1
2 Comments

Building Something “Unsexy” in Public — Day 27

Hey folks ,
Happy new year to all !

So,For the last ~27 days I’ve been building something very unsexy in public (reddit,twitter etc)— the “plumbing layer” every SaaS app needs, but nobody actually wants to build:
auth, orgs/teams, RBAC, invites, audit logs, feature flags… all the stuff that quietly eats 2–3 months before you even touch your real product.
Instead of rebuilding this again for my next idea, I decided to make a solid, self-hosted, open-source foundation that SaaS founders can start with from day one. Nothing flashy — just reliable, boring infrastructure that works.
Right now it runs locally with Docker and already supports auth, orgs, roles, invites, logs, flags + an admin UI. Basically a working MVP base layer.
I’m from India building solo, learning as I go — and almost at Day 30 now .

Curious — how did you handle auth & permissions in your startup?
built your own?
used a provider?
regretted your first version later?

Happy to share more as I go — thanks for reading .

posted to Icon for group Building in Public
Building in Public
on January 2, 2026
  1. 1

    Building something unsexy in public is underrated — it usually means you’re closer to a real problem than a flashy idea.

    At this stage, I’ve seen momentum hinge less on features and more on which signal you’re using to decide “this is working.”

    Curious — what’s the one outcome you’re watching right now to decide what to build next?

  2. 1

    This is a great example of the kind of work every SaaS needs but nobody wants to think about early.

    What I’ve seen is that founders rarely regret how they implemented auth or RBAC — they regret when they chose to build vs buy. Early on, it’s usually a sequencing decision more than a technical one.

    Curious: what signal made you decide this foundation was worth investing in now, versus deferring it until the product direction was clearer?

Trending on Indie Hackers
I shipped a productivity SaaS in 30 days as a solo dev — here's what AI actually changed (and what it didn't) User Avatar 280 comments Never hire an SEO Agency for your Saas Startup User Avatar 113 comments 85% of visitors leave our pricing page without buying. sharing our raw funnel data User Avatar 48 comments Are indie makers actually bad customers? User Avatar 42 comments I Found Blue Ocean in the Most Crowded Market on the Internet User Avatar 29 comments Tech is done. Marketing is hard. Is a 6-month free period a valid growth hack? User Avatar 27 comments