📶 Documenting building my first SaaS
Building software has made a lot of wealth for a lot of people, but most of the stories you read about are written after the fact.
I want to do something different.
I'm building my SaaS and sharing what I'm learning.
Weekly updates ⬇️
Trending on Indie Hackers
Week 1:
Buy SaaS Masterclass
Consume all of it in a week
Generating ideas from companies where there is already PMF
Land on an idea that I like and want to build my spin on
Start planning out process of building SaaS
Learn about skeleton templates + UI kits
Realize that building an MVP is 10x simpler than the world tells you
Browse GitHub for repositories to pull from
Start browsing Upwork for non-Western developers that match what I’m looking for
Shouldn’t cost more than $5k to build a working MVP
Start creating job description to share with developer targets (aim to have interviews set up for next week)
Start mapping out user journey
Bought website (www.subcovery.com)
Set up G Suite
Incorporated a Wyoming LLC through Firstbase
Pay for registered agent in Wyoming (can do through Firstbase)
Posted developer role to Upwork
Got 60+ inquiries (should write a quick article on how)
Shortlisted four to talk to
Interviews with three
Reached out to designer I’ve previously work to get a quote for an animation to use on landing page
Bought two UI kits (one for landing page + one for dashboard graphics)
Started website v.1
Bought SaaS Pegasus
Finished v.1 of product mockups
Bought SaaS Weapon
Decided to move forward with a developer
Finished the first iteration of the landing page
Started sharing landing page in IndieHackers and Reddit
impressive list!
I'm assuming you chose to incorporate in Wyoming because it's one of the top five states for LLCs?
(for anyone reading this who might be curious here's a blurb I just pulled about why Wyoming is a good choice for incorporating: Wyoming offers low fees and great tax benefits for people looking to start an LLC. The initial filing fee is only $100 and the annual report cost is just $50. This state also offers a business-friendly tax structure with no corporate or personal income taxes and the strongest asset protection laws in the nation. The Wyoming regulatory environment has less "corporate red tape". And, very helpful for online businesses Wyoming allows everything to be handled online.)
Yeah that's exactly why I chose it. Firstbase (who we incorporated through) helped a lot with recommendations on what was right for us, and they even got us placed with a registered agent in WY
Week 2:
Got absolutely roasted on my landing page in IndieHackers (https://www.indiehackers.com/post/built-my-first-saas-landing-page-with-webflow-what-do-you-guys-think-ae714da81c?commentId=-N7BJr3-d2HbTPxbpF56)
Incorporated most of the changes they suggested (mobile-optimized now)
Sent over offer to dev team (they accepted)
Spent four hours on Sunday fixing landing page based on initial feedback
Realized Webflow is 5x harder to use than Squarespace but gives you way more flexibility once you learn how to use it
Started building SaaS Cheat Codes to be used as a lead magnet
Built Ramp account for credit card (need to wait for EIN before finishing app)
Had first dev call
Started sharing more list-style content in different subreddits (absolutely massive reach in there if you do it right)
Go through Firstbase to reclassify from an LLC to a C-Corp
Started filling out company info to different launch websites to help build out waitlist
Received first mockup of the front end from my dev team
Started swipe file advertising campaign to share in other newsletter list that I have been building for the past two years
If you’re building a lead magnet, remember that people only want to be educated or entertained. If you can entertain while educating, bingo.
Bought SaaS App Design Inspiration (https://saasinterface.com) to help with design ideas
Threw in the towel and decided to post a job posting for a Webflow developer
Wasted most of a day breaking and fixing the original website (lost the form that collected all early signups for the beta)
Banging through different places on the internet to share what I’m building
Found the perfect Upwork developer for Webflow development (paying premium for it)
Close to finalizing initial design with developer team after our second call and going back and forth with them in Figma
Started pinging SaaS founders on Twitter to ask for feedback on how they’re dealing with failed payments today
Need to built out a separate page within the website to collect forms for the SaaS cheat sheet
Mapped out lead magnet email flow for after somebody downloads SaaS Cheat Sheet
Signed up for Sendgrid to send transactional emails after somebody downloads the resource
Built Twitter and LinkedIn ad accounts to test paid ads
Hired a killer Webflow developer that is going to 10x my landing page so I’m actually proud to start sharing it
Started building out backend logic with a decision tree in Figma
Week 3:
Tried to gather info / interest at Quora but failed (place seemed like a ghost town)
Finished version two of landing page
Starting mapping out email flow for new trials
Starting the process of moving lead magnet email drafts into SendGrid (people love visuals, so I’m adding those in each of those emails)
Redid logo and branding to look more professional (if you’re not a designer, it’s best to outsource this to somebody else)
You should ask for more than just email and name in a lead magnet (will help you segment audience correctly with nurture campaigns)
Have to work through two big issues: integration flow for plugging into a users’ Stripe account, and how to add unique invoice links into different email campaigns to account for recovery at each step of the way
Started building blog (avoid SEO; only putting content you think can go viral)
Found a way to automate form submissions and put them into the correct nurture sequence
Need to build custom code to add to the website to collect payment information when a new customer wants to start a trial / use us for free
This is awesome. I will be staying tuned.
I’m interested in how you’re defining your budget for this.
Also, how soon do you expect to start raising money? I’m new, but I was under the impression that most indie hackers were bootstrapping.
Thanks! I've locked in contracts with developers and am running pretty lean outside from that. I have a general idea of what the budget should be, but I'm focused more on spending on the right things rather than try to do everything myself.
I don't have plans to raise money any time soon - still need to prove that this is something the market wants
good no of things you did in one week.
How did you do the landing page. what is your process.
I can share how I am doing my landing pages, so it is easy to hand over to developer.
I learnt this after failing for 2-3 attempts and I now feel comfortable to flush out my thoughts/content with this process.
That would be awesome. Still struggling with this
Look at my new landing page
www.servicefolder.com/listing-apps/hvac-ecommerce.html
https://tailpro.tailwindtemplate.net/index.html
Done. - you can easily create many landing pages as quickly as possible.
Cons: Your creativity is limited to the template you have chosen.
Let me know your thoughts .
Interesting. Since you're hiring a developer, I'm going to assume that you don't code... If that's the case, I'm curious how you went about verifying that the developer is good enough. Did you hire someone to do a code review of their work? Or did you look at their testimonials/reviews? Or are you just going with you gut?
I feel like that's the hardest part about hiring a technical freelancers when you aren't technical — you don't truly know their competence until it's too late.
I relied on previous reviews through Upwork to filter who I should interview, then I sent over a short project to each. Gave me a pretty good idea of what I'd be signing up for
wow all this in single week!! it took me 6 months to reach to this stage :)
🏃♂️
Hi Clay, just a small tip. Share your journey/process almost everyday on twitter with #buildinpublic and also write articles on your own blog or create a blog for the product itself to document its journey and share everywhere. It will help you grow audience, create a network and most importantly get you potential customers.
Will do - thanks, Syed!
Hi, Clay. Thanks for sharing your weekly updates with us. You were really productive this week. I would recommend spending more time figuring out your target audience and mapping out the go-to-market strategy next week - it would help you make better decisions in the long run. Also, it would be great if you could share info on infrastructure costs - so many founders would be grateful for these numbers.
Hi @clayatconfluence, amazing work, and thanks a lot for sharing.
Could you answer following questions
From where did you buy SaaS masterclass. Link please? Worth it? Could you share your notes for quick ramp-up?
We are waiting on - Upwork - 60+ inquiries ( quick article on how )
Understanding the logic of failed payments in Stripe is more confusing than you think (needed to create documentation for the devs of how to pull in this data). Could you share this doc?
Why moved from Wyoming to DE C-Corp? Any reasons and lessons learned?
Was purchased checklist worth it? And how much was it?
How many weeks to get EIN from Firstbase?
Please reply inline. It will be useful for others. Thanks.
Thanks for replying. Checked out your product. really interesting.
We are waiting on - Upwork - 60+ inquiries ( quick article on how )You mentioned that you will work on an article on how to handle queries or recruiting via Upwork. So, I was following through that.Week 11:
Week 10:
Week 9:
Week 8:
Week 7:
Week 4:
Started collecting first names for the waitlist (traffic is main priority every day)
Thinking about freemium (”Find the best part of your product and make it free”)
Show customers the problem (analytics); sell them on the solution (churn recovery)
Need a repeatable way to build traffic (leverage newsletters, personal social accounts, other)
Figuring out ways to integrate native ads into existing content
Understanding the logic of failed payments in Stripe is more confusing than you think (needed to create documentation for the devs of how to pull in this data)
How do you create discounted pricing for groups?
Want to build an ROI calculator (https://www.convertcalculator.com) for landing page
Week 5:
Did you do any idea validation before jumping into all of this?
Thanks for Sharing your Journey !! This is inspiring
Hey, Clay!
Really interesting work you got there. Do you mind sharing how did you come up with this idea?
This is very cool I'm doing something similar here.
Are you going to post weekly updates to this thread exclusively?
Also keeping things updated in more detail on Twitter:
Hey I saw you iterated on your landing page text quite a back. Doing that plus this alone puta you ahead of 95 percent of founders. Keep up the great work!
I love the build in public approach. I have been doing that for one year now in my wannabe entrepreneur podcast and its been really helpful to keep me motivated and meet other makers
That is quite the overview you got there! I started doing something similar, and I love how interactive it gets after posting for a while!
Hey Clay!
I've done this for 7 months, documented my newest SaaS each week on Twitter.
It's a great way to share and give back to the community lessons learned and experiences.
For those interested here is the main thread > https://twitter.com/AlexMano12/status/1546508479724224513
This looks awesome
wantrepreneur vs entrepreneur
Know the difference, is the key to the success. Product Market Fit.
Quick question, I saw in your Week 1 summary you mentioned setting up an Upwork job. Is that in some way testing your business idea or just to bring in some cash while you work on the business?
No I actually found my devs through Upwork . Posted the role on there and got 60+ applications all with prior work experience and references
Oh got it, yes Upwork is always my go-to for finding contractors!
Hi Clay, are you intending to share the Notion page above? I think that would be amazing if so! But I understand if it's too early / you're not sharing just yet.
I'll share that too once I have more to share
This comment was deleted 4 years ago.
This comment was deleted 4 years ago.