The Blueprint for Building and Scaling a Successful SaaS Business

Let’s be real—making a successful SaaS business is NOT possible unless you have **DISTRIBUTION**. You either have: 1. Existing distribution (SEO, social, email list), or 2. You know how to *rapidly* kickstart distribution (running ads). Here’s the roadmap I’d follow if I were starting from scratch: **1. Increase your runway.** First thing—figure out how long you can survive without panicking about money. Reduce costs, review monthly expenses, and **calculate your runway based on how much is in the bank**. If you have a job, you might feel like you have *infinite runway*. In that case, earmark a specific budget (say $5,000) for this journey. Treat it like an investment—you’ll work harder knowing it’s a lot of money to throw away if you mess up. **All expenses should come from that budget.** Calculate your runway based on *just that budget* to keep things realistic. Survival is the name of the game. Make sure you’ve got at least 6-9 months of *focused* runway. **2. Build SaaS apps rapidly.** The fastest way to reduce risk is to find a product online that’s already making $100k+ in revenue and build a *rudimentary* version of it. Is this your final strategy? NO. But it’s a great way to start getting revenue quickly. Seeing revenue—even a little—makes a HUGE difference. It extends your runway and boosts your confidence. Your first app shouldn’t take more than a month to launch. Yes, building a world-class SaaS by talking to customers and iterating takes time. **But revenue? You should be seeing that much earlier.** **3. Build out distribution.** This is where the magic happens. Someone in your company (your brother, wife, kid—literally anyone) needs to focus on distribution full-time. * **For SEO:** Start with outreach. Use tools like Ahrefs to create a site list, and then email, DM, or reach out to website owners asking for backlinks. I personally use a sheet to track this process—**if you want it, DM me, and I’ll share it.** * **For social:** Write consistent content on X, Reddit, etc. It’s not rocket science, but it’s *consistent effort*. **4. Have a product first.** Don’t waste time driving traffic to a waitlist page. You need REVENUE. Once you’ve figured out how to distribute your first SaaS, you’ve unlocked a repeatable recipe. The same marketing channels, the same outreach process—it becomes *so much easier* the second time around. **5. Talk to customers.** When the revenue starts coming in, talk to your users. Send them a welcome email. DM them on X. Ask if they need help. Be ridiculously helpful. This is the feedback loop that turns good products into great ones. It’s also how you figure out whether this product could be your big cash cow for years to come. If not? No worries—you’ve now got the skills to launch rapidly *and* build distribution. **TL;DR:** Survive first. Build quickly. Start generating revenue. Then scale distribution like your life depends on it. Rinse, repeat, and profit. What’s your biggest challenge with launching a SaaS? Let me know—I’m curious to hear your thoughts!