The future is on microSaaS
Everyone’s been talking about how investors are putting less money into SaaS. In my opinion, this just proves that my move to pivot from the unicorn dream to microSaaS was right. I’m not saying this route is easier than the venture-backed SaaS route. I spent a ton of money investing in my product. So many hours coding and figuring out what my ICP is really looking for. Not to mention the nights where my self-doubt almost won. Looking at it now, I’m glad I pulled through.
The microSaaS company I gave my sweat, tears, and almost entire bank account to now gives me close to 5 digits in MRR. No investors to please, no big team to manage. Most days, I’m just managing ads and sending cold emails. My customers give me feedback. I can scale whenever I want. True freedom.
For the people who are in the situation I was in before my microSaaS got its first wings, if you truly believe your product is worth it, keep grinding. The sun will eventually rise for you.
intresting
SaaS founders using Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, or FastSpring: if there were a Merchant of Record with completely white-label checkout, invoices, emails, and card statements (no third-party branding anywhere), would that be valuable enough for you to switch? Why or why not?
Spot on, Matt. The freedom to scale on your own terms is the ultimate ROI. I’m currently building Nexacore Inventory with a MicroSaaS mindset—focusing on specific batch management problems that the big players ignore. No investors to please means I can actually listen to my users instead of a board. Thanks for the reminder to keep grinding when the bank account gets low.
I have bootstrapped to an exit and I write venture checks, and the honest answer is the two aren't rivals, they are different problem sizes. MicroSaaS wins when your market is a niche and you want margin and freedom, venture only makes sense when the problem is genuinely huge and winner-take-all, and most ideas simply aren't. The mistake isn't picking microSaaS, it's strapping a venture cost structure onto a niche business and then wondering why the math never works.
tried this for my PM tool - I’d search for posts asking if anyone needed better sprint planning and jump in before the pitch. got 3 real conversations from it. the engagement bait pool is weirdly underused for discovery vs just collecting likes.
tried this for my PM tool - I’d search for posts asking if anyone needed better sprint planning and jump in before the pitch. got 3 real conversations from it. the engagement bait pool is weirdly underused for discovery vs just collecting likes.
Great project! How did you handle
user authentication at scale?
Great project! How did you handle
user authentication at scale?
This is such a grounded post — really inspiring. The “survive six months first” mindset you mentioned earlier really clicked when I read how you stuck it out through the nights of self-doubt and coding marathons.
I’m glad you pulled through too. No investors, no big team, just managing ads and cold emails while your customers give you feedback… sounds like the kind of freedom most of us dream about.
One thing I’d be curious about: what was the biggest piece of advice or warning you wish you had known when you were in that pre-pivot, almost-bankrupt stage?
This is a great reminder that success doesn't always have to follow the traditional venture-backed path. Building a sustainable business with real customers and steady growth is an achievement worth celebrating. Thanks for sharing your journey!