Zero ad budget, but the code is 100% done. Transitioning from Dev to Marketer today.
Hey IH! 👋
I just hit a massive milestone today and needed to share it with people who actually understand the struggle. I’ve finally finished and fully tested the core codebase for my SaaS, Cutria (a workspace and collaboration tool for video creators/editors).
As a solo dev, getting to this point felt like a marathon, especially after colliding with reality.
The "Early Adopter" Reality Check: Right before I thought I was ready to launch, I onboarded 2 free early-adopter clients. Their feedback was incredibly insightful, but it also gave me a solid month of extra development work! Because of their specific workflow needs, I had to pause and implement two major features I hadn't originally prioritized:
Custom Storage Subscriptions: Flexible storage upgrades because video teams eat through gigabytes faster than I expected.
Timeline Export: The ability to export timelines directly to professional editing software like DaVinci Resolve (this turned out to be an absolute game-changer for them).
The Tech Wins I’m Proud Of: Instead of just cobbling together a basic MVP, I spent the last few weeks building a bulletproof architecture around this:
Cross-platform Front-end: Built with Flutter (web, iOS, Android).
The "Doomsday" Billing System: Built a custom Dunning management system with Laravel and Paddle. Instead of relying on standard grace periods, I built a background scheduler that sends warning emails at 1, 7, 14, and 27 days.
Automated Storage Cleanup: If an invoice remains unpaid after 28 days, my "Executor" script automatically downgrades the account and physically purges heavy media files from Cloudflare R2 to save server costs. Testing this locally and watching it work flawlessly was incredibly satisfying.
The Marketing Challenge: So, the code is done. The architecture is solid. The app is ready. But... I have absolutely zero budget for paid ads.
Starting today, I have to take off my developer hat and put on my marketer hat. I’ll admit, staring at an empty terminal feels way less intimidating than trying to figure out organic acquisition.
Since paid ads are out of the question for now, my plan is to focus on:
Building in public here and on X (Twitter).
Working closely with my 2 existing users to perfect the flow and hopefully drive word-of-mouth.
Reaching out directly to more video agencies and freelance editors.
My question to the community: For those of you who launched with zero ad budget, what was the one organic channel or tactic that brought in your first 10 paying customers?
Any advice for a dev entering the marketing trenches would be hugely appreciated! Cheers! 🍻
