SaaS founders, how long do you take to build the first versions of your SaaS?

[bmag777]

I’ve been building all my mvps in 2-4 days and if I don’t know what to build it takes a week maximum but most SaaS founders I know(Some with more success than I) take a month and 2 weeks or even more than that.

I’ve been following YC advice to build things really fast and launch it, even if it’s a bad product.

I was wondering here, am I doing it wrong by creating it really fast like this and launch asap?

I got a new mentor 2 months ago and we’ve recently decided to build a SaaS together and he said to me that it’d take 1 and half month to build the first version(However, I’ve built 80% of the code in a night. I did all the backend in 3-4 hours and he is saying that will take 1 and half month to complete). Can’t understand it.

There is no how wait until middle of November for this. We’ve decided he’d be the CTO but looks like I know more about coding than him.

Thanks in advance

 

[daddyjeanom]

@bmag777 Hmm. I'll let you know when I finish something. It's been 7 years.

 

[truescience4ever]

@daddyjeanom Why all this rush?

 

[saralynn1]

@daddyjeanom Haha I've been there dude...I used to spend months perfecting and automating every part of my products. But its not sustainable. You have to get really harsh with yourself about what mvp truly means for your product and hold yourself accountable to it.

The more code you write = more things to go wrong = less time for marketing/sales/talking to customers. All those things are just as if not more important imo.

Nowadays I go with a 'if it doesn't fit on one page then its bloated' type approach which is maybe a bit much but if thats what you aim for you'll likely be going in the right direction.

We’ve decided he’d be the CTO but looks like I know more about coding than him.

^ bit of a red flag to me!

 

[travisb]

@saralynn1 Great advice! For building an MVP.
For those of us building a best in class product it’s gonna take a lot longer. Like years.

 

[bmag777]

@travisb Taking years to build a software is not a reality bro. It’s a reality for hardware and to build a company, but not the first versions of a software.

Facebook launched its first version in 2 weeks.

Google launched it in 7 dias.

Airbnb took a weekend

And I can go on, on and on.

Success leaves clues my man. If it takes 7 years to build and launch the first versions of a SaaS for you, you gotta change it in all possible ways and take a month(maximum) for every version

 

[travisb]

@bmag777 I respect your view. It’s even the mainstream/vc view. But I believe it builds bad products and the stats reflect that.

I’ve even built a career fixing these products post funding.

But great things, historically, are never built in days and weeks.

 

[bmag777]

@travisb To be honest, you are wrong about it.

First versions of great software are building in days and weeks.

Mark Zuckerberg built the first version of Facebook in 2 weeks,

Airbnb founders, did it in a weekend.

And I can go on, on and on.

Success leave clues, boy.

If you take years to build the MVPs, you are doing it very wrong.

And don’t misunderstand things, you have to take years building your company but not the MVPs. MVPs should be asap, companies should be build in years.

 

[travisb]

@bmag777 Yes exactly, we’re in agreement about what an MVP is. Good/great products and companies are a different subject.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1712532195645206921

 

[bmag777]

@saralynn1 Thanks for your comment bro. Now I believe this “CTO” is trying to scam me. Lol

And I 100% agree. A MVP should be the minimum version of a product. If it takes 7 years to build a MVP of a software, you are doing it wrong, very wrong.

You should do it to build a company, not a MVP.

 

[bugz444]

@bmag777 I gotta call baloney on 2-4 days to MVP.

Setting up user auth with stripe payments, and a basic settings dashboard can take that long, without even touching what the SaaS actually does.

If you’re being truthful, how are you that fast?

 

[swollenmonkey]

@bugz444 Nah I long ago created a saas boilerplate running on cloudflare workers/pages using stripe with a nice frontend.

At that point it really is a couple of days to build a saas.

 

[josh87eg]

@bugz444 Done fast, and quality code. Choose 1.

 

[bmag777]

@josh87eg Exactly. Quality code doesn’t worth a shit. Customers don’t care about quality code

 

[classicnostalgia]

@bmag777

Customers don’t care about quality code

Yes and no. They don't know it's the cause but it does trickle down. At some point, building good code on top of bad will catch up and slow your ability to add and tweak features you get feedback on. That's what becomes a customer issue. You have to decide how much tech debt you're comfortable taking on without compromising your future product (and sanity). Everyone has a different comfort zone.

 

[bmag777]

@classicnostalgia Brother, my future product will be a totally different product and I’m sure about it. The MVP is only the first version that will be iterated a lot over time

 

[josh87eg]

@bmag777 how many projects have you scaled beyond MVP, what's your MRR?

 

[bmag777]

@josh87eg 2 scaled beyond MVP and my current MRR is $92k(Only one SaaS)

 

[josh87eg]

@bmag777 Well then, what advice are you looking for? If you've successfully scaled a product, the system works.

 

[bmag777]

@bugz444 I don’t build a dashboard and I don’t set up user auth with stripe initially. I just do it after getting some sales and I believe that’s the main reason.

I just build a simple page with the main product and a login page. Then I try to sell it for sometime by using a video. If it doesn’t sell after a specific time, I do another stuff