u/SeasonedTravelr

Curious how many people here are building SaaS solo vs with a partner or friend?

For those building with someone else, how’s it going? Do you think you’re at an advantage or disadvantage? How do you split responsibilities?

My husband and I have been building a year at a glance calendar app together as a side project alongside our full-time jobs for a bit over a year now. He’s a software developer and I’m in marketing, so we basically just defaulted into the same split for our own product, too.

I figured my husband would have a lot more on his plate than me, which would feel a bit unfair, but that really hasn’t been the case. Sure, our roadmap is extensive and he has a ton to do, but the marketing tasks never end, either. Especially difficult because neither of us have a following to use as a strong foundation.

One major benefit we’ve seen working together is that if only one of us was working on it, the other could possibly feel neglected, but at least when we’re working, we’re working toward something together.

On the other hand, if we disagree about product direction, that can of course cause some friction. But it hasn't been a major issue so far.

What’s been your biggest challenge working with someone else?

For those interested in the app we’re building: The app itself came from a frustration we had with existing calendars always stopping at a monthly view. We wanted something that let us zoom out and actually see our whole year with events visible so we could plan more proactively instead of just reacting week-to-week. We used to manage this in an excel but that got annoying fast. It’s called Glance: https://getglance.io/

A few other things that make it different:

• You can configure which event types appear in year view vs day view (for example: major events visible everywhere, daily routines only in day view)
• Syncs with Google Calendar
• Available as an Android app and web version
• 100% free (we’re in beta)

My husband and I launched Glance a year ago: https://getglance.io/

We created it because pretty much every calendar app keeps you stuck in a month view, and we wanted more long-term visibility of our time (minimum 3 months) to...

• plan our vacations,
• prepare for busy months and upcoming commitments without accidentally overbooking overselves,
• be more mindful of our time as it has a tendency to fly by.

We started off in an excel and got frustrated that it obviously didn't sync with our normal calendars, so we decided to build it.

Glance is also unique in that you can zoom out to a full year or zoom back in to individual day plans, and you can configure the visibility of your events so you only see "major" plans in the long-term view and everything in the day view (without constantly toggling calendars on/off). Additionally:

• Syncs automatically with Google Calendar
• Works on web + Android

My husband does the development, I do the marketing. It's slow going as we both work full-time jobs, but we're pretty proud of what we've built together and find it useful in our own lives.

During this year since launch, we've gotten 300+ sign-ups. Not horrible, but also not great. It's still free but we plan to add paid features in the coming months (there will always be a free base version).

I think the product is great (of course I am biased) but I'm struggling on the marketing side as we both have basically 0 following on social and we don't want to pay for ads until we have our paid version ready. I know the website needs a lot of work to look more modern and that will probably be next on my list.

What we'd appreciate your "roast" on, especially from people who are into productivity, time management and planning:

• Messaging on the website: what resonates, what doesn't?
• For the app itself, what do you like about Glance? Dislike? What is missing that you would need to make this an app you come back to regularly?

Appreciate your time!

Curious how many people here are building SaaS solo vs with a partner or friend?

For those building with someone else, how’s it going? Do you think you’re at an advantage or disadvantage? How do you split responsibilities?

My husband and I have been building a year at a glance calendar app together as a side project alongside our full-time jobs for a bit over a year now. He’s a software developer and I’m in marketing, so we basically just defaulted into the same split for our own product, too.

I figured my husband would have a lot more on his plate than me, which would feel a bit unfair, but that really hasn’t been the case. Sure, our roadmap is extensive and he has a ton to do, but the marketing tasks never end, either. Especially difficult because neither of us have a following to use as a strong foundation.

What’s been your biggest challenge working with someone else?

For those interested in the app we’re building: The app itself came from a frustration we had with existing calendars always stopping at monthly view. We wanted something that let us zoom out and actually see our whole year with events visible so we could plan more proactively instead of just reacting week-to-week. We used to manage this in an excel but that got annoying fast. It’s called Glance: https://getglance.io/

A few other things that make it different:

• You can configure which event types appear in year view vs day view (for example: major events visible everywhere, daily routines only in day view)
• Syncs with Google Calendar
• Available as an Android app and web version
• 100% free (we’re in beta)

I’m huge into planning and time management. My motto is basically “If it’s not in the calendar, it’s not going to happen.”

Every calendar app I tried had the same limitation: you can only really see one month at a time. Those with a “year view” were usually just empty grids with no events visible.

But I try not to plan my life week-by-week or month-by-month, that’s too reactive. I wanted to zoom out and see my whole year with real events visible. This more proactive approach helps me:

• See when busy seasons are coming (& avoid overloading them further)
• Manage how travel is distributed across the year
• Set long-term goals (& the accompanying activities, milestones, etc)
• Not get blindsided at the start of a new month because I was too focused on the current one

The closest solution I found were those giant wall calendars, but they’re ugly, not portable, and obviously don’t stay in sync with my digital calendar that I use everyday.

So my husband and I decided to build the digital calendar we wished existed: Glance. A few other things that make it different:

• You can configure which event types appear in year view vs day view (for example: major events visible everywhere, daily routines only in day view)
• Syncs with Google Calendar
• Available as an Android app and web version
• 100% free (we’re in beta)

We’re actively improving on it and would love your feedback if you’re also into productivity, planning and time management.

If you use a calendar heavily: what would a tool need to have for you to actually switch your main calendar?