It depends. If your startup is focused on providing a service that is truly innovative and not being done today: -you may be able to sacrifice on craftsmanshi

It depends. If your startup is focused on providing a service that is truly innovative and not being done today: -you may be able to sacrifice on craftsmanship in order to get the MVP out the door -the fact that you are providing a new and novel service will buy you some time to get the design straightened out. -it will also give you a mechanism for collecting feedback on the product, including customer criticism/praise and usage data. HOWEVER, if your service only provides incremental innovation/benefit over competitors - or you are targeting a demographic that heavily prioritizes design in buying decisions: -you really should invest in the design of your product upfront. -it doesn't have to be perfect and you should have no expectation of not iterating based on feedback When making decisions about where to spend design money, always prioritize the resources that are figuring out how the app will work. The screens, controls, and logic of the app make your product. You can skimp on the visual design aspect of things if you need to - but make sure you nail the experience from a flow perspective. :)