by kastion | 2025-04-16 18:34:34+00:00
Congratulations on launching your project! I also once tried to start my own SaaS API, so I perfectly understand how much work it cost you, and you have every right to be proud of yourself!

I will write about my experiences with SaaS; I hope it doesn't discourage you. Unfortunately, I didn't succeed and went back to a 9-to-5 job.

Unfortunately, the bad news is that the easiest and most enjoyable part, which is coding, is already behind you. As has been said before, marketing and distribution are what probably ends 99% of SaaS ventures (assuming your product isn't the new ChatGPT). No matter how good your product is, you now have two options:

1. Invest significant thousands of dollars in marketing and distribution. For example, a valuable backlink to your site can cost a thousand dollars. Marketing campaigns, advertisements, people – it all costs money. That's how big companies operate, but they also usually have their distribution network and many products, so it works out well for them. Besides, they have an established brand, and a brand is everything nowadays.

2. Work hard every day searching for clients. Cold DMs, cold emails. The chances of someone replying to you here are very small. After all, each of us is also a consumer. How many advertising emails do you respond to, assuming they don't go straight to spam? Choosing this option, you will initially have to convince each client one by one to choose your product. Because why, when looking for an HTML to PDF API, would I choose your product? I don't know this site; it was created recently. Your only advantage is you as the founder and salesperson. You could say you will have to become an implementation specialist for your first clients and configure client applications (at least that's my experience) because that's your only advantage over the competition – commitment.

The market you've chosen is large, which is a plus, but I quickly searched for your competition, and there's a lot of it. Currently, the number of SaaS companies is growing exponentially due to AI. Less wealthy but very populous countries like India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia are developing rapidly, and there are also more and more programmers there (probably hundreds of millions of programmers). When I was still fighting for my SaaS, a final-year IT student from India wrote to me on X.com and asked if he could work for free on my SaaS for a reference. That was the moment I ended my SaaS and went back to a 9-to-5 job. Why? Because I had barely 10 clients, and I just realized what I wrote above – that there are millions of people like him. I came to the conclusion that all the expenses I incurred and the time spent were not worth it.

But to not be so bitter, there are also many positives! You have certainly learned a lot, firstly, and secondly, having completed such a project gives you an immediate advantage over 90% of people in the IT job market. If you show this project in job interviews, I think you'll have a well-paid position in your pocket. However, if you decide to continue working on your SaaS, I sincerely wish you all the best, and I hope you succeed and that I will one day use PageSnap myself!