Building SaaS Revenue: Products That Pay While You Sleep

From Services to Products

Client work trades time for money. Products generate revenue continuously. Many successful SaaS products started as patterns developers saw repeatedly in client work.

Finding Product Ideas

• Tools you've built for yourself
• Features you've built multiple times
• Problems you solve repeatedly
• Gaps in existing tools you use

Validation Before Building

// Don't build first, validate first

1. Identify potential customers
2. Talk to them about the problem
3. Show mockups/prototypes
4. Get commitments (email signups, deposits)
5. THEN build the minimum viable product

Minimum Viable Product

The smallest thing that solves the core problem:

• One core feature, done well
• Simple pricing (one tier to start)
• Manual processes behind the scenes are fine
• Launch in weeks, not months

Pricing SaaS

// Price based on value, not costs

// If your tool saves 10 hours/month at $100/hour = $1,000 value
// Price at 10-20% of value = $100-200/month

// Start higher than you think—lowering is easy, raising is hard

Marketing for Developers

• Content marketing (blog posts, tutorials)
• Building in public (Twitter, IndieHackers)
• Developer communities
• Free tier or trial

Balancing Client Work and Product

• Dedicated product days (e.g., Fridays)
• Use product to solve client problems
• Reinvest client revenue into product time
• Consider productized services as bridge

Conclusion

SaaS products diversify income and build equity. Start with validated ideas, build minimum viable products, price for value, and balance with client work until the product sustains itself.