Try Valley
Put your outbound workflow to work.
Saniya Sood
Published:
Updated:
Published October 20, 2026 · Updated October 20, 2026
The short answer: for a startup that needs an AI product, agent or MVP built, start with SF AI Labs if you want one team from strategy to launch, Fuselab Creative or Miquido if you need a fixed price before the first call, and Vention if you need engineers inside two weeks. Of the eight AI development companies below, three publish build prices on their own site, one publishes only a workshop price, and four quote every project.
Valley is an AI outbound platform that finds the people most likely to buy from you - from live buying signals, natural-language search, or your own lists - qualifies them against your ICP, researches each one, and sends personalized messages across email and LinkedIn that get 15-45% reply rates, against a category average of about 2%.
Key takeaways
Idea to launch with one partner: SF AI Labs, built for early-stage and high-growth startups, with a working prototype in a few weeks.
Lowest fixed entry price: Fuselab Creative, a $14,999 prototype in two weeks.
A first GenAI feature on a budget: Miquido, from $15,000 in three to five weeks.
Widest published price range: Azilen, from a $15,000 PoC to a $180,000 MVP.
Before any call: decide whether you need an AI product built or an AI tool bought. For sales and outbound, the second is usually faster.
How this comparison was checked
Each company's own website was read on October 20, 2026, and only what is printed there is recorded: what it builds, whether it states a startup focus, any published price or timeline, and the client results it names. None of these services was bought for this comparison, so every figure is the company's own, and each sentence says whose it is. Valley makes outbound software, not development services, and is not ranked here.
For consulting-led firms (strategy first, build second), see AI consulting firms worth a call for GTM teams. For firms that build sales systems rather than products, see the best GTM engineering agencies. This page covers companies that build AI products.
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The eight are ordered by fit for a seed to Series A startup that needs a working AI product. Each entry follows the same pattern: what the company builds, what it charges, what to watch for, and when to choose it.
Company | Best for | Stated startup focus | Published price | Fastest stated timeline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1. SF AI Labs | Founders who want one partner from idea to launch | Yes: early-stage and high-growth startups | Not published | Working prototype "within a few weeks" |
2. Fuselab Creative | AI products where the interface is the risk | Yes | $14,999 prototype; $30,000 PoC; from $60,000 MVP | Prototype in 2 weeks |
3. Miquido | A first GenAI feature on a known budget | Partial | $15,000+ (3 to 5 weeks) | Demo in 2 days |
4. Netguru | A paid workshop before any build | Yes, on its MVP page | Workshop 3,000 EUR; builds quoted | PoC in 6 weeks (its fastest) |
5. Vention | Funded startups that need engineers fast | Yes | Not published (cost calculator) | Kickoff within 14 days |
6. Azilen | Teams that want a priced PoC and MVP range | Weak (enterprise-first) | PoC $15,000 to $45,000; MVP $60,000 to $180,000 | PoC in 4 to 8 weeks |
7. LeewayHertz | Buyers who need named security certifications | Stated | Not published | Not stated |
8. Markovate | A pilot on your own data before committing | None stated | Not published | Pilot in 4 to 6 weeks |
1. SF AI Labs: idea to product as a service
SF AI Labs is a San Francisco AI development company whose startup service is titled "Idea to product as a service". It states its services are "for early-stage and high-growth startups" and builds custom AI agents, automation systems, agentic product features, knowledge systems and fine-tuned models, on web or mobile. It covers strategy, development and launch in one engagement, works in phases from proof of concept to MVP to product, and says founders do not need their own technical team.
The team is led by co-founder and CEO Arthur Wandzel, with 10+ years across MIT-affiliated research and VC-backed startups, and co-founder and CTO Dr. Dirk Jan Van Veen, who holds a PhD from ETH Zurich. The startup page cites 50+ AI projects delivered.
Named results on its site: a 2× increase in high-value investor identification for Green Peak Venture Partners over about 16 weeks, and "4x faster time-to-market" with a 50% reduction in development costs beside a testimonial from Orgvitality, which had SF AI Labs build a custom agent for its employee listening system. A confidential healthcare data client reports migration capacity up about 200%.
Pricing: not published. Its site says most startups receive a working prototype "within a few weeks", and most prototypes land in four to eight weeks depending on scope.
Watch for: most of its results with numbers belong to confidential clients, and some case studies report strategy deliverables rather than production metrics. Ask for a reference at your stage.
Choose it when you are a founder with an AI product idea, no in-house AI team, and you want the same people to scope, build and launch it.
2. Fuselab Creative: fixed prices for design-led AI products
Fuselab Creative, founded in 2017 in McLean, Virginia, is a UI/UX and product design agency that builds MVPs in-house, including model selection, prompt design and fallback behaviour for products whose core value is an AI feature. Named clients include the California Department of Health Care Services, NASA and the National Institutes of Health.
Pricing: fixed tiers with fixed delivery dates: a $14,999 prototype in 2 weeks, a $30,000 proof of concept in 4 weeks, and an MVP from $60,000 in 6 to 8 weeks. It says you can walk away after the first two weeks owing nothing.
Watch for: it is a design agency first and publishes no quantified client results.
Choose it when the riskiest part of your AI product is how people use it, not the model behind it.
3. Miquido: a first GenAI product on a known budget
Miquido, a Kraków software company working since 2011, builds LLM products on its own AI Kickstarter framework, plus machine learning, chatbots and computer vision. It reports 40 AI projects delivered; for Nextbank's credit scoring it cites 500M+ loan applications processed at 97% prediction accuracy.
Pricing: $15,000+ for one GenAI solution on AI Kickstarter in 3 to 5 weeks, against $40,000+ for a traditional build in 6 to 7 weeks. It offers a personalized demo in 2 days.
Watch for: its homepage now leads with enterprise mobile; AI is one practice among several.
Choose it when you want one GenAI feature shipped quickly at a price you can approve before the first call.
4. Netguru: a paid workshop before the build
Netguru, based in Poznań since 2008, builds LLM products, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems and multi-agent architectures. Its process runs from a free 6-hour exploration workshop to a 2-day workshop, a proof of concept and an AI MVP. Its AI page cites Merck KGaA (a process cut from 6 months to 6 hours) and ARC Europe (claims assessment from 30 minutes to 5, an 83% reduction).
Pricing: its AI Agents Workshop costs 3,000 EUR; builds are quoted per project. Its fastest proof of concept took 6 weeks, and it says a full AI product typically takes 4 to 9 months.
Watch for: it positions around digital commerce and large brands, and its MVP page gives two different timelines ("a couple of weeks" and "within 12 weeks").
Choose it when you want a structured, paid discovery step before committing to a build.
5. Vention: engineers inside two weeks
Vention, headquartered in New York, is an AI-enabled software development company that says it has served startups from Techstars, 500 Startups and Y Combinator. It works as staff augmentation, dedicated teams or project outsourcing, and promises to start within 14 days of signing. For EliseAI it reports conversions up 125% and 90% of leasing teams' time freed.
Pricing: not published; its online cost calculator gives an estimate that it says is not a binding offer. It says most projects move from kickoff to MVP in three to six months.
Watch for: it states it tends to partner with startups that have secured funding, and its engineering hubs are across Europe and Central Asia.
Choose it when you are funded, have product leadership in house, and need engineers on the problem quickly.
6. Azilen: the most published price range
Azilen calls itself an enterprise AI development company with 17+ years of product engineering, building AI agents, LLM applications and AI products. It cites a healthcare AI platform that delivered 40%+ faster credentialing and scheduling cycles.
Pricing: a published benchmark: proof of concept $15,000 to $45,000 over 4 to 8 weeks, MVP $60,000 to $180,000 over 10 to 16 weeks, enterprise deployment from $250,000.
Watch for: it is enterprise-first, and its listed offices include Ahmedabad and Mumbai.
Choose it when you need a costed range for a board or investor conversation before talking to anyone.
7. LeewayHertz: named security certifications
LeewayHertz builds AI agents, generative AI and LLM applications for "startups and enterprises" and runs its own agent platform, ZBrain. It states SOC 2 Type II, ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 42001 certification. It reports a 60% increase in accuracy for an LLM wine recommendation app.
Pricing: not published; it works as dedicated teams, team extension or project-based.
Watch for: it is now part of The Hackett Group, and several of its showcased case studies are older mobile app work.
Choose it when your buyers will ask for certifications before your first enterprise deal.
8. Markovate: a pilot on your own data
Markovate, working since 2014, builds generative AI, AI agents and LLM systems and offers a focused pilot in 4 to 6 weeks on the client's own data. It states ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 27001 certification and cites a 70% faster bill-of-materials extraction, without naming the client.
Pricing: not published.
Watch for: no startup focus is stated on its site; it positions around enterprises and industries such as manufacturing, construction and healthcare.
Choose it when you have operational data and want to see one workflow automated before signing a larger build.
If the first AI build is meant to write sales outreach, look at what good output looks like before writing the spec.
Give your sales team
an unfair advantage.
Write the one workflow first. Every company here asks what the AI should do, for whom, and how you will know it worked. Arrive with that in one paragraph.
Ask for a fixed first step. Fuselab, Miquido, Netguru and Azilen publish one. Elsewhere, ask for a priced prototype before an open-ended build.
Check the stage the company says it serves. SF AI Labs, Fuselab and Vention state a startup focus; Azilen and Markovate position around enterprises.
Ask who owns the code and the model setup. Get it in the contract, along with the prompts, evaluations and data pipelines.
Ask for a reference at your stage. Named, in your category, with what shipped in the first three months.
Build or buy: AI agents for sales
A custom build makes sense when the AI is your product. When it is an internal tool for sales, buying usually wins on time and cost: the lowest published build price on this page is $14,999 for a prototype, while Valley is priced per seat, per month.
Valley is that kind of tool for outbound. It finds people showing buying signals or matching a natural-language search, qualifies them against your ICP, researches each one and drafts a personalized message in your voice across LinkedIn and email. You approve every message, or let them flow. Starter is $199 a seat a month, or $149 billed quarterly. To compare the models, read AI SDR vs sales copilot vs automation, see the top AI sales agents, and price the whole stack with what a sales tech stack costs in 2026.
FAQ
What do AI development companies do? They design and build AI products for clients: agents, LLM applications, retrieval systems, fine-tuned models and the software around them, usually from a proof of concept to an MVP and a production release.
How much does AI MVP development cost? On the companies' own sites: Fuselab Creative from $60,000 for an MVP ($14,999 for a prototype), Miquido from $15,000 for one GenAI solution, and Azilen $60,000 to $180,000 for an MVP. SF AI Labs, Vention, LeewayHertz and Markovate quote per project.
How long does it take to build an AI prototype? SF AI Labs says most startups get a working prototype within a few weeks; Fuselab prices a 2-week prototype; Azilen gives 4 to 8 weeks for a proof of concept; Netguru's fastest proof of concept took 6 weeks.
What is the best AI development company for startups? For one partner from strategy to launch, SF AI Labs, which states its services are for early-stage and high-growth startups. For a fixed price up front, Fuselab Creative or Miquido.
Which AI agent development companies work with startups? SF AI Labs builds custom agents and agentic product features for startups; LeewayHertz, Azilen and Markovate also build agents but position mainly around enterprises.
Should a startup build or buy an AI sales agent? Buy, unless the agent is the product you sell. Per-seat AI sales tools such as Valley run today, while a custom build starts with a proof of concept that takes weeks and a five-figure budget.
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