I recently completed reading a book by Rob Walling called “The SaaS Playbook: Build a Multi-million Dollar Startup Without Venture Capital”. It’s a very good primer in my opinion on what you need to understand about bootstrapping a SaaS Startup. SaaS is defined as Software as a Service, in which a company delivers software online and is monetized through a subscription rather than a one time purchase. The value of the software to the customer is that it solves an identified issue or need the customer has and for the owner of the software a major benefit is recurring revenue.
Why do I want to build a SaaS?
- Build another income stream
- Learning new skills such as marketing and selling a product
- Own the process
First, I’d like to “Build another income stream,” this one is pretty obvious to me. Creating a SaaS that is valuable to a customer and solves their needs means they pay you money and that money can be used to facilitate or fund your lifestyle. I currently have a full-time position as a Senior Software Engineer and building another income stream will provide a bit of insurance for myself and my family in the event that times get hard. It can also provide freedom through generating additional money that could be used for buying back our time, vacations, investments, and even more.
Second, I’d like to “Learning new skills…”, as a developer I’m always learning new skills. I’d like to learn about SEO, Content Marketing, and Email Marketing. I’m sure there will be mistakes made and I look forward to iteration process. I think these skills will give me a strong basis by which I could bootstrap a SaaS Company and will compliment my technical skills quite well.
Third, I’d like to “Own the process…” over the years, I’ve worked on team projects and individual projects. In both cases I have found interesting and challenging problems to work on and I think there is a good in both approaches. I want to ultimately I want own the fruits of my labor. In my current job and in the past I’ve been paid to write code or design system architecture and deliver through implementation. As I have worked my way into more senior positions, I’ve grown to really enjoy the architecture and design aspects, Recently, I’ve noticed that the switching cost can be quite high when you’re in a senior role, sometimes you won’t be afforded the same opportunities you once were. This has been quite humbling for me and surprising.
I tend to think that switching cost is so high because I don’t have skin in the game or I don’t “Own the process…”. I find myself not wanting to manage larger teams, more than ten people, and I find myself missing building as I did early in my career. Building a project just to learn and see if I can do it. Choosing myself and trusting that no matter what happens that things will be okay in the end.
For me, I deeply value autonomy and the ability to choose the problems that I work on, which is one of the biggest reasons, beyond the three listed above for me to considering building my own SaaS. Will I succeed? I don’t know, all that I know is that I must try to succeed. I think that’s why I liked Rob’s book so much, I don’t know what I don’t know, and I value the ability to learn from others and extract frameworks and tools to apply within my own context.
I don’t know, what tomorrow will bring, I just know that I have a lot of work to do. Please feel free to leave a comment or tips that you might have for building a SaaS. I look forward to sharing the journey with you here.