I've been trying for a few years to get a SaaS type thing launched.
The first few attempts were with other people, because that's what all the advice tells you. These all petered out because my driving purpose didn't match the other person, which only came to light when things got serious. Nothing acrimonious, just a total loss of motivation on both sides as we implicitly pulled in different directions.
Now I've been trying solo. It's hard, doing everything. But also easier. For me the motivation to keep going is the hard part. I did an iOS app which got lost in the sea of apps, then a more SaaS-like app inside Strava which ended when Strava changed their terms. In both cases I could/should have continued, but motivation was gone.
In the last few weeks I've built and released a free-tier dev tool. Now building the paid-for versions while also trying to build awareness and get people using it. I've really shrunk down the product scope, which has helped stay motivated/focused. I've built something with a target audience of my own industry. Most importantly (for me) is that I've become more aware of motivation drains (individuals, websites, doom-scrolling, the news, lack of exercise, etc), and more pro-active at avoiding them. It's going better this time around.
What I've learned so far:
- look outside tech for inspiring people who've built products (every independent hair salon, baker, accountant, etc already did it). Tech is not special, in many ways it's risk-free. I found the How I Built This and CoRecursive podcasts useful to maintain perspective, and have some down time with my inspiration.
- just start. Don't treat the first thing as 'the one' (I sort of do every time, and it's a mistake I'm trying to correct), because it's too much pressure. I'm still discovering things about my approach to this that I will fix in the next attempt.
- I tried the side-hustle thing. But I like to do a good job, so I was using my energy for the people paying me. I couldn't, in good conscience, work on my thing on someone else's dime. That's just me, but it meant I never had the energy to work on my stuff at night. Now I've blocked out the next six months for the SaaS product I'm doing (I’m a freelance/contractor).
- coding is the easy part. Sticking to your vision/purpose/core-product is harder, because everyone else seems to be faster/smarter/pivoter/experter. Mostly I found the cliches don’t work until you learn them by experience (so just start).
- managing time/work. Much of the time I need to spend is thinking, simplifying, or reading/writing, with coding being about 10%. I queue up non-coding tasks to be done ‘anywhere’, so train journeys, cafes, lunch, your notice period. Maintaining momentum is easier if you’ve a lightweight management tool. I use Things3, because its iOS home-screen widget shows my current checklist and I can see progress.
- motivation has been my achilles heel every time, particularly as a solo. There is some cliche or other about this, which of course I’ve known and understood forever. But the previous experiences have been like practical training, making my motivation more robust. Each time I’ve found extra places to patch up my soul to prevent motivation leaks and recognise gumption traps.
If you want inspiration from someone who did something without an expert coding career, lookup the podcasts/interviews with the StoryGraph founder (Nadia Odunayo). There are countless other examples of paths to building a SaaS product, if you have a look.