How I started my SaaS side project while working full-time

Hi there Indie Hackers! 👏

This article describes my journey with starting my own SaaS side project while working full-time as a software engineer. The goal of this post is to inspire you and show you that starting your own side project is very challenging but also doable when working full-time.

Disclaimer: I'm not a Robocop or anything like this.

Idea

After working professionally as a software engineer for over 5 years, it came to my mind that maybe I should start something new, something that would solve my problems, something that would help me develop my skills even better. I had a scheduling app for testing purposes I coded to practice my programming skills. It supported CalDAV protocol. I thought it's a good starting point.

I started from defining first criteria:

• I will not reinvent the wheel (I will implement an already existing solution, but slightly in a different/better way).
• It will solve my existing problems.
• It will help me improve my skills in other technologies.
• In the future, it can bring some passive income.

Besides that, I had a lot of ideas written down in my notes. I even did a list of 10 business ideas every day for two / three weeks in a row (Yeah, after some time you are out of ideas and you start to think really hard, but I recommend it to practice your creativity 🤔).

I knew there were lots of scheduling apps out there but none of them was working properly with the CalDAV protocol.

Validation

I created a simple landing page with email sign up form. It helped me to get first email addresses of people that were interested in my app. Nothing fancy. Just a simple HTML page with some JS code inside I bought for $10.

By having this landing page I was able to share it on Reddit, Hacker News, here on Indie Hackers etc. and get my first "potential clients".

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

I had a plan in place. It took me about 4 months to build the first version of Harmonizely. Working full-time I was spending 1-2 hours at evenings (not always) and a few hours on weekends. I work remotely. It means I didn't have to waste time on commuting. Few hours saved in a week I was spending on creating my project.

It's also very important to keep the balance. Every second day, I was running. Sleeping 8 hours, watching movies, doing shopping, taking it easy to not burn out.

Sometimes it was tough and I was quitting multiple times.

When building the MVP, I was sending emails to my mailing list subscribers about the progress (I had about 30 subscribers back then). I informed them what was done, what will be implemented next, at which stage we were currently. I wanted to let them know that they didn't sign up for anything. I wanted them to know that something was really happening there.

Private Beta

When I had the first working version, I had to test it thoroughly and check if I didn't miss anything.
I shared it with a few friends which were developers as well. I quickly got a feedback about minor issues which I fixed in the meantime.

At this point, a friend of mine, Maciek, joined me to help with the frontend part. I knew he was interested in new stuff and that he was always willing to learn new things. I also knew he was doing some frontend coding in the company he worked for. I reached to him asking if he would be interested in learning new cool stuff (React in this case) - he agreed. Having him onboard helped me save a lot of time and push the project forward.

Finding the right person who will fit into what you do is very crucial.

The last step was to inform my mailing list subscribers that the private beta is available. I sent the mail where the app can be tested and what value it gives. We got some feedback which we processed and applied to the application.

Public Beta

The application was not perfect in the first phase but I wanted to share it publicly as quickly as possible and get the feedback from the real users who want to use my app.

A very popular quote comes to my mind here:

"If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late." — Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn.

Harmonizely on BetaList

First thing was to publish it on BetaList which I did. The results were stunning in my opinion.

BetaList published it on 7th of May 2018. The day after it landed in their newsletter.

Here is my Google Analytics screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/sg1sfuyhb626bsi/ga.png?dl=0

We instantly got feedback from some of the signed up users. I was personally sending them email messages to ask what they like/don't like, what should be improved, what they expect from the application.

By publishing Harmonizely to BetaList I found out how many bugs we really had.

The first paying customer

The first paying customer made a purchase 6 months after the official launch.
I will never forget these words:

"I've gone ahead and activated my billing subscription early as a token of my appreciation for the great support I've recieved".

What did I learn?

• Don't expect you will start a project, get 10k customers and will be riding orange Lamborghini in Monaco.
• Rest and sleep well - keeping the balance is very important. Don't overdo it too much.
• Share your project publicly as fast as you can - you will get a feedback very fast, you will be able to adjust your project for your real client's needs. Remember that MVP should work.
• Hard work - you have to be a ninja. Having a product that no one uses is nothing.
• Never give up - you have to have patience, without it you won't achieve anything. Only those who are steadfast in pursuing their goals will achieve it in the end.

There is still lots of work to do: to write help articles, communicate with potential clients, take care of the SEO, content marketing, acquire new users etc.
Communication with potential clients is a key - getting feedback in the early stages helped to define what problems users have and what the alternative applications are missing. I'm still improving that process.

Summary

I hope that the lessons I've learned will help you improve your process of launching your own side project. There are always some excuses but even working full-time it's possible to do a lot. It's all about productivity and time management.

One more thing. Today, we were hunted on Product Hunt.

It would mean a lot to us if you could show us some love. Join the conversation, leave your thoughts, anything is really welcome! We'd love to hear from you!

Here's the link: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/harmonizely

Thanks!
Cheers!