That brilliant MVP is now a liability in disguise. Here’s how to fix it without a painful rebuild.
Your MVP worked. It proved a hypothesis, perhaps even unlocked funding and got users through the door. But in an enterprise context, it’s now a liability.

The cracks aren’t just technical though, they’re commercial. What was ‘good enough’ is now costing you in rising infrastructure bills, frustrating customer churn and stalled feature releases.

Engineering teams are in constant firefighting mode instead of building what’s next. Rather than accelerating your growth, your MVP is dragging it down.

This post explores the hidden costs of a fragile MVP, the myth of the ‘big-bang rebuild’ and explains how Catapult helps enterprises scale their MVP to eliminate friction and get back to growth.

1. Why most MVPs break at scale

MVPs are designed for speed, not resilience. That’s fine for proving traction, but under enterprise pressure they become liabilities.
Technical cracks:
− Fragile architecture not designed for heavy load
− Tightly coupled components that become too brittle to change
− Performance bottlenecks that surface under user spikes
− Security gaps bolted on too late
− Manual workarounds instead of automation

Commercial cracks:
− Financial waste. Cloud bills spiral with no ROI clarity
− Customer churn. Outages and sluggish UX drive users away
− Talent attrition. Engineers leave rather than maintain brittle systems
− Lost momentum. Competitors release faster while your teams firefight

The result. Your MVP is a brake on growth, not an engine for it. Learn how to evolve without re-platforming. 

2. The costly mistake of re-platforming

When leaders encounter these challenges, the reflex is often, ‘we need to rebuild’. But wholesale re-platforming rarely delivers.
Re-platforming is:

• Slow. A rebuild can drag on, during which time, competitors outpace you.
• Expensive. Heavy investment before value is visible.
• Risky. Failure rates are high. It’s not uncommon to end up with two incomplete platforms, the old one you can’t kill and the new one you can’t launch.

The irony. The problems that triggered the re-platforming often persist, just with higher sunk costs.
But the good news is, a better way exists.
Instead of throwing everything away, focus on targeted scaling.
Strengthen the foundations, address bottlenecks incrementally and evolve the MVP into an enterprise-ready platform that can grow with you.

3. Catapult’s framework for scaling MVPs

Targeted scaling, not risky rebuilds.
At Catapult, we specialise in helping enterprises break free from MVP ceilings without the pain of re-platforming. Our approach is designed for speed, resilience and measurable outcomes.

Step 1. Assess & Align

We start by uncovering what’s really holding you back.
That means diagnosing bottlenecks in architecture, infrastructure and processes.
We look at code quality, CI/CD maturity, observability and cost drivers. The outcome is clarity on where to focus for maximum impact.

Step 2. Embed & Build

We don’t drop in an army of juniors. We embed small, senior teams who work as an extension of yours. Together, we:
− Evolve architecture for scale.
− Ship features faster, using lean delivery practices.
− Optimise performance with right-sized, autoscaling infrastructure.
− Introduce real-time, compliant onboarding flows.

Step 3. Optimise & Scale

Once stabilised, we harden the platform for growth:
− Built-in security and automated testing.
− Full observability to catch issues before users do.
− Usage-based billing and monetisation models.
− Growth-ready foundations to attract funding, retain users and expand into new markets.

The goal isn’t to build a ‘perfect’ system. It’s to build the right system for the next phase of growth, without over-engineering or wasting time on a risky rebuild.

4. Scaling MVPs in the real world

Case study: Global bank DevOps transformation

One of the world’s largest banks needed to compete with fast-moving FinTechs but struggled to make DevOps real across 45,000 IT staff. We helped restructure into 2,000+ cross-functional DevOps teams, cut cycle time from 90 days to 15, and reduced rework on change requests by 23%. Read more

The lesson. Scale isn’t about throwing more servers at the problem. It’s about targeted optimisation of architecture, process and culture.

5. What an enterprise-ready platform really means

Scaling an MVP isn’t just about stability. It’s about creating a foundation for long-term enterprise success.
An enterprise-ready platform delivers:
− Growth-ready architecture. Capable of handling spikes in users, transactions and data, without falling over.
− Automated scaling. Infrastructure that flexes with demand, optimising cost as well as performance.
− Security by design. Threat detection, runtime protections and compliance built in, not bolted on.
− Observability. Real-time dashboards, alerts and metrics that keep you ahead of incidents and provide insights into user behaviour.
− Rapid iteration loops. CI/CD pipelines and Kanban delivery that get features into the hands of users, faster.
− Commercial leverage. Platforms built to monetise usage effectively and prove traction to investors or stakeholders.

That’s the shift from ‘prototype’ to ‘platform’. From ‘scrappy startup code’ to ‘engineered for growth’.

6. The hidden cost of delaying MVP scaling

Every month spent running on an unstable MVP is a month of wasted cost, frustrated customers and opportunity lost. The hidden costs stack up:
− Rising infrastructure bills with no clear ROI.
− Duplicate work from brittle integrations and manual fixes.
− Customer churn driven by performance failures.
− Engineering talent attrition. No-one wants to maintain spaghetti.

Delaying scaling work doesn’t just defer the cost. It multiplies it. The sooner issues are addressed, the easier (and cheaper) they are to resolve.

7. Why enterprises choose Catapult to scale MVPs

Financial services, public sector and complex global organisations come to Catapult because we bring:
− Senior teams, not juniors. Small groups of highly experienced engineers and product specialists embedded directly into your team.
− Proven frameworks. Scaling models tested across enterprise clients and high-growth platforms.
− Lean, iterative delivery. We fix bottlenecks and build resilience incrementally.
− Outcome-driven focus. Whether it’s uptime, hours saved, or NPS uplift, we measure what matters.
− No lock-in. Our Build-Operate-Transfer model ensures you own the platform, the roadmap and the data.

This combination means transformation without disruption. Not revolution.

Stabilise today. Scale tomorrow

If you’ve inherited an MVP that’s creaking under enterprise demands, you’re not alone. Most MVPs break at scale eventually.
But the answer isn’t to start over.
It’s to evolve what you already have into an enterprise-ready platform with the right architecture, processes and resilience baked in.
We have helped organisations from specialist banks to global enterprises stabilise their platforms, cut costs and unlock scale.
We know where the bottlenecks hide and we know how to fix them without derailing delivery.

Don’t let your technical debt stall growth.

Book a Performance Diagnostic today and get a clear plan to stabilise now and scale for the future.