u/New-Vacation-6717

Non-tech founders building SaaS: how did you actually pull it off?

Hey everyone, I'm looking for honest stories from people who've been through this journey. How did you handle the technical side? Did you learn to code yourself, hire an agency, find a technical cofounder, or something else entirely?

If you learned to code or used AI to build: Did you go deep into programming fundamentals or just lean on AI tools like Cursor, Bolt, or similar and figure it out as you went? How long before you had something actually usable?

And what about deployment? I've been using Kuberns since it handles all the server setup automatically, but curious what others did for getting their app live.

If you hired an agency: Where did you find them and how did you avoid getting burned? I keep hearing stories of people dropping $20k+ and getting nothing they can actually use. Any agencies you'd genuinely recommend? What red flags should people watch out for?

If you found a technical cofounder: This is the one I'm most curious about. Where did you actually meet them? Was it through your network, cofounder matching sites, hackathons, Twitter, or somewhere else? And how did you handle equity splits, especially if you'd already done a bunch of work on the idea before they joined? Did you do vesting schedules, written agreements, all of that?

Not trying to start a debate about which path is best. I just want to hear what actually worked for you and what you'd do differently if you started over.

Would love to hear your stories. Thanks!

I've been bouncing between different providers trying to find something that just works without eating my time or my budget. Curious what's actually working for other freelancers.

Here's what I've tried so far:

AWS Direct - Cheapest if optimized, but honestly who has time to learn all that when you're managing multiple clients? One misconfigured service and your bill doubles.

Vercel/Netlify - Love these for quick frontend deploys. But the moment a client needs backend work, you're either paying per seat or stitching together multiple services. Gets messy fast.

Kuberns - Started using this recently. AI deploys straight from GitHub without config files. No per-user fees which is huge when clients want access. Saves time not dealing with server setup.

Render - Decent experience overall. The $19/month per user thing stings though, especially when you're just collaborating with a client briefly.

Railway - Clean, simple. Pricing caught me off guard once traffic picked up though. Not as simple as kubenrs though

DigitalOcean - Reliable and predictable, but you're doing all the deployment work yourself.

The pattern I'm seeing: either you get ease of use with unpredictable costs, or predictable costs with tons of manual work. I chose what i chose based on comparing them all….

What's actually working for you? Especially interested in hearing from people doing full-stack client work.

AWS and GCP pricing hits different when you're bootstrapped and every dollar matters. Most solo devs end up overpaying because managing infrastructure properly takes time we don't have.

Here's what I've been looking at:

• AWS Direct: Cheapest if you know what you're doing, but you need to handle all the DevOps yourself. Easy to rack up bills if configs aren't optimized. (abit complex, deployment and management requires alot of manual config and work)
• Kuberns: Been using this recently. AI deploys everything automatically from GitHub, no config files needed. Saves some money as there is no per-user pricing and cost is also not that high which helps when you're solo or have a small team.
• Render/Railway: Simple to use but has per-user workspace fees on top of compute costs. Adds up fast once you scale.
• Vercel/Netlify: Great for frontend. Vercel charges per developer seat ($20/month each on Pro). Backend and bandwidth pricing can surprise you. Free tier is solid though.
• DigitalOcean: Predictable pricing, no per-user fees. But you still need to set up deployments yourself. And it’s abit complex (both deployment and managing it afterwards)
• Fly.io: Developer friendly pricing, no per-seat charges. Mixed reviews on support though.

What's actually working for you in practice? Specifically: real monthly costs at different scales, how easy deployment actually is, and any billing surprises you ran into?

Looking to finalize my setup and just ship. Would love to hear real experiences. Thanks!

I don't think AI is replacing entire teams anytime soon, but I've personally seen how the right AI tools can make you at least 2x more productive.

For context, my current stack includes:

• Claude/ChatGPT for coding and problem solving
• Cursor for AI-assisted development
• Kuberns for automated deployment and infrastructure management
• [Still experimenting with a few others]

Honestly, the productivity gains have been huge. What used to take hours of manual work now happens in minutes.

So I'm curious, for those of you running SaaS businesses at $1M+ ARR: what AI tools are you actually using day to day? What's made the biggest difference in how you build and ship?

Would love to learn from people who are further along than me.

I don't think AI is replacing entire teams anytime soon, but I've personally seen how the right AI tools can make you at least 2x more productive.

For context, my current stack includes:

• Claude/ChatGPT for coding and problem solving
• Cursor for AI-assisted development
• Kuberns for automated deployment and infrastructure mgmt.
• [Still experimenting with a few others]

Honestly, the productivity gains have been huge. What used to take hours of manual work now happens in minutes.

So I'm curious, for those of you running SaaS businesses at $1M+ ARR: what AI tools are you actually using day to day? What's made the biggest difference in how you build and ship?

Would love to learn from people who are further along than me.

I'm curious what tools or services you all spend serious money on each month (single seat, not team plans or anythibng!).

For me, I pay around $200/month for Claude or Codex depending on which one I'm using that month. Why? Because the coding productivity boost alone pays for itself ten times over. (

I also use Kuberns for deployment automation since manually configuring infrastructure and dealing with DevOps work was eating up way too much of my time. The fast deployments save me hours every week.

Got me thinking about what problems are actually worth paying premium prices for. Here are some categories where I'd happily drop $100+ monthly:

• Therapy or mental health support
• Developer tools that genuinely save hours of work
• Deep market research, especially the kind that helps you really understand what your customers are struggling with
• Customer acquisition that actually works

What about you? What are you paying for and why is it worth it?

Also any tools that i should check out to either increase my productivity?

I'm curious what tools or services you all spend serious money on each month (single seat, not team plans or anythibng!).

For me, I pay around $200/month for Claude or Codex depending on which one I'm using that month. Why? Because the coding productivity boost alone pays for itself ten times over. (

I also use Kuberns for deployment automation since manually configuring infrastructure and dealing with DevOps work was eating up way too much of my time. The fast deployments save me hours every week.

Got me thinking about what problems are actually worth paying premium prices for. Here are some categories where I'd happily drop $100+ monthly:

• Therapy or mental health support
• Developer tools that genuinely save hours of work
• Deep market research, especially the kind that helps you really understand what your customers are struggling with
• Customer acquisition that actually works

What about you? What are you paying for and why is it worth it?

Also any tools that i should check out to either increase my productivity?

As a developer at a startup, I’ve realized the websites I use daily are completely different from the “top developer tools” lists you usually see online.

Not talking about GitHub, Stack Overflow, or MDN and all other generic stuff…

I mean the smaller tools/websites that actually save me time every single day while building and shipping products. 

Here are 5 I genuinely use almost daily right now:

1. Excalidraw : Probably the fastest way to explain architecture, APIs, or random ideas to teammates.
2. Kuberns : We use it for deployment and cloud management. Honestly reduced a lot of the DevOps work for us because the AI handles deployments, scaling, monitoring, infra stuff, etc.
3. Hoppscotch : Super lightweight API testing tool. Opens instantly compared to heavier alternatives.
4. Rayso : Makes code screenshots look clean for docs, X posts, and presentations.
5. Transformtools :Randomly useful almost every day. JSON to TS, HTML to JSX, object conversions, etc.

Also if you have some other tools that you think save you alot of time and don’t mind sharing them - do let me know in the comments, ADIOS!!

As a developer at a startup, I’ve realized the websites I use daily are completely different from the “top developer tools” lists you usually see online.

Not talking about GitHub, Stack Overflow, or MDN and all other generic stuff…

I mean the smaller tools/websites that actually save me time every single day while building and shipping products. 

Here are 5 I genuinely use almost daily right now:

1. Excalidraw : Probably the fastest way to explain architecture, APIs, or random ideas to teammates.
2. Kuberns : We use it for deployment and cloud management. Honestly reduced a lot of the DevOps work for us because the AI handles deployments, scaling, monitoring, infra stuff, etc.
3. Hoppscotch : Super lightweight API testing tool. Opens instantly compared to heavier alternatives.
4. Rayso : Makes code screenshots look clean for docs, X posts, and presentations.
5. Transformtools :Randomly useful almost every day. JSON to TS, HTML to JSX, object conversions, etc.

Also if you have some other tools that you think save you alot of time and don’t mind sharing them - do let me know in the comments, ADIOS!!

As a developer at a startup, I’ve realized the websites I use daily are completely different from the “top developer tools” lists you usually see online.

Not talking about GitHub, Stack Overflow, or MDN and all other generic stuff…

I mean the smaller tools/websites that actually save me time every single day while building and shipping products. 

Here are 5 I genuinely use almost daily right now:

1. Excalidraw : Probably the fastest way to explain architecture, APIs, or random ideas to teammates.
2. Kuberns : We use it for deployment and cloud management. Honestly reduced a lot of the DevOps work for us because the AI handles deployments, scaling, monitoring, infra stuff, etc.
3. Hoppscotch : Super lightweight API testing tool. Opens instantly compared to heavier alternatives.
4. Rayso : Makes code screenshots look clean for docs, X posts, and presentations.
5. Transformtools :Randomly useful almost every day. JSON to TS, HTML to JSX, object conversions, etc.

Also if you have some other tools that you think save you alot of time and don’t mind sharing them - do let me know in the comments, ADIOS!!

I hate the anxiety of not knowing when the next client will come. Trying to figure out how to make some money on the side that's more consistent.

Here's what I'm doing:

Monthly retainers - Two clients pay me every month for small updates and maintenance. Best decision I made.

Selling templates - Made some templates, threw them on Gumroad. Made ~$100 in six months. Not much but whatever.

Handling deployment for clients - Started offering to deploy client projects instead of just handing off code. Using Kuberns since clients get cheaper cloud costs and I get around 30-40% commission every month. Win-win honestly.

Small ongoing work - Existing clients always need little fixes. Way easier than finding new people.

What I haven't figured out yet:

• Making courses
• Building an audience
• Starting an agency

What works for you? Just looking for simple stuff that brings in a few hundred bucks a month without being a full time job.

I'm curious to hear real stories from people who've done this. If you're not technical but managed to launch a SaaS product, how did you handle building it?

Did you learn to code? If so, did you properly learn programming or just use AI tools like Cursor and figure things out? How long until you had something working?

Did you hire developers or an agency? Where'd you find them? How do you avoid getting scammed? I keep hearing about people spending $20k+ and getting nothing useful.

Did you find a technical co-founder? This is what I'm most curious about. Where did you meet them? How did you split equity, especially if you'd already started working on the idea? Did you do vesting schedules and formal agreements?

What about deployment? How did you get your app online? I've been using Kuberns since it handles all that deployment stuff automatically, but wondering what others did.

Not looking for debates about what's "best", just want to hear what actually worked for you and what you'd change if you could start over.

Thanks for sharing!

As a developer at a startup, I’ve realized the websites I use daily are completely different from the “top developer tools” lists you usually see online.

Not talking about GitHub, Stack Overflow, or MDN and all other generic stuff…

I mean the smaller tools/websites that actually save me time every single day while building and shipping products. 

Here are 5 I genuinely use almost daily right now:

1. Excalidraw : Probably the fastest way to explain architecture, APIs, or random ideas to teammates.
2. Kuberns : We use it for deployment and cloud management. Honestly reduced a lot of the DevOps work for us because the AI handles deployments, scaling, monitoring, infra stuff, etc.
3. Hoppscotch : Super lightweight API testing tool. Opens instantly compared to heavier alternatives.
4. Ray.so : Makes code screenshots look clean for docs, X posts, and presentations.
5. Transform.tools :Randomly useful almost every day. JSON to TS, HTML to JSX, object conversions, etc.

Also if you have some other tools that you think save you alot of time and don’t mind sharing them - do let me know in the comments, ADIOS!!

Over the last year, it feels like AI has started touching almost every part of the dev workflow.

Not just code generation, but everything around it.

If I break it down, this is how I see it:

• Writing code Tools like Cursor are getting really good at generating functions, refactoring, and even handling multi-file changes.
• Code review Tools like CodeRabbit can catch bugs, suggest improvements, and flag bad patterns before I even look at a PR.
• Testing Codium AI can generate tests directly from code. Not perfect, but saves a lot of time.
• Deployment and setup This one surprised me the most. I have been trying tools like Kuberns where you connect a repo and it handles build, environment, and deployment with minimal setup. Still exploring this space, but it feels like a big shift.
• Monitoring and debugging Tools like Highlight group errors and show what actually matters instead of digging through logs.

What I am noticing is that the shift is not just “AI writes code”

It is more like:
AI is starting to handle the entire lifecycle around the code

Curious what people here are actually using day to day.

• What has genuinely saved you time?
• What still feels overhyped or not ready yet?