Before You Spend 3 Months Building Your Next SaaS, Read This

Before You Spend 3 Months Building Your Next SaaS, Read This

There’s a trap I see founders fall into again and again.

They have an idea.

They check the competitors.

They convince themselves the market is big enough.

They start building.

Three months later, the product is finally ready.

And then comes the painful part:

Nobody seems particularly interested.

So they start changing things.

New landing page.

New pricing.

New features.

More AI.

More integrations.

More posts.

Sometimes that works.

But sometimes you're trying to optimize a business that was never properly validated in the first place.

If you're sitting on your next SaaS idea right now, I'd do something different before writing the first serious line of code.

I'd try to prove that the problem deserves a solution.

Don't validate the idea. Validate the pain.

This distinction changed how I think about SaaS.

Founders often ask:

«“Do you think this is a good idea?”»

That's almost the wrong question.

People are naturally polite.

They don't want to discourage you.

And hypothetical questions are easy to answer.

Instead, ask:

«“How are you solving this problem right now?”»

That's a completely different conversation.

If someone says:

«“I don't really have this problem.”»

Great.

You've just saved yourself weeks.

If they say:

«“I use a spreadsheet.”»

Interesting.

If they say:

«“I pay someone $300 a month to do this.”»

Now I'm paying attention.

If they say:

«“It's awful. I spend four hours every Monday doing it.”»

Even better.

The goal isn't to make someone excited about your idea.

The goal is to discover whether they're already paying a price for the problem.

---

Your competitor might not be another SaaS

This is another mistake that's easy to make.

You search for competitors and find:

• Product A
• Product B
• Product C

Then you think:

«“The market is crowded.”»

But your real competitor might be:

Excel.

Or:

Google Docs.

Or:

copy/paste.

Or:

a VA.

Or:

someone doing the job manually every Friday afternoon.

People don't necessarily need to hate your competitor before they'll consider switching.

They just need a reason to believe your solution is significantly better than what they're already doing.

So when researching a SaaS idea, don't just ask:

«“Who sells software like mine?”»

Ask:

«“What do people do instead?”»

That question opens up a much bigger picture.

---

Here's my 5-step pre-build test

You don't need a complicated startup framework.

Start here.

Step 1: Find one specific person

Don't target:

«“Businesses.”»

Try:

«“Small marketing agencies managing 10–30 active clients.”»

The narrower your initial customer, the easier it becomes to understand their workflow.

Step 2: Find one recurring problem

Not:

«“Marketing is difficult.”»

That's not actionable.

Instead:

«“Agency owners spend two hours every Friday compiling campaign results for clients.”»

Now we have something we can investigate.

Step 3: Find the current workaround

Ask:

«“What happens today?”»

This is where you'll often discover the real opportunity.

Maybe they:

• copy data between tools
• maintain spreadsheets
• send repetitive emails
• manually generate reports
• use several disconnected tools
• pay employees to do repetitive work

A terrible workaround can be more valuable than a glowing opinion.

Why?

Because the workaround demonstrates effort.

And effort is evidence.

Step 4: Measure the pain

Ask:

«“How often does this happen?”»

Then:

«“How long does it take?”»

Then:

«“What happens when it goes wrong?”»

You're trying to turn vague frustration into something measurable.

Four hours every week is different from five minutes every month.

Step 5: Ask what they've already tried

This question is gold:

«“What have you tried to fix it?”»

If they've tried nothing, don't automatically celebrate.

Maybe there's no meaningful pain.

But if they've bought software, hired someone, built spreadsheets, created automations, or developed elaborate workarounds…

You've found evidence that the problem matters.

---

The $0 validation test

Here's something I'd try before spending serious money.

Find 10 people who genuinely fit your target customer.

Don't pitch them your SaaS.

Don't show them your beautiful mockup.

Don't ask:

«“Would you buy this?”»

Instead, ask about their current workflow.

For example:

«“How do you currently handle X?”»

Then listen.

Ask:

«“What's the most annoying part?”»

Then:

«“How often does that happen?”»

Then:

«“What have you tried?”»

Then:

«“What does that process cost you?”»

You're not looking for compliments.

You're looking for repeated pain patterns.

If six or seven people independently describe essentially the same problem, that's far more interesting than ten people saying your Figma design looks amazing.

---

And then there's the uncomfortable part

What if people confirm the problem…

…but nobody wants your solution?

That's actually useful.

It may mean:

• the problem isn't painful enough
• your proposed solution isn't good enough
• the wrong people are being interviewed
• the existing alternatives are already good enough
• the price/value equation doesn't work

That's not failure.

That's information purchased before development instead of after it.

I'd much rather discover that on a Tuesday afternoon than after six months of coding.

---

Don't over-validate forever

There's another trap on the opposite side.

You can interview people for six months and never build anything.

That's not validation.

At some point you need to make a small bet.

The goal is not:

«“Prove with 100% certainty that this SaaS will succeed.”»

You can't.

The goal is:

«“Collect enough evidence that building a small version is a rational next experiment.”»

That's a much more realistic standard.

---

Build the smallest useful version

Once the problem looks real, resist the urge to build the complete product.

Ask:

«“What is the smallest thing I can build that produces the desired outcome?”»

Not the smallest thing that technically works.

The smallest thing that actually helps someone.

That's an important difference.

Your first version might be ridiculously limited.

Good.

You're trying to learn.

If customers love it, you can expand.

If they don't, you've lost much less.

---

The founders I'd worry about most

Not the ones who have no idea.

The ones who are extremely confident before talking to customers.

Confidence is useful.

But confidence based entirely on your own assumptions can become expensive.

Your product doesn't care how much you believe in it.

The market doesn't care how many nights you stayed awake building it.

And customers don't owe you a purchase because you worked hard.

That's not pessimism.

It's actually freeing.

You don't need to prove that your idea is brilliant.

You only need to discover whether it solves a problem people care enough about.

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So before you open your IDE tonight…

Write down these five things:

Who has the problem?

What exactly are they doing today?

How often does it happen?

What does it cost them?

What have they already tried?

If you can't answer those questions, I'd delay the build.

Not forever.

Just long enough to replace some assumptions with evidence.

And if you're exploring MicroSaaS specifically, I found a resource that goes deeper into finding opportunities, validating them, using AI/no-code approaches to build small products, and taking them toward the market.

Full disclosure: I'm an affiliate for it, so I may earn a commission if you purchase through my link.

You don't need it to do the five-question test above. But if you're looking for a structured roadmap rather than piecing the process together yourself, you can check it out here:

👉 "See the MicroSaaS guide" (https://www.digistore24.com/redir/695164/Quratulain94/)

Either way, remember this:

Your first job isn't to build the SaaS.

Your first job is to find out whether the problem deserves one.