How to Launch Your First SaaS as a Software Engineer (With Zero Marketing Experience)
When I built and launched my first SaaS, FounderSignal, I had zero background in marketing, or any of the "business" stuff you see in startup blogs. My biggest lesson? You don't need to be a marketing pro to build a great product and grow a real community. Here's my step-by-step playbook, crafted for other engineers just starting their SaaS journey.
1. Start With a Clear, Honest Landing Page
Don't just code , start by making your idea visible.
A simple, appealing landing page is your MVP's first test. Focus on:
- Explaining what pain point you're solving, in plain language.
- Outlining exactly how your solution is different or better.
- Sharing a relatable story or problem.
You don't have to build this from scratch: Use no-code tools (like FounderSignal, Carrd, Typedream, or Framer) to launch a fast, professional page. Many platforms now let you track user engagement, heatmaps, and even analyze traffic patterns with builtin AI. This helps you learn early, before writing a single line of app code, if there's genuine interest.
2. Share It Where Your Audience Hangs Out
Don't wait for users to find you. Proactively:
- Post your landing page on X, LinkedIn, Reddit, and any niche communities related to your problem space.
- Tell the story: What problem inspired this? How has it impacted you or others?
- Ask for thoughts, feedback, and signal of interest.
Track who's clicking, what they say, and how people interact. Real-time reactions (even if it's just "this is cool" or "I don't get it") are pure gold for steering your next steps.
3. Validate Signals, Then Build Your MVP
Only move forward if you're seeing "good signals", enough signups, DMs, or demo requests showing people want this.
Then, build your MVP. Keep it lean, focus just on the core solution, even if it's buggy or incomplete. While building, adopt a "build in public" mindset:
- Share screenshots or progress on X, Reddit, LinkedIn, or YouTube.
- Talk about small wins, roadblocks, and why you're making certain choices.
- Invite others to follow your journey or even test things early.
Shipping fast matters way more than perfection.
4. Launch and Close the Feedback Loop
As soon as your MVP is live:
- Share it back with every group or person who showed interest.
- Broadcast the launch on all channels, don't be shy!
- Most importantly, ask for feedback the moment people try it out.
Iterate fast. Fix what matters most. Ship improvements. Repeat.
Main Point: Build With Your Community
It took me building and launching FounderSignal to truly get this: listen, launch, learn, repeat.
You don't need to be a marketer, just stay open, share often, and let your earliest users help you shape the product. That feedback loop builds both a better SaaS and a real community around it.
Other Resources
Dear Sir,
Before teaching wrong things to novice people, could you pls provide your achievements credentials?
As per SEMrush, your website has ZERO traffic --> means almost ZERO revenue.
Also, you have ZERO social media presence. Pls show your real face.
Also, pls show your community.
This is your BIGGEST MARKETING FAILRE.
This post is nothing but shameless ChatGPT ad for your useless app for a CHEAP free publicity.
Pls don't SPAM and mislead this community.
EDIT - Looks like you are from a beggar's country i.e. PAKISTAN.
@courtlandallen @channingallen
😢
This is one of the most honest, actionable SaaS guides I’ve read. Love the emphasis on community and real feedback over chasing perfection.
Love this approach! As an engineer, marketing always felt intimidating, but your step-by-step guide makes it way more approachable. The ‘build in public’ mindset especially resonates it’s all about learning and growing with your community. Thanks for sharing your journey.
This aligns with my experience - focusing on solving real problems first, then earning backlinks through genuinely helpful content, builds both authority and trust. What specific practical approaches have worked best for your niche?
I've tried sharing my product on reddit in comments, on x in comments as well as posts, and whatnot. I've not got much traction from any of them. The only thing that's worked for me is this approach: Provide value first, and within that value, hide your product. Users will want to visit it.
Concise and actionable explanation. Extremely helpful for beginners, thank you!
Clear and practical breakdown that will definitely help anyone just starting out (including me), thanks !
Good advice, but I think it skips an important bit - you say "Share It Where Your Audience Hangs Out", but to do that you first need to define who "Your Audience" is. I've discovered that's often much harder than it might seem, but it's really the cornerstone of any marketing activity.
Yeah right. Totally forgot about that. Thanks for pointing that out. I will make sure to address that in my upcoming post.
I have my SaaS launched but don't know how to market it, offcourse through the way you told me. I used X, Reddit etc but it's hard to message them one by one or post something even for feedback in the niche groups because of there spammy policy, what to do in this case?
I will be writing a separate post on it, either today or tomorrow. In that post, I will be sharing the methods I'm using to market my product. Stay tuned.
Great post, did you consider running ads or anything to test the market appetite?
No. I think running ads as an indie is not needed, in my opinion. But I've seen some other indiehackers who've run ads for their products. Some are noticing the results and some are not. But if you are thinking of long-term startup (to take your SaaS even further and make a good company out of it, I'd recommend going that way because this approach is suitable for short-term indiehackers, who'd want to sell their SaaS after certain success.)
Awesome post, but it's a bit unclear about the early stage marketing. Can you elaborate a bit more on how you published your landing page etc.? Because I heard that reddit is really against promo. X - you have to build up an audience first or nobody would hear about you. How is the situation with LinkedIn?
I am sure that all of these problems are manageable (I'm just trying to figure that out), and the rest of the strategies work well. So thank you so much for your post!
Sure. Will write a separate post on how to market your SaaS as a beginner. I will be learning along as well, so, expect some errors. Would love for you guys to correct me on those mistakes.
This is what I should have been doing all along. I will never build a product before following your advice. I promise 🤞
A good reminder that product-market fit isn’t found—it’s shaped, with real users. Loved the emphasis on feedback loops.
Loved this post so real and so useful! 🙌 As a solo founder with a dev background, I totally relate. It’s easy to think marketing is some mysterious skill, but just showing up, sharing honestly, and engaging with your audience makes a huge difference.
Your playbook is gold especially the part about starting with a clear landing page before building. It’s something I wish I had done earlier in my own journey. Thanks for sharing this so transparently!
Many thanks for sharing — it’s been very helpful since I’m currently navigating a similar process. Best wishes with your product journey!
Loved it even I write blog on similar areas on the website.
https://www.softwebsolutions.com/resources/
Totally agree — you don’t need to be a marketing pro, you just need to show up, be honest, and close the loop with real people.
Also love the point about building in public. Even a rough post builds trust, and turns strangers into early fans.
Thanks for laying this out — feels like the blueprint more engineers need to follow!
I think a great tool for anyone could be Google’s AIstudio. I dont use lovable. Do you use that?
Yeah right. This app is using Gemini on the backend to actually generated landing pages. So, whether you use Google's AI studio or this, I think it'd be the same. Yes, their pre-engineered prompts might be advanced. But together, I think, we can reach that level as well at FounderSignal. What do you say?
Thank you for sharing this! I am currently in the process of building and launching my own SaaS and this information is very helpful.
You nailed it—shipping fast and involving the community early really is the cheat code.
This is a clear roadmap, i am looking forward to working with any Saas product creators to help them write a perfect copy for landing pages and build their first marketing funnel to convert clients. Anyone willing can just send a dm or reply to this and i will reach out
Thanks for sharing ! currently i am also pass on from this process 1
Thanks for sharing! very helpful as I am currently going through this process. Wish you the best with the product!
Hello Ayno, you mind working with me on this...
That was super helpful. As a person of currently low marketing skills, I never know where to start but this roadmap breaks it down into manageable chunks.
One question: in step 3, how many days/posts do you typically recommend from day 1 of building to launch? Thanks.
I personally dont post that much about my product but I post like 1 post / day on X / Twitter. The one thing that I like to do instead is commenting aggressively (apologies, forgot to mention it in the post). Your audience might not be that much, so, this approach ensures that your product reaches those who are not even in your circle yet. With this approach, I'm seeing some results but it's been only a week since I launched the product and started this approach. Let's see what the future holds for us!
Ah, I see. Go where there are people already listening. Makes sense. Thanks.
thanks for sharing
i really liked your vision
This is exactly the kind of post I wish I saw when I started. Super refreshing to hear it from an engineer’s perspective. Especially love the bit about not waiting for users to find you… that mindset shift is everything. Appreciate you sharing this!
Thank you for the valuable post!