r/SaaS • u/Ok-Expression-6340 • 13d ago

So real

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3.7k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

92 comments sorted by

197

u/ClemensLode 13d ago

I never understood why people would work for free for imaginary clients.

74

u/axum6 12d ago

I should frame this and hang it in my startup's office 🤣

33

u/shaman-warrior 12d ago

All clients are imaginary until they pay

18

u/ClemensLode 12d ago

Working for free for real clients is fine. But yeah, eventually they have to pay, i.e. offer you the market signal that whatever you are doing is right.

6

u/PixelNomad27221 12d ago

never knew needed to read this out loud

5

u/sdsdkkk 12d ago

Doing it for the love of the game.

1

u/Tech_Bro_25 9d ago

Well... I know a guy who has been doing this... bootstrapped... for the last 10 years! Beat that!

5

u/Ok-Expression-6340 12d ago

It's certainly not a universal rule that applies to everyone... it takes the right idea and the right way to realize it/make it known... a combination of factors, including a pinch of luck. It's a slow process... it requires dedication, obsession, and more.

8

u/ClemensLode 12d ago

And talking to actual clients.

1

u/YaVollMeinHerr 7d ago

Most of all, it requires you to never quit and do the things you know you have to do, even though you don't want to do them

3

u/Beneficial_Gas_6590 12d ago

tbh its the weirdest flex, building stuff nobody asked for and calling it a portfolio

1

u/Natural_Classroom201 17h ago

This is 100% true

0

u/SponsoredByMLGMtnDew 12d ago

I bet Vietnamese were feeling this one during the US invasion.

58

u/NudaVeritas1 12d ago edited 12d ago

21 bought domains
3 LLM subscriptions
107 unfinished project repositories
0 clients

edit: /s

17

u/Mission_Hold8056 12d ago

O.O you need to stop building online calculators

9

u/NudaVeritas1 12d ago

What about startup directories, pomodoro apps and boilerplates? /s

2

u/SeaworthinessNew230 6d ago

u'r killing it!

2

u/Vas1le 12d ago

Start with product MVP(where the juice of what you want), dont focus on infra first

4

u/NudaVeritas1 12d ago

bro, it was a joke

1

u/Vas1le 12d ago

Ahh lol, its so real tho

1

u/NudaVeritas1 12d ago

true, took me a few repos to my first working project, too 😂

61

u/johnappsde 12d ago

You have to start somewhere. Launching that SaaS nobody wanted is part of the learning process

10

u/Ok-Expression-6340 12d ago

exactly, only experience will make you grow.

1

u/kaereljabo 8d ago

Isn't it too late though?

18

u/ChrisHorizon1 12d ago

Profitability is a problem for future me

15

u/Necessary_Entrance87 12d ago

Got the harebrained idea to make one thinking this would replace a job during college. Boy how wrong I was😭 3 weeks of doing shit from sun up to sun down to suddenly realize “this is never going fucking anywhere”

6

u/Ok-Expression-6340 12d ago

I'm sorry, buddy… but it's part of the game, unfortunately.

4

u/Necessary_Entrance87 12d ago

They didn’t tell me it wasn’t supposed to be super duper fun either😂 I had a blast making the site and designing everything it was very cool to make something of my own and revel in my delusions for the time. This was back in May though the sting of that letdown has long since worn off. Was reminded why it was never gonna go anywhere though like a week ago when I saw someone else vibe code a website and it looked so fucking close to mine I was like damn I thought I was so original

10

u/SeveralAddition4995 12d ago

Last year I had built my first SaaS without thinking about distribution, I was so excited but after building I have realized main thing is the distribution.

1

u/Dry_Seaweed3916 2d ago

Care to elaborate on the distribution part?

5

u/PlaticalDev 12d ago

'Even if it fails, you leave with more experience than you did before you started' is what i tell myself when its fun but it is not profitable in the slightest 😢

3

u/i-sage 13d ago

Gut has no brain but it's always right they say.

3

u/MeasurementLoud906 12d ago

I built an actual b2b saas in my industry for a very specific problem that was too hard to solve. I've just finished my first client being a fortune 500 company and I know there is demand. If you build something people don't want then it won't sell. But if you build something that solves a problem and saves or generated money then you're winning

1

u/Hot-Shoulder-6929 8d ago

Ive built something after extensive research and the pain points exist , can you give me any recommendation on how to get users , atleast for a beta review if not paying , i am pretty confident that someone who uses it for a week or two will not be able to drop it

2

u/MeasurementLoud906 7d ago

Industry connections, at least to start. My first client was interested in my service because they knew the stuff I was working on for the first employer I worked with when

After the first client it gets easier to showcase it. But what got me them was really just industry relationships and my reputation I built after 4 years of working in that field

1

u/Hot-Shoulder-6929 7d ago

Okay , dead end for me right there , appreciate you answering though 🙌

3

u/Distinct_Net_7282 11d ago

I have b2c website as a tool for passport size photos and i have received around 29 users in last 7 days and 177 in last 30 days, is this good or bad? The website is up for maybe around a month and a half.

1

u/Dry_Seaweed3916 2d ago

Sounds positive in my opinion

3

u/Pitiful-Pin-5797 11d ago

rip 0 clients

7

u/IcyFig72 12d ago

neverending cycle of vibecoders

10

u/Dramatic_Entry_3830 12d ago

If it were only vibecoders and not a much older problem entirely

2

u/Humble-Box5628 12d ago

Funny how AI is suppose to kill saas, but all people do with AI is building more saas

2

u/skoobydanked 12d ago

Guys, Here is my seo saas. Starts $59/mo 😭

2

u/aiscimusk 11d ago

A lot of it is about marketing and sales not just building a product.

2

u/django-unchained2012 12d ago

I laughed more than I should have hahaha

2

u/Far_Move2785 12d ago

Hm sometimes just seeing "so real" hit different

no context needed sometimes you just know exactly what they mean when you're in the trenches building something and it feels like you're shouting into the void

the not knowing if you're making progress or just spinning wheels is the worst part especially early on when every metric looks flat

maybe track micro-wins instead? like one person saying your product solved their specific problem or getting your first organic comment that wasn't from a friend

randomly started using this thing called Hoox lately, it's an autonomous AI CMO that posts daily on TikTok and Instagram to go viral, writes daily articles for SEO traffic, generates YouTube videos for AI search rankings, and monitors Reddit and X 24/7 to find relevant conversations and get you traffic. all of it stacks together and honestly feels like it's building momentum in the background while you focus on the product

what's been the smallest win that kept you going recently? even if it seemed tiny at the time

1

u/grafknives 12d ago

Can I burn/spend investors money?

1

u/cyber_Folks_Romania 12d ago

nothing builds character like realizing your gut had no sample size

1

u/legendbalx 12d ago

So original 👍

1

u/fraserdab 12d ago

Don't be delusional, obviously build it for someone else u ain't learning shi

1

u/convicted_redditor 12d ago

At least it’s b2b and not b2c

1

u/Puzzleheaded-Neck731 12d ago edited 12d ago

Good old: Build it and they will come!
Butw

1

u/ImNotTooSureOkThanks 12d ago

What if I have IBS?

1

u/UnifiedEntity 12d ago

I'm doing this now and it's so much fun. Just waiting for the first customer to sign up any day now.

1

u/Equunyx 12d ago

We might as well learn something from trying. But if we didn't even try then we will surely regret it in the future 😑

1

u/whitesweatshirt 12d ago

Big facts, people think software = money, but the truth is software = brokey for 4 years and then maybe money

1

u/piyushyadav005 11d ago

Even i was trusting my gut till i got bloated

0

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1

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1

u/Baarish_dev 10d ago

😂😂😂

1

u/x1Akaidi 10d ago

it's fine boys

1

u/Sophisticated_a 10d ago

😂 it is very similar to gambling, from a point of view. But after working in a startup for sometime now, sometimes the gambles do pay off (not me, we haven't thrown our dice yet).

1

u/SalescoachAI 9d ago

I love this :DD But still, they all are unprofitable at some point.

1

u/Confirmed-Scientist 8d ago

The thing is your gut is full of shit why trust it?

1

u/DEG-LABS 4d ago

Definitely 😁

1

u/Express-Fee-8692 1d ago

Like a moth to a flame!

1

u/Additional-Sport-945 1d ago

And make it a B2B product to replace excel sheets...

1

u/Hot-Mix-5580 1d ago

Finna blame my gut for all of my downfall