Post launch musings by a founder wearing too many hats
I launched Bonai on Friday. It's an SEO/ AEO-powered visibility Saas for solo founders to grow organic traction. So far I've had lots of interest, several free tier signups, and engagement on X. All great. Until ...
Yesterday I was going through logs and realized one of my free signups got a welcome email content package that was missing an important piece, because of a bug with how the code was processing a non-valid URL input in onboarding. Cue panic.
Why panic you ask? Because 1) I had a super hectic week at my 9-5, my kid wasn't feeling well, and I had a few errands to run that couldn't be put off. And 2) because of above circumstances, I didn't see the bug in the logs until a day later, and I knew I wouldn't have time to fix it until the day after that. Meanwhile, a customer was sitting with an incomplete content kit and a welcome email that said everything was generated and ready. Hence panic.
I managed to find time yesterday to fix the bug. Validate again. Send out an apology and offer of new content. This experience did two things for me.
One, it left me with the feeling that I failed a customer, by not fixing the bug faster. And two, it showed me how challenging it is to balance iteration and maintenance of a Saas alongside a 9-5 and other commitments.
I hope it gets easier as I get more practiced with juggling, if anyone has tips or words of encouragement it would help to know I'm not the only one this has happened to.
Hoping for a better week.
You fixed it, you apologized, you made it right. That's not failure — that's being a founder. The gap between "something broke" and "I handled it" is where trust actually gets built with early customers. The ones who see you respond fast and genuinely care become your loudest advocates.
Balancing a SaaS with a 9-5 and a sick kid is legitimately hard. You're not the only one who's been there. It gets more manageable as the systems get tighter — hang in there. 🙌
Thanks! Appreciate it a lot.