Some Takeaways:
General:
- What you're working on right now is just the beginning and you might not see the whole plan unfolding but just stick to what you're doing and be determined in seeing it through. Even if this project might not work doesn't mean this work is lost.
- Focus on getting really good at what you're doing. Nobody started as an expert.
- Vibe-coding will only take you so far. Good to validate, horrible to sell.
- Once you secure your first client; your job is now to serve them and you must see it through and take care of him. Most work now comes from referrals.
- Stay grateful for what you have now and the opportunity to work in the first place.
- The problems you have will not disappear they'll just change into others. You just gotta keep pushing.
- Sell before building.
Practical;
- google oauth is a must, 90% of users prefer it.
- skip free trials, charge from day one.
- market shamelessly, talk about your product everywhere.
- respect unsubscribers, their feedback is gold.
- post-launch = 80% marketing, 20% tweaks.
- use your own saas, spot and fix bugs firsthand.
- engage users, email, text, and talk to them often.
- consume quality content, read books, watch documentaries.
- think bigger, don't settle for $10k/month when $100k is possible.
- detach from ideas, if it doesn’t make money, move on.
- landing page = apple quality, sleek, modern, and polished.
- mvp = core features only, follow the moscow framework.
- retention drives revenue, 70% comes from existing users. reduce churn.
- price on value, not competition.
- brand matters - logo, responsiveness, good language.
Happy to answer anything although the results are not much for some of you - I'll be happy to help wherever I can.
Context:
Same time last year I was coming on this sub to share with the community my experience building my SaaS and back then I was just so excited to see 100s of users and shared how I got there. Little did I know about what was coming.
I started an AI SaaS for Social media (another one) last year after learning how to use the no-code platform bubble and grew it to 300+ users. However, this was not much and couldn't really afford my lifestyle with this so I thought why not sell the skills I learnt and start freelancing.
The first project was an AI for farmers assistant that i sold $1,400 for a week of work. The client went away happy and I then used his platform to sell to others.
6 months and 6 projects later, my co-founder with a more technical background suggested we move away from no-code into custom-code and this is when we set it up as a company and since then we're currently working on 4 products.