I've launched 10 SaaS products in the last two years.
3 died within a month. 5 are making pocket change. 2 are actually profitable.
The difference between the ones that worked and the ones that didn't? It wasn't the code. It wasn't the design. It was whether I validated the idea before building it.
Most people do this backwards. They build first, validate later, then wonder why nobody's buying.
Here's the process I use now to find SaaS ideas that people will actually pay for.
Step 1: Start With Problems You've Personally Paid to Solve
Every successful product I've built started with me being frustrated enough to pay for a solution.
- Product A exists because I was manually copying data between 3 tools and found myself Googling "automate X to Y" every week.
- Product B exists because I was paying $200/month for a tool I only needed 10% of.
If you had the problem badly enough to pay, chances are other people do too.
The filter: If you wouldn't pay $20/month for it, why would anyone else?
Most failed ideas come from "wouldn't it be cool if..." thinking. Cool doesn't pay rent. Painful problems do.
Step 2: Search Where People Are Already Complaining
You don't need to guess if a problem is real. Just go where people complain about it.
Reddit: Search for "I wish there was a tool that..." or "why is X so expensive?" in relevant subreddits (/r/saas, /r/entrepreneur, /r/webdev).
Twitter: Search for phrases like "I'm tired of" + your niche. Or "why doesn't X exist yet."
Alternative.to / G2 / Capterra: Read 1-star reviews of popular tools. People list EXACTLY what's missing or broken.
I found one of my best product ideas in a 2-star review of a $99/month tool. The reviewer said: "Great product, but way too expensive for solo devs. I just need [one feature]."
So I built that one feature. Charged $19/month. Now it makes $2K/month.
Step 3: Validate Demand BEFORE Writing Code
Here's the mistake I made 7 times: building the product first, then trying to find customers.
Now I do it in reverse:
1. Create a landing page (I use Vercel + Next.js, but honestly Carrd works fine too)
2. Write the headline as if the product already exists:
- Not: "Coming soon!"
- Yes: "Automate X in 5 minutes without code"
3. Add a waitlist form (I use Tally because it's free and takes 2 minutes to set up)
4. Spend $50-100 on ads (Facebook, Reddit, or Google depending on the niche)
If 100 people see the page and 0 sign up? Bad idea. Move on.
If 100 people see it and 20 sign up? You might have something.
I killed 3 ideas at this stage and saved myself months of wasted dev time.
Try Tally for waitlist validation
Step 4: Talk to 5 People Who Have the Problem
Numbers are nice. But conversations tell you why people care.
Once I have 10-20 waitlist signups, I email them:
"Hey [Name], thanks for signing up! I'm building this because [problem]. Quick question: what are you currently using to solve this? And what's the most frustrating part?"
Half won't reply. That's fine.
The ones who DO reply will tell you:
- What they're paying now
- What features actually matter
- What price they'd expect
One conversation saved me from building a feature I thought was "essential" but users didn't care about at all.
Step 5: Check If People Are Already Paying for Adjacents
If there's ZERO competition, that's not a blue ocean. It's a red flag.
Good competition means:
- The problem is real
- People are already paying to solve it
- There's a proven business model
I use Outrank to research what content competitors are ranking for. If existing tools are investing in SEO and content marketing, they're making money. That's validation.
Try Outrank for market research
Bad competition (avoid):
- 10+ well-funded tools doing the exact same thing
- Incumbents with 10-year head starts and huge moats
Good competition (pursue):
- 2-3 established players with clear gaps
- Expensive enterprise tools with no budget-friendly alternative
- Tools that are good but have terrible UX or missing features
Step 6: The "Would I Use This Every Week?" Test
One-time-use tools are hard to monetize. Subscription products need recurring value.
Ask yourself:
- Will users need this weekly? Daily?
- Or is it a "use once and forget" tool?
Example:
- Bad for SaaS: Logo generator (one-time use)
- Good for SaaS: Social media scheduler (daily use)
My most profitable product is something users open 3-5 times per week. My least profitable? Something they use once a month.
Recurring use = recurring revenue.
Step 7: Pre-Sell Before You Build
This is the ultimate validation.
Once you have:
- A landing page
- 20+ waitlist signups
- 5 customer conversations
Offer early access for a discount.
"I'm building [Product]. It'll be $49/month at launch, but early supporters get it for $29/month forever. Interested?"
If 5 people say yes and pay upfront? Build it.
If 0 people pay? Don't build it.
I pre-sold $800 worth of annual subscriptions before writing a single line of code for one product. That's validation AND funding.
The Idea I Almost Ignored (And Shouldn't Have)
Last year, someone emailed me: "Why isn't there a simple tool to [very specific niche use case]?"
I thought: "That's way too niche. Maybe 50 people would want this."
I built it anyway as a weekend experiment. Put it on Product Hunt. Got 12 upvotes.
Today it makes $1,200/month.
Turns out "too niche" doesn't mean "not profitable." It means less competition and higher willingness to pay.
What Doesn't Work (I've Tried)
❌ Idea generation tools / AI brainstorming: They spit out generic ideas everyone's already building.
❌ Trend chasing: "AI is hot, let me build an AI tool!" So is everyone else.
❌ Scratch-your-own-itch without validation: Just because YOU have a problem doesn't mean it's a business. Validate that others will pay.
❌ Building in a vacuum for 6 months: By the time you launch, the problem might not exist anymore, or someone else already solved it.
The Honest Truth About Ideas
Ideas are cheap. Execution is hard. But validated ideas give you a head start.
I spent 9 months building a product I thought was genius. Launched it. Got 3 customers.
I spent 2 weeks validating another idea, pre-sold it, then built it in a month. 50 customers in 90 days.
The difference? One was what I wanted to build. The other was what people wanted to pay for.
My Current Process (Compressed)
- Find a problem I'd pay to solve
- Search Reddit/Twitter for others complaining about it
- Build a landing page + waitlist (using Tally)
- Run $100 in ads to test demand
- Email 5 signups to ask questions
- Research competitors with Outrank
- Pre-sell to 5-10 people
- Build the MVP (fast, using Cursor + Supabase)
- Deliver to early customers
- Iterate based on feedback
If I can't get to step 7, I don't build it.
Tools I Actually Use for Validation
- Tally: Waitlist forms / customer surveys (free, fast, no-code)
- Outrank: Competitive research / keyword validation
- Google Trends: Check if interest is growing or dying
- Supabase: MVP backend (because I don't want to waste time on infrastructure)
- Vercel: Landing page hosting (deploy in 30 seconds)
- Twitter Advanced Search: Find real complaints in real-time
None of these are expensive. Most are free. Validation doesn't require a budget — it requires honesty.
Final Thought
The best SaaS idea you'll ever have is the one that solves a problem you kept Googling and couldn't find a good answer for.
Start there.
Then validate the hell out of it before writing code.
Because building something nobody wants is easy.
Building something people will pay for? That takes work.
I'm Kapil — I build SaaS products, validate ideas badly (sometimes), and share what I learn. Follow me on Twitter for more honest takes on solo building.
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