Building My First SaaS: Lessons Learned

When I started building my first SaaS product, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The journey was filled with ups and downs, technical challenges, and valuable lessons that shaped my approach to indie hacking.

The Idea Phase

It all started with a problem I faced repeatedly—tracking my coding time across different projects and clients. I wanted a simple, developer-friendly solution that integrated with my workflow rather than disrupting it.

After validating the idea by talking to fellow developers and finding many shared the same pain point, I decided to build TimeTrail—a minimalist time tracking tool for developers.

Technical Stack Decisions

For the tech stack, I went with:

• React for the frontend
• Node.js/Express for the API
• PostgreSQL for the database
• Auth0 for authentication

Looking back, I would have made some different choices. The stack worked well, but I overengineered several features that users didn’t even care about.

Launch Day Surprises

After three months of development, I launched on Product Hunt and Hacker News. The response was better than expected, with over 500 sign-ups on the first day. However, I quickly realized I hadn’t properly prepared for:

1. Support requests
2. Server scaling issues
3. Feature prioritization based on user feedback

Key Lessons

1. Start with a Minimum Viable Product

I spent too much time adding “nice-to-have” features before launching. I should have released a simpler version sooner and iterated based on actual usage.

2. Talk to Users Early and Often

Some of my assumptions about what users wanted were completely wrong. The features I thought were crucial turned out to be less important than others I hadn’t prioritized.

3. Don’t Neglect Marketing

As a developer, I focused heavily on building the product but underestimated the importance of marketing. No matter how good your product is, people need to know about it.

4. Pricing Strategy Matters

I initially priced too low, thinking it would attract more users. This created the wrong perception of value and made it harder to increase prices later.

Moving Forward

These lessons have been invaluable for my subsequent projects. The most important takeaway was learning to balance technical excellence with business needs—something that doesn’t always come naturally to developers.

Have you built a SaaS product? I’d love to hear about your experience and the lessons you learned along the way.