requirements.
The Tradeoffs
Yes, this takes longer upfront. Our first deployments happen in months, not weeks.
Yes, this requires more technical depth. We can't outsource architecture decisions to no-code tools.
But: When we scale, we scale smoothly. When we pivot, the underlying systems adapt. When we hand over to founders, they inherit something valuable, not technical debt.
Examples from Our Portfolio
RootOps: Built for Indian Agriculture Reality
- Handles multiple crop cycles, inter-cropping, and monsoon uncertainty
- Integrates with WeChat-style communication (what farmers actually use)
- Supports cooperative banking models, not just individual transactions
- Works on ₹5,000 smartphones with intermittent data
Strayyo: City-Scale Animal Welfare
- QR codes that work in monsoon conditions
- Volunteer coordination across socioeconomic boundaries
- Health records that vets can trust and update quickly
- Municipal integration for population management
Naarad: Intelligence at the Edge
- Handles sensor data from industrial machines and farm equipment
- Processes human insights from WhatsApp logs and voice notes
- Runs inference locally when cloud connectivity fails
- Scales from single devices to multi-site deployments
Most Ideas Stay on Paper
Our tagline isn't marketing—it's operations philosophy. We've seen brilliant ideas fail because the implementation couldn't handle reality.
We stay long enough to get the hard parts right. We build companies, not demos.
Interested in working with systems that matter? We're always looking for engineers, domain experts, and founders who think in decades, not quarters.