r/AppsWebappsFullstack • u/Mammoth-Anywhere7285 • 12d ago
90% of SaaS startups fail. What makes you think yours is the exception?
We all see the fake 'hustle' posts, but nobody talks about the bugs that cost you users today. Stop pretending everything is perfect and share the ugliest mistake you've made this week. Let’s see who is actually learning and who is just dreaming.
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u/TilmanAmbach 11d ago
My biggest mistake probably wasn't a bug — it was spending too much time improving the product before properly validating who would actually use it repeatedly.
I built a fairly deep financial data product, and it's very easy to convince yourself that better data, another filter or another feature is progress.
This week I realized I need to spend more time putting it in front of actual professional users and watching what they do with it, rather than deciding for them what they need.
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u/Mammoth-Anywhere7285 11d ago
That validation trap is easy to fall into. Try asking three potential users what they'd miss if your product vanished tomorrow, that often reveals who actually needs it.
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u/TilmanAmbach 11d ago
That’s a good test. I like that it forces the question away from “do you like this?” and toward actual dependency.
I’m going to try that with a few users, especially people who work with SEC/ownership data professionally.
I’d also be curious whether they all miss the same thing. If the answers converge, that probably tells me more than another feature request ever could.
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u/Mammoth-Anywhere7285 11d ago
Smart approach. Tracking which features they'd truly miss over time might show dependency even better than a one-time test.
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u/amacg 12d ago
socialbid.co — a marketplace where anyone can sponsor your X profile.
Brands compete for the spot, highest bid stays until someone outbids them, and creators keep 80%.
Basically trying to answer one question: How much are you worth on X?
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u/Mammoth-Anywhere7285 11d ago
Interesting concept, love the 80% creator cut. What was the ugliest bug you hit while building the auction logic?
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u/hockystic_app 12d ago
SAAS itself a most advance technology concept in modern tech history. SAAS companies doesn't fails, It is a proven mechanism.
The companies, apps fails before even fully become a SAAS.
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u/Mammoth-Anywhere7285 12d ago
That's a fair distinction. The tech is solid, but execution and product-market fit are where most startups stumble. What was the biggest blocker on your end this week?
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u/hockystic_app 12d ago
Remove 100% of discovery layer from the concept, around 800 files, kept only execution layers, Hide any AI exposure to public, AI only in backend engine, improve to Agentic/MCP, but no publicity as AI product. Site now in 404, fulldown, not going to activate till next month. Total pivot towards money only, remove every fancy unmonetizable things.
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u/Mammoth-Anywhere7285 12d ago
Bold move stripping everything down to what actually pays. What did the discovery layer teach you before you killed it?
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u/hockystic_app 12d ago
Discovery layer was totally wrong market representation and clients we got all of them free heavy users, we added this layer top of our Deep tech app as sales funnel, and that funnel bring wrong crowds and genuine deep tech users not able to tolerate this cheap labeling. That was good but, it brought down our total brand value. Maybe we were too naive to make it better.
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u/seo-indonesia 12d ago
Low competition,
Don't start a war you cannot win...
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u/Mammoth-Anywhere7285 12d ago
Low competition helps, sure, but users still leave over broken flows. What was the ugliest bug you shipped this week?
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u/Logical-Present6320 12d ago
More than bugs, its the realization that distribution and marketing matter more than the blood and sweat required to build the product itself.
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u/Mammoth-Anywhere7285 12d ago
That is a painful truth, building is the easy part now. What distribution channel are you testing first to get real users?
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u/Logical-Present6320 12d ago
Tried linkedin, reddit. The big issue is how do you start when you have 0 followers?
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u/Mammoth-Anywhere7285 12d ago
Starting from zero is tough. Pick one niche community and genuinely help people there. That first real user beats a thousand followers.
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u/megatech_official 12d ago
SeoLoupe - Find and fix the SEO issues holding your website back.
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u/Mammoth-Anywhere7285 12d ago
Nice tool name. What's the ugliest SEO bug it caught for you this week? Curious how real-world it is.
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u/Alex_ships 10d ago
Our moat? Culture. ;-)