When I’m advising a founder who’s still testing whether an idea has legs, I remind them that we’re working in the dark.
We don’t yet know if our assumptions are correct or which features will resonate with customers. Every choice we make, from database to framework, carries risk because it might not survive the next pivot.
At this stage, it’s less about picking shiny tools and more about choosing the fastest, least painful route to learning what will work within your MVP.
Think of it like opening a small shop on a new street. You wouldn’t sink all your cash into a massive storefront and a huge warehouse before you even know if customers will walk in. You’d start with something lean: a modest shopfront that lets people come and browse, and a backroom that holds just enough stock to get by.
Building a product is the same. Your “shopfront” is the user-facing app, your “warehouse” is the database and workflows running behind it. In the early days, the smart move is to keep both as simple and low-cost as possible so you can test whether there’s real demand.
That said, it’s also important to recognise there are no silver bullets in software. As Fred Brooks argued in his 1986 essay, software development will always be hard because of its essential complexity, the intrinsic difficulty of the problems we’re trying to solve, and the accidental complexity introduced by the tools and methods we use.
The best we can do is reduce that accidental complexity. That’s why I lean on integrated frameworks and services: they simplify the plumbing (the equivalent of sorting out the electricity and shelving in your shop) so I can focus on tackling the real product challenges, like whether customers actually want what’s on display.
Over the years, I’ve helped non‑technical founders turn ideas into products and learned that keeping moving parts to a minimum is essential. The more frameworks and services you introduce, the harder it is for your team (and AI coding assistants) to navigate them.
My recipe for speed is simple: pick a popular, modern, integrated web framework so you don’t have to juggle multiple languages; choose a database-as-a-service that handles authentication and security for you; and be willing to invest in AI tools that save you days of work.
Popular technologies have the added benefit of abundant documentation, community tutorials and widespread support, which makes them easier to adopt and faster to troubleshoot.
I’m not against using cutting‑edge (or hyped) technology, but it must justify itself by reducing time to market and time to value. In some clients’ early MVPs, I pair Next.js with Supabase to get a workable API, a database and a frontend in one go, and I use a team of Devin AI agents and Claude Code to accelerate repetitive and simple well documented tasks.
In the rest of this article, I build on those insights. I’ll look at the principles I use to choose a lean stack, dig into why Next.js and Supabase are such a powerful combination, explore how AI assistants can speed up your work without tripping you up, and show how low‑code tools can give you an admin dashboard in minutes.
My goal is to help you move from idea to working product as quickly as possible. The equivalent of leasing a modest shop space, dropping in your first stock, wiring it up, and opening the doors, all while keeping your technical debt under control.
Contents
Principles for Choosing a Lean Tech Stack
Before selecting specific tools, I follow a handful of guiding principles that have served me well in the pre‑MVP phase.
Choose technologies that don’t hinder hiring
In the past, I’ve seen founders adopt frameworks that are outside the industry standard, due to hype, and then struggle to find engineers who could work with them. Recruiting takes longer, and onboarding slows down. By sticking to mainstream web languages like JavaScript/TypeScript or Python, you tap into larger communities, better documentation and plentiful Q&A resources.
Keep things simple and easy to maintain
Complexity is the enemy of speed. I’ve learned the hard way that starting with microservices or Kubernetes when you have a tiny engineering team adds overhead you don’t need. Maintaining fifteen services with three developers is tough.
A monolithic approach (one codebase, one deployment pipeline, one database) saves countless hours of troubleshooting and keeps the focus on delivering features. It also makes AI coding assistants far more effective; they can reason and act (ReAct) within a single codebase without getting lost in the complexity of multiple services and pipelines.
Leverage frameworks with commoditised features
Authentication, authorisation, admin dashboards and logging aren’t what make your product special. Many frameworks now include these features out of the box.
Supabase’s built‑in auth and row‑level security (RLS) can save you weeks of work. By letting the stack handle the boring bits, you can concentrate on the unique value you’re delivering.
Reach for SaaS before building yourself
Time is the most precious resource in an early-stage startup. I advise against spending weeks on something that a SaaS tool can provide in an hour. In my projects, I generally follow that advice: I look to SaaS first, then open source, and only build from scratch when I truly have to.
The exception is when the available SaaS or open-source option is more complex than the problem I’m trying to solve. For example, if I need a custom calendar where the week starts on Wednesdays and users select periods of 15 days with a bespoke UX, I can usually craft that in an hour. Wrestling with a heavyweight calendar API to achieve the same result would take longer and introduce unnecessary complexity.
These principles form the lens through which I assess specific tools in the next sections.
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The Core Stack: Next.js + Supabase (+ n8n)
For many pre‑MVP tech startups, a combination of Next.js on the frontend and Supabase on the backend offers a compelling balance of simplicity, power and flexibility.
Why Supabase?
Supabase positions itself as “the Postgres development platform”, providing a full Postgres database with built‑in authentication, row‑level security (RLS), edge functions, storage, real‑time subscriptions, vector embeddings and instant RESTful APIs.
In practice, this means you get a production‑ready database that’s 100 % portable and secure by default. You don’t have to write your own login system or worry about synchronising data across microservices. Supabase’s real‑time capabilities allow you to build collaborative features without implementing websockets yourself. And, the added bonus, if you later need to move off Supabase, you can because it’s Postgres.
Why Next.js?
Next.js is a React framework that supports server‑side rendering, static site generation and client‑side routing. One of its most useful features for early‑stage teams is API routes. Any file inside the pages/api folder is mapped to /api/* and is treated as a server‑only endpoint.
This allows you to write your backend API in the same codebase as your front end. The API routes are compiled into server‑side bundles and don’t add to the client bundle size, so performance is maintained. For small teams, this unifies front‑end and back‑end work under one repository and one language.
On top of that, Next.js makes it easy to handle static content. For sections like a blog, FAQs, or simple landing pages, you can write Markdown (.md) files and let Next.js render them into static pages. This means you don’t need a separate CMS in the early days; you can manage content with plain text files while still delivering fast, SEO-friendly pages.
Why n8n?
Once you have a working app and database, you’ll quickly need automation: send onboarding emails, move data between services, or trigger events when a record changes.
Instead of building all that logic from scratch, I reach for n8n.
It’s an open-source automation tool that lets you connect APIs, databases and third-party services with visual workflows.
For example, you can set up a workflow where a new user in Supabase automatically triggers an email sequence, adds them to a CRM and notifies the team in Slack, all without writing hundreds of lines of glue code.
At the pre-MVP stage, these automations free you to focus on your product rather than your internal plumbing.
Getting Started Quickly.
Supabase provides a ready‑made Next.js starter. Running npx create-next-app -e with-supabase scaffolds a project preconfigured with cookie‑based authentication, TypeScript and Tailwind CSS.
In a few minutes, you have a working login flow, a database connection and a front‑end framework ready for your custom features. The Supabase documentation walks through creating tables, applying row‑level security and querying data from my Next.js pages.
With n8n alongside, you can instantly wire up real-world workflows, from sending notifications to syncing with other tools, without reinventing the wheel.
Example: Building a Simple User Management Portal.
Suppose my MVP needs a place where customers can register and manage their profiles. With the with-supabase template, Supabase handles the sign-up process and stores user credentials securely.
I can then create a table called profiles in Supabase and use Next.js API routes to read and update profile data. Thanks to real-time updates, any changes to a user’s data can be pushed instantly to open sessions. Because Next.js and Supabase share the same language and integrated tools, a single developer can build the entire flow in days.
Adding n8n into the mix means the operational side can be automated just as quickly. For example, every time a new profile is created, n8n can trigger a workflow that sends a welcome email, updates a CRM and posts a Slack notification, all without extra backend code.
This core stack aligns with my principles: it uses popular technologies (React and Postgres), keeps infrastructure simple and monolithic (one codebase, one database) and provides commoditised features out of the box.
It also leaves room to scale: as your team grows, you can split the API routes into separate services, swap in specialised tools, and still have n8n orchestrating workflows across your system.
Accelerate with AI & Automation
Modern AI coding assistants promise to supercharge developer productivity. The hype is warranted, but only when used wisely.
Meet your AI teammate
Devin, billed as the world’s first fully autonomous AI software engineer, is designed to act as a tireless teammate. It can plan and execute somewhat complex engineering tasks that require a decent amount of reasoning, recall relevant context and fix mistakes, and when it does, it can even open a pull request against your repo so changes go through the same review process as any other developer.
Devin comes with a shell, code editor and browser inside a sandboxed environment, which means it can fetch dependencies, run tests and even deploy code. I can watch Devin work, provide feedback and take over when necessary.
Where AI Shines
AI tools excel at generating boilerplate code, scaffolding features and navigating unfamiliar codebases. Augment Code notes that developers using AI assistants can often go from weeks of code archaeology to hours by simply asking the assistant where a particular function is implemented or how to scaffold a feature.
For pre‑MVP work, AI can help you build CRUD endpoints, write unit tests or refactor files while you focus on my product’s unique logic.
Where AI Stumbles
There are caveats.
A randomised trial found that experienced developers took 19 % longer to complete tasks when using AI assistance. The reason: reviewing and correcting AI‑generated code takes time. AI tools produce plausible code, but they don’t understand your security requirements or performance constraints.
They may introduce subtle bugs or outdated libraries.
That’s why I think of AI not only as a teammate, but also as a potential poisoned contributor. In the wrong context, it can slow teams down, create technical debt, or even expose vulnerabilities. The key is to wield it carefully: use it for speed, but always back it up with review, testing and guardrails.
A Real‑World Analogy
I spend hundreds of euros per month on my AI agent “Devin” and Claude Code, and it saves me days of development time. I liken it to hiring a cleaner so I can spend my weekends with my family.
The money spent on AI tools is offset by the time regained for higher‑value work and personal life. For founders, this cost–time trade‑off is often worthwhile, especially when every hour counts. However, not every engineer needs the same tooling. It’s important to point out that you still need the experience to know when AI is giving you wonky code and bad information.
Guidelines for Using AI Code Assistants Effectively
Start by defining clear tasks for the AI (e.g., “define the Supabase schema for vehicles and for customers based on this CSV”). Keep each session focused to avoid context overload. Always run the code the AI writes; integrate automated tests and linters to catch issues. You need to meticulously examine the code. Track the time you save vs. the subscription cost. And remember that AI tools are evolving rapidly; revisit your choice of assistant every few months.
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Plug‑And‑Play Internal Tooling
Even the simplest product will need internal tools: dashboards to view user data, interfaces to manage content or customer support portals. Building these from scratch can soak up weeks of engineering time, but modern low‑code platforms provide a shortcut.
Supabase’s Built‑In Tools.
The Supabase dashboard includes a Table Editor, SQL editor and policy editor. You can view and edit data in a spreadsheet‑like interface, manage row‑level security policies and run SQL queries, all without writing any backend code.
For many early-stage products, this is enough to get by: if a customer needs a password reset, you can handle it through the dedicated Authentication admin panel, which securely sends a reset link. And if you need to run a one-off data fix, you can still do that in the SQL editor.
Low‑code Platforms for Full Dashboards
When you need more polished interfaces, consider low‑code builders like Retool, UI Bakery or Appsmith. You can build an admin panel on top of Supabase in under twenty minutes, for example. Supabase provides the data layer and authentication, while Retool’s drag‑and‑drop interface lets you create tables, forms and charts.
You can connect to your Supabase database, write SQL queries or call the instant REST API, and then bind the results to Retool components.
Within an hour, you can have a fully fledged admin portal with create, read, update and delete (CRUD) functionality.
Example: Enabling Your Operations Team
Imagine I’m running a marketplace platform. My operations team needs to review new listings, approve or reject them and refund customers if needed.
Rather than building a custom back office, I can set up a Retool dashboard connected to my Supabase database. The operations team uses the dashboard daily, and my engineers don’t have to spend time maintaining bespoke admin pages.
When we eventually outgrow Retool, we’ll have validated the workflows and can prioritise building a more custom solution.
The key takeaway is that internal tooling is seldom your competitive advantage. Use low‑code tools to get started, and upgrade only when necessary.
Conclusion & Next Steps
Choosing a tech stack before you’ve even achieved an MVP can feel like a guessing game. By sticking to the principles outlined above: choosing popular and easy-to-maintain technologies, keeping architecture simple, leveraging frameworks with built-in features and buying rather than building commodity functionality, you increase your chances of moving quickly and validating your idea.
Think of it like opening that first shop. You don’t start with a flagship store and a vast warehouse; you lease a modest space, stock just enough to serve your first customers, wire it up and ring the bell to open. The same applies to your product: keep the moving parts to a minimum until you know people are coming through the door.
Next.js, Supabase and n8n give you that lean setup. Supabase provides a secure, production-ready Postgres database with built-in authentication, edge functions and real-time features. Next.js unifies the front end and back end with API routes and scaffolds your project with TypeScript and Tailwind CSS. And n8n takes care of automations and workflows, so you don’t waste time on glue code. Together, they let a small team deliver a polished product in weeks.
AI tools like Devin can further accelerate development, but they require careful oversight. Treat them as assistants, not replacements. Use low-code platforms such as Retool or UI Bakery to build internal tools quickly. And always keep an eye on the trade-off between time saved and subscription costs — your goal is to maximise learning per unit time.
As you grow and approach product-market fit, revisit your stack decisions. You may need to break out microservices, adopt more specialised databases or build your own internal tools. That’s the equivalent of expanding into a bigger shop and a larger warehouse once you know you have steady footfall. But those are problems to solve when they arrive.
For now, keep your stack lean and integrated, and focus on delighting your first customers.
Thanks for reading.
