I'm 50 and I launched my first solo SaaS a few months ago. The story so far.
I've spent 25 years launching products for big corporations. I ran P&Ls up to $500m, teams in the hundreds, budgets north of $100m. I had people managing every part of those launches for me. Most went well. Some failed badly.
This is my first time doing it solo. My own money, my own product. I always wanted to try it.
It's a completely different game. And to be fair, it's every bit as hard as I expected.
I got my first 3 users on launch day. All on the free tier, which barely gives any access. I was ecstatic. What a feeling.
I emailed all three personally and asked three questions: what made you try it, what did you expect, what would make you keep going. Two replied. Both told me something I hadn't considered. Those two emails changed my next sprint.
I've been a CTO, a CPO and a CMO, so I know the stack matters. I set it all up properly: Cloudflare, RudderStack, Mixpanel, Hotjar, Google Analytics. Then I made a rookie mistake. I didn't test the tracking before going live. It's still a bit messed up, and every "what's working" call I made early was based on incomplete data.
Here's the one that stung. One channel converted five times better than the rest. I'd been spreading myself thin across eight different places, thinking reach was the game. It isn't. One channel drove 80% of my signups. I'd have known that in week one if my tracking had been solid instead of me spraying everywhere blind.
I also tested paid ads before the tracking was fixed. That's just burning money. Fix your tracking before you spend a penny.
The hardest part so far isn't building. It isn't marketing. It's making decisions with incomplete information and shipping anyway.
I got great data from my first 30 registered users. I've been watching session replays, and I'm shipping a new version tonight. I can't wait to have someone spend even $5.
Anyone else in the first few weeks of a launch? What's hitting you that you didn't expect?
Sounds like a great idea, but the flow seems to be a bit broken.
I’ve tried to submit my idea, then it required me to sign up, which I did with my Google account. After the sign up I was redirected to the app dashboard which just showed me a blank screen.
When tried to just open the app again at the root URL, it showed me the initial idea submission page and whatever I wrote earlier just gone.
I hope this is helpful and that you have a great success with the product!
Happy to try again once fixed ;)
Maybe use a VPN. Cloudflare blocks some countries.
That's weird. Can you send me a screenshot to Xavier @ shipfit . ai I'll give you some free credits for you to play with!
Sent.
And VPN indeed helped.
Excellent. Credits coming your way.
Thank you!
BTW, I got "73% PROMISING, NEEDS FOCUS" on my product idea..
I love the tool so far, keep it going! :)
This subsequent steps will help you make the 'tough' choices to help with the focus. Choose the ICP, their pain points, etc..
Thank you man
This really resonated with me. I'm also building my first independent product after years of learning and creating. One thing I've realized is that building is the comfortable part because we control it. The difficult part is putting it in front of real people and accepting whatever feedback comes back.
I also liked your point about emailing your first users personally. Those early conversations are often worth more than weeks of guessing what people need.
Wishing you continued success on the journey.
A few weeks. But I have a marketing background. My advice is to start investing in SEO/GEO early. I waited too long.
I’m also thinking about giving away the first three products for free, and after hearing your story, I think it’s a good idea. I wish you great success, and I’m curious—how long did it take for you to start making money?
I made a similar jump, leaving Microsoft to run a company of one for nine months, and the adjustment that surprised me most was the one you named: no staff to buffer incomplete information, just you and the decision. The channel concentration finding is the real gold here, because one channel driving 80% of signups at your size is a focus mandate, not a data point. Kill the other seven for 90 days and see what happens.
This looks awesome! Shipfit AI feels like one of those tools that actually solves a real pain point in a smart way. Love the focus and clean execution — super inspiring for a solo build. Great work, keep shipping!
Wow. Nicest feedback I ever got!
I want to know about the meaning of the logo? How the logo connects your slogan?
I brainstormed with Gemini for a few hours. Can't remember the exact prompt but I wanted the [ and ] to express coding and the square in the middle to express product market fit.
The analytics point really hit me. Bad tracking doesn't just hide problems—it creates fake confidence and leads to bad decisions.
I think the "how it works" tab is easier to understand than the homepage. I wasn't sure what it was about, until I went to the how it works tab. Consider making that the homepage? Or changing the copy?
Thanks for the feedback! Will look into it.
Really strong reflection — the part about “decisions with incomplete information” is exactly what solo founders underestimate coming from big-company environments where everything feels measurable.
Also agree on the tracking point… it’s wild how much confidence comes from just having clean baseline data, even with small numbers.
What stood out to me is that you identified the hardest part as making decisions with incomplete information rather than writing code or running campaigns.
Early-stage execution is really a sequence of bets. The quality of the business often depends less on having perfect data and more on placing better bets as new evidence arrives.
It's really about make some decisions to focus on your ICP.
That's what caught my attention too.
The way you described it made me think about one implication of committing to an ICP this early. It's easy to underestimate, and I don't think I can explain the reasoning properly in a thread without oversimplifying it.
If you're open to it, what's the best email to reach you on?
This resonates. Did you find a particular channel worked better than others for early traction, or was it mostly grind?
Reddit worked well until it didn't