What I Learned Building Two SaaS Projects in 6

2 points

2 years ago

Hi HN, I wanted to share the journey of building *two SaaS projects* over the past six months, highlighting the mistakes I made, what I learned, and how those lessons are helping me build something better today.

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### *Project 1: TailorReach (August - Mid-November)* TailorReach is an AI agent for personalized customer engagement.

#### *What Happened:* - *Pivoted after 2 months of building with Flutter*, transitioning to Next.js. - Learned Next.js from scratch, using resources like YouTube. - Spent *3 weeks on Webflow* to design what I thought was the perfect launch page. - Designed detailed dashboards, workflows, but no one used them. - Struggled with Supabase’s *Row-Level Security (RLS)*. - Tried launching multiple times on Reddit and directories but gained *zero traction*.

#### *What I Learned:* 1. *Product-Market Fit is Crucial*: Without it, no amount of effort will get users. 2. *Validate Your Idea Early*: Before writing code, talk to potential users to see if they want what you’re building. 3. *Build in Public*: Sharing progress online can bring feedback and improve your product. 4. *Create a PRD*: A clear product requirement document speeds up your MVP. ChatGPT can help. 5. *MVP ≠ Perfection*: Don’t waste time on the “perfect” version. The MVP should take *one week max* to build. 6. *Leverage AI Tools*: Use tools like Bolt.new, Cursor.ai, and others to speed up development. 7. *Marketing is Key*: If no one understands your product, they won’t use it. 8. *Simplicity > Features*: My app failed because it was hard to understand.

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### *Project 2: BuildStage (Nov 30 - Present)* BuildStage is a *100% free platform* to showcase projects without paywalls or signup hurdles.

#### *Why I Built It:* While submitting TailorReach to directories, I found: - *Paywalls* and *signup friction* are frustrating for new creators. - Most directories were more about *marketing* than inspiration. - The user experience on many of these platforms was poor.

This is why I built *BuildStage* to offer a simpler, more accessible solution.

#### *What I Did Differently:* 1. *Created a PRD*: Defined the core features upfront: - Simple, minimalist UI with beautiful project cards. - Built-in support for *beautiful landing pages* for each project. 2. *Streamlined Tech Stack*: Next.js, Supabase, Shadcn UI, Vercel Analytics. 3. *Used AI Tools*: I built the MVP in *8 hours* with Cursor.ai. 4. *Made it Free*: No paywalls, no signup required—just submit and showcase your project.

#### *What I Can Improve:* - Increase engagement on Twitter for more feedback. - Improve development skills for long-term scaling.

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### *Helpful Resources* If you're launching your own product, here are some useful links: 1. [Websites you can submit to](https://x.com/JoschuaBuilds/status/1860726671277436996?t=semWszo-SbQk4A_iRqbTqQ&s=19) 2. [Subreddits for launching your product](https://x.com/AJs_AI/status/1861577423692726608?t=lrGTqi8xhnMqex7L_P-bQg&s=19) 3. [Inspiration for PRD creation](https://x.com/PrajwalTomar_/status/1862132008094179562?t=Imkrf3Ii2bSsiNYa4EOVBw&s=19)

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### *Advice for Builders* 1. *Validate Your Idea Early*: Save time by confirming interest before coding. 2. *Leverage AI Tools*: They help speed up MVP development. 3. *Build in Public*: Share progress on Hacker News and Twitter to gather feedback. 4. *Marketing Matters*: If your users don’t get what you do immediately, you’re in trouble.

I hope this helps those of you building SaaS or side projects! If you want to support me: - *Submit your projects to [BuildStage](https://buildstage.co)* (it’s free). - *[Follow me on Twitter](https://x.com/aymnmohdd)* for updates and feel free to DM me for feedback.

Thanks for reading