---
title: 'I tried building SaaS for 300 days'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=DJ4wg4eM1-o'
video_id: 'DJ4wg4eM1-o'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 523
---

# I tried building SaaS for 300 days

> Source: [I tried building SaaS for 300 days](https://youtube.com/watch?v=DJ4wg4eM1-o)

## Summary

A developer recounts his 300-day journey building SaaS products, sharing his successes, failures, and lessons learned. He built four products, earning a total of $206, and offers five key insights for aspiring indie hackers.

### Key Points

- **Motivation to build SaaS** [0:00] — The creator wanted to make money without returning to a software development job, after trying freelancing, courses, and books.
- **First product: YouTube thumbnail tool** [1:05] — Built a thumbnail comparison tool for a YouTube group. After a month, only one person paid $29.
- **Second product: Vlog ranking tool** [2:40] — Created Vlog Rank in 5 days but had no marketing plan and got few visitors.
- **Third product: YouTube banner tool** [3:13] — Built a tool to overlay text on channel banners, but lost interest and never used it.
- **Fourth product: Bootstrap project** [4:36] — Created a web app starter kit, launched to email list and YouTube, earned $177 from three sales.
- **Lesson 1: Solve a real problem** [6:04] — Identify a problem someone you know actually has, rather than inventing one.
- **Lesson 2: Build something you'd use** [6:24] — Only build products you're excited to use yourself, or you'll lose motivation.
- **Lesson 3: Quick and dirty approach** [6:52] — Focus on getting a working product out rather than perfecting code.
- **Lesson 4: Launch and move on** [7:12] — Don't dwell on a failed launch; adopt the Peter Levels approach of 12 startups in 12 months.
- **Lesson 5: Manage expectations** [7:44] — First products rarely succeed; treat each as an experiment to learn and iterate faster.

### Conclusion

Building a successful SaaS is a long game of iterating quickly and learning from failures. The creator remains optimistic about the opportunity but emphasizes realistic expectations and persistence.

## Transcript

I tried building SS for 300 days and I
think it's about time somebody tells you
the truth let's go back to day one I was
sitting at my computer trying to figure
out ways to make money without going
back to a software development job I
tried freelancing but I didn't enjoy
having clients I tried selling a course
but I quickly grew bored of the topic
and stopped updating it and I even wrote
books for developers but I didn't like
selling information that was already
available online that's when I found
something called SAS software as a
service there were all these developers
who were building small software
products and selling them to Consumers
all while living their ideal lifestyle
which quite often seemed to be in barley
the fact that I could use my software
development skills to actually build
something useful become an independent
developer and make $10,000 per month or
more sounded like the ideal opportunity
so this is what happened for the next
three 00 days this is my unfiltered take
these are my Real Results well first
thing I needed was an idea for software
product to create at the time I'd been
mixing with a group of people interested
in YouTube I decided to create a YouTube
thumbnail comparison tool and My Hope
was that this group of people might
decide to buy it problem was my front
end development skills were very basic
it took me a while to get up to speed
with Dynamic JavaScript Frameworks but
once I did it was pretty easy to create
a web page that showed YouTube
thumbnails just like on YouTube and
after a month I had a prototype that I
sent to the group of people I mentioned
well they all seemed to like it after
great feedback I assumed I was onto a
winner problem was at this point the
product was free so it wasn't generating
me any Revenue I spent one more month
adding new features behind a oneoff
payment and when I told all those people
that they could now pay for all these
extra features for the product that they
said they liked so much well only one
person bought and even though it was a
bit disappointing that I only made $29 I
had to remind myself this was the first
SAS product I had ever made so was ready
to move on to the next one there's this
Indie hacker who builds SAS that I've
been following at the time and he talks
about the benefit of creating a free
product and put an advert on it to push
people towards his paid product around
that time time I was watching a lot of
daily YouTube uploaders they publish a
vlog every single day and I wanted an
easy way to discover those so I created
a vlog ranking tool Vlog rank this tool
was a lot simpler I finished it in 5
days but once I hit the launch button I
wasn't really sure how to Market it in
fact the only people that I thought
might be interested were the daily
vloggers themselves and I only knew one
of those and he ignored my message well
even though my site didn't get any
visitors and still doesn't get many
visitors today I at least had a tool
that I could use myself so I told myself
for my next product it was going to be
another paid product guess what the
topic was y YouTube again around this
time I was struggling to come up with
ideas I was excited to build and the
only one that was of interest to me and
potentially of interest to someone else
and easy to build was a tool to
automatically overlay Tech on your
YouTube channel Banner thing is I was a
little bit lukewarm about this product
but I managed to entice myself to build
it by first of all building the landing
page and that actually got me a bit more
excited to build the product which I did
within the next 7 days once I launched
it I had another problem I didn't really
know anyone that would want to use this
product and I realized I didn't really
want to use it either I felt like I'd
gone backwards from my first product the
thumbnail tool because at least I wanted
to use that one that's when I got a bit
demotivated because I felt like time and
time again I couldn't hit that sweet
spot of a product that I wanted to use
myself other people might want to use
and would be willing to pay for so yeah
not all of those 300 days were spent
working on SAS some of it was just spent
thinking what am I going to do next one
thing I hear the online gurus say is to
take what's already working working and
build your own version of it well one
product I'd seen that I thought was
really clever was this same Indie
hacking influencers bootstrap project
which is a shortcut to starting a web
app quickly and even though I'd only
Built three web apps I still had a lot
of experience from all the software
development jobs I've done so thought I
could build my own version but first of
all I had to go to
Japan of course I packed my tiny laptop
with me and after recovering from jet
lag I thought well what am I going to do
in the morning before I knew it every
morning I started building my own
bootstrap project and by the time I got
back from Japan it was almost ready to
launch I felt like this time I had a
product that I wanted to use and it was
potentially something that people who
watch my YouTube videos might want to
use well I launched this product to my
email list and I created several YouTube
videos where I mentioned it and it's got
three sales for a total of
$177 so actually this is my most
profitable SAS so far but I'm still not
hitting the numbers that make all this
effort worthwhile having built four
products I still see this as a big
opportunity because there are so many
problems that could potentially be
solved with software if you can find one
that's painful enough and solve it in an
efficient way then I don't see how you
can't make a lot of money from that as
long as you've got your laptop with you
you could live your ideal lifestyle from
anywhere in the world that's the path
I'm still following but here are five
things I'd wish I'd known from day one
number one is to solve a problem for
someone or a group of people you already
know for my second and third projects I
kind of made up a problem but a better
approach is to identify a problem first
that a real human being actually has and
then build a solution for that number
two not to build something that you're
not that's too many negatives only build
something you're excited to use yourself
the YouTube Banner automation tool I
created I literally have not used since
I built it nobody else has signed up to
the tool either it's not valuable enough
I think the answer to that is rather
than do something that you think is cool
is to do something that solves a problem
in your life and then you're going to be
more tempted to use it number three is
to take the quick and dirty approach
it's really easy for perfectionists to
get caught up in making all the code
perfect when all the customer really
cares about is the experience they have
using the front end through the browser
as long as that works that's all that
really matters so focus on getting
something done rather than perfect
number three is to launch and move on
when you launch a single product and it
doesn't get the attention that you think
it deserves it's easy to get emotionally
caught up in that tell yourself you're
on completely the wrong path and take a
few weeks off from building software
whereas a better approach is the Peter
levels approach when he did 12 startups
in 12 months if you give yourself just
one month then you know as soon as that
month is up you've got to move on to the
next project fifth point is don't go in
with the wrong expectations it's very
unlikely you're going to make it with
your first product and in my case not
even your second third or fourth but
rather than giving up when this happens
instead go in with these expectations
every project you build is a small
experiment one where you're increasing
your skills if you can increase the
speed with which you build product
you're basically running more small
experiments and you're learning more
along the way the faster you iterate the
more chance you are of seeing success
the fact is there are people out there
who are building SAS products and are
earning a very good income from it
question to ask is given you already
have software development skills could
you do the same thing to earn an income
completely independently of a job live
anywhere you want in the world and
ultimately gain your Independence that's
been my experience of following this
path so far hope it was useful and I'll
see you in the next one