How to Launch a SaaS in 60 days
Most people I know think way too complex about building and launching their SaaS products.
So, here’s somewhat controversial, but, and I promise you, there’s truth to it as well.
In today’s article (tldr; video below), I’m going to show you how you can launch a SaaS product within just 60 days.
It’s literally possible to do it in about 60 days
I’ve done it myself.
I’ve seen people do it.
The best example would be to watch Marc Lou, and he actually created a boilerplate that makes it even faster to launch your software product if you know how to code. Lots of devs are actually using his boilerplate to ship products faster and are having lots of success with it.
But now, let’s dive into it.
Build a SaaS in 60 days
The framework I’m going to provide you today will help you do it.
This is what the schedule looks like:
Day 1-7: Ideation
Day 8-13: Validation
Day 14-40: Build
Day 41-50: Iterate on feedback
Day 51-59: Start sharing publicly
Day 60: Launch!
Let’s start with the first one
Day 1-7: Ideation
So, in the first 7 days, you’re going to research your idea.
You’ll research the existing competitors, the current solutions, and the idea in general.
The goal is to align your idea with what the current market offers and needs.
Because often, your idea is just a thought in your head, but it’s almost never what the rest of the world wants, so you need to investigate that.
A couple of ways you can do that:
As I said, look up competition, see how their products look like, see how they’re doing marketing etc.
Also, a good one is to look up the reviews of your competitors and see what their current user base likes and dislikes (use Product Hunt or review sites like G2) - make a list of all the pros and cons and, of course, double down on the cons because those can become your strong usps
Another thing you can do is to deep dive into forums where your target audience is active and see what they’re talking about to uncover pain points and needs, things you can convert into solutions, aka features
Day 8-13: Validation
Then, from day 8 to 13, you’re going to validate your product’s idea.
Now to make it easy and quick, It’s best to just ship a small landing page with a signup form and some explanation about your product on this page
It’s exactly what I did before I launched my SaaS product Upvoty.
(This is the exact landing page I used before we even started building the product, just to ship the idea into the world and see if people were interested)
Now the trick here obviously is to get it in front of your audience.
To have people to sign up.
So research where they’re active, like, for example, Facebook Groups or, niche-specific forums, or maybe they’re all on Twitter, whatever.
Just get it in front of them!
And then what you’re going to do is talk to these people, send them a personalized email, and get them on your support chat. That’s why I recommend installing a chat messenger like Crisp from day 1.
The thing is, these few days are really here to learn if your idea is, in fact, aligned with what your potential customers want and need.
Nothing more.
Day 14-40: Build
Now, if your idea is something your audience would like to have, you can go on and build.
If not, go back to step 1 and refine your idea or pivot to a completely new idea.
But if it’s aligned, you can now start building.
Now this is the tricky part.
If you’re a coder yourself, you can definitely get a first working prototype built on days 14 to 40, because, and this is important, you’re not going to build a super extensive and complex version of the product.
It needs to do the basic stuff.
In general, when it solves 1 or 2 big core problems of your audience.; you’re good to go!
Don’t overthink.
Get it to work and go.
If you’re a coder, use a boilerplate like we talked about before, which makes it even easier.
If you’re not a coder, you can either:
Start with no code (for example, on Bubble)
Hire a dev right from the get-go
Now, you can either pay and hire, or you can hire someone as your co-founder.
That’s up to you, both have pros and cons.
Now, most importantly, if you want to keep the pace at this point, you do want to hire a dev before you reach this step, actually.
So as soon as you find validation for your product in step 2, go and start talking to devs and get 1 on board.
Again, no matter if you code yourself or you hire someone to do it for you, think about what we said earlier: Just build a small working prototype that solves 1 or 2 core features.
That’s how you keep speed and momentum.
And it is also important for the next step, actually
Day 41-50: Iterate on feedback
Because on days 41-50, you’re going to iterate on feedback from the people who know of your idea or even onboard in the trial or beta version.
So in the last weeks, you’ve built a waiting list, and you need to get those potential users on board to try out your first beta version as soon as possible.
Just let them play around.
Let them uncover bugs and give feedback.
And then, iterate on this feedback to optimize your product’s first version features.
Because most likely, even now, you’re going to need to pivot here and there.
Most likely, users are going to need different kinda features to solve their problems.
And that’s why I stressed about building just 1 or 2 core features in the previous step.
By doing so, you can now quickly act and adjust, which you can’t do if you focus too much on building a complete and advanced product.
Now, the fun part…
Day 51-59: Start sharing publicly
So from day 51 to 59, you’re going to share your product in public and announce your launch date.
You’re going to warm up your launch and get everyone excited.
Onboard even more beta users.
Let them try the product as an early bird.
Maybe even provide a nice little discount if they’re willing to purchase before the launch date.
This is exactly what I did when I launched my product Upvoty in beta, and we actually acquired the first 1,000 dollars in MRR during this period.
BONUS TIP: I share exactly how in my SaaS course.
And then..after you’ve done it accordingly…
Day 60: Launch
On day 60… you’re going to ship it into the real world.
You launch everywhere possible… on Product Hunt, Reddit, to your waiting list, and all other platforms.
Get it in front of your target audience.
Block out 1 whole week to get feedback by talking to users on your chat messenger, sending and replying to personalized emails, and keeping an eye on all of the feedback from all channels.
This will give you valuable feedback on what the product needs for version 2.
Your SaaS in 60 days
In a nutshell, this is really how you can launch a SaaS product within 60 to 90 days.
If you want to learn more about building a SaaS, do check out my free SaaS Masterclass, or if you’re an action-taker, get my 5-star rated all-in-one SaaS course, with it, you’ll also get access to the helpful community of over 500 SaaS founders.
Until the next one! 🙌
Mike