Building and Launching a SaaS in 10 Days 🚀 — Day #0

I decided to take on a personal #buildinpublic challenge where I set out to build and launch a SaaS product in just 10 days. It had been quite a while since I’d built a product from scratch, and I wanted to push myself to create something new this year. Today is actually Day #0, which means I have not started working yet. However, I want to provide more information about the project I will be working on, and what you can expect to happen over the next 10 days. To begin, my goal is to hold myself accountable. I have a tendency to keep building more features and saying “what if I add this?” or “what if I add that?” I want to resist that urge and focus on keeping it simple yet functional by having this time limit. I’ll be showing you the entire process of building a SaaS product from: -ideation -development, and -launch But I won’t be giving any advice or pretending to know what I’m doing, since this is my first subscription-based product. Instead, I’ll simply be transparent with the development process and end results so that you can learn from both my successes and failures. 💡IDEATION So, what’s the new project going to be about? I’ve decided to create the easiest-to-use carousel maker for Instagram and LinkedIn. I got the idea for this project because I noticed how popular carousel posts were on LinkedIn. I have worked on creating carousels, and they can be pretty time-consuming to design. So, I thought, why not create something that makes it easier for non-designers to create their own visually engaging carousels? I don’t want to overwhelm users with too many design options, though. After all, the lifespan of posts on social media is so short, that it’s not always worth spending a lot of time perfecting them. My goal is to provide just enough options for users to create eye-catching designs that reflect their personal or company brand without making things too complicated. Back when I worked as a designer for startups, I often found myself juggling multiple responsibilities. Not only was I working on marketing design, but I also had to handle product design and other things as well — that is life at a startup! With so much on my plate, it was especially frustrating when I had to spend time making design changes after many copywriting iterations. I often wished that the people in charge of the copy could make those changes themselves without needing to involve me as a designer. That’s why I think my carousel maker tool might not only be useful for regular folks managing their personal brands, solo founders, and indie hackers, but also for small companies or startups with limited time and resources to dedicate to design. It’s all about making the design process simpler and more accessible for everyone, regardless of their technical abilities. Although I’m not sure if my approach will appeal to users, the fact is that there are already big players in the design templates market. I need to differentiate myself enough to stand out but not so much that I can’t attract a broad audience. So, I’m running this 10-day experiment to see if this idea’s got legs. There’ll be some rough edges, but it’s all about testing whether I should keep going. If the product doesn’t generate any revenue within the first month, then I’ll know it’s time to try something else. 🤔 PROBLEM First off, templates can be tricky. They might look amazing at first, with just the right font sizes, harmonious color palettes, and well-picked images, but users can struggle when it’s time to customize them. When they add their text, change font sizes, and move things around, the final design might not be what they hoped for. It’s no surprise, really. If you’re not a designer, how would you know which fonts sizes, colors, margins, or paddings to use? Too much freedom can lead to messy results. Also, many of these templates are unique and flashy, and it can be tough to fit into a specific brand, causing visual inconsistency and a mixed-up brand image. The other issue is that if a super unique, eye-catching template gets too popular and users see it all over the place, it screams “template!” and that doesn’t usually go down well. 🤔 SOLUTION What I want to do is offer a simple design solution that lets users add their brand fonts, colors, and logos without any extra bells and whistles. A simple design is universal, it’s not owned by anyone, but you can make it your own by adding your brand’s colors and fonts to give it a unique touch — it essentially eliminates the risk of appearing like you’re using the same template as everyone else. ⚠️ POTENTIAL PITFALLS But there’s a catch: non-designers might feel unsure about their image and see simple designs as not good enough. They could end up dismissing the tool as too basic and choose something else, attempting to compensate for their lack of design skills by adding flashy graphics and effects, believing that more is more. You know, the classic “make the logo bigger” situation — if you’ve ever worked with clients at a design agency, you’ll totally get what I’m saying! Now that I’ve discussed these problems, solutions, and potential pitfalls, it is time to dive into the development process and see how I tackle these challenges head-on. Day #1 of the building process starts tomorrow! 🚧👷‍♀️ Stay tuned for my next update and give me a follow on https://twitter.com/Fer_MOMENTO for more juicy details!