What I Thought SaaS Would Be Like vs. What It Actually Is

Hey Indie Hackers 👋

I’m Julien, founder of Linkeme, a SaaS that automates social media content — from idea to image to publish.

After years of consulting, I made the jump to SaaS thinking:

“If I build something valuable and launch it right, it’ll grow steadily, with low effort.”

Here’s what I imagined…

And here’s what actually happened.

💭 What I Thought SaaS Would Be Like

• People would understand the product right away

• Users would come through organic search or a launch

• Feedback would be structured and clear

• Churn would mean “wrong market”

• If the product works well, growth is inevitable

🔥 What It Actually Was

• Explaining the product is 10× harder than building it

• Users don’t find you — you have to chase conversations

• Feedback is vague until you ask 3+ times in 3 different ways

• Churn often means “I didn’t onboard them properly”

• Growth requires constant storytelling, positioning, and iteration

A few humbling moments:

• I launched Linkeme without a landing page.

  Nobody knew what it did until I showed them, one by one.

• I lost 20+ users in a week just because I didn’t explain the value before asking for payment.

• I spent 2 weeks building a feature only 1 user wanted — because I confused enthusiasm with demand.

• I realized too late that posting consistently with my tool was the best marketing. (Now it’s our core growth engine.)

And still… it’s worth it.

SaaS is slower than I expected.

It’s messier. Less predictable.

But every user who sticks, every message that says “this saved me time,”

every bit of momentum — feels earned.

And it compounds.

If you’re early and frustrated, just know:

You’re not doing it wrong.

You’re just seeing what it actually takes.

Happy to share what worked (and what didn’t) if you’re in the same phase.

Julien

https://linkeme.ai/why