How I build my first SaaS: From idea to the initial launch
I want to share my personal story about creating a SaaS project. I have been developing Duitify for the past three weeks. This is a simple tool to track my credit card expenses. I find it easier to get on a budget by tracking my CC expenses. This will be a good way to develop a good money habit.
After picking this idea I wanted to see if there were any existing solutions.
In fact, I found an app to track credit card expenses from BNI but the app itself is outdated. The last change they made was a year ago. So I created my own solutions.
MVP
The idea is to build a simple CRUD web app. A page to log a new transaction and show the latest transactions. It will show the current balance of my CC.
I integrate Duitify with Airtable. So every user has a unique Airtable base. It won’t save your credit card expenses on a centralized database.
I create a simple formula to calculate the total expense and the current balance.
The Initial Launch
Actually, I had no idea how to launch a SaaS product. I have a quite big Twitter audience but I’m not doing much more marketing to distribute Duitify. I should do some more content marketing and keep building in public.
Lessons I’ve learned
- Start with my own problem. I’d say your first project can be your everyday struggles.
- Start with zero dollars. I don’t buy a domain. I’m using the free one and deploying the app on Netlify for free.
- Keep my task small. I choose to build a very simple feature not a fancy one and I always ask before I develop a new feature or fix a bug “Can I finish this task in two hours?”. If it takes longer then I should break it down further.
What to do next?
Marketing the product. I know this is the hardest part of building a SaaS business but I need to let others experience what I made. I should find early adopters of my product.
Finally, let’s get back to work!
Follow me on Twitter @azharieazharou where I share my progress.
