First, appreciated the feedback, even if you're overseas! If you know any eng folks in the SF area, please feel free to put them in touch.
As far as MVP/launching --> we are very much focused on getting a prototype into users' hands (whether in Beta or publicly) as soon as possible. We've done a hefty dose of market research and have put a lot of time into sizing & outlining our go-to-market strategy (these things are in line with our strengths and skill sets.)
The fail-early approach is the best one in my eyes as well, and when I reference optimization it's really about stripping functionality to make sure we are offering a clean UI/UX & suite of features, and are not over-zealous. A lot of apps just try to do too much, and that's a trap we won't fall into.
Scale will come after our prototyping and launch, that's for sure...so you're point is well taken.
Stay tuned!
Purely out of interest, (and feel free to not share), what's your strategy on MVP and launching? I ask because it's been a common pattern at places I've worked to sink time into prototypes without proof of market, so I'm personally pretty sold on a fail-early approach.
edit: the 'focus on efficiency' sounds like it could be premature optimisation. No point building something that can scale to a bajillion users if you only get 100 on launch day. Just saying :)