I used to believe that building a SaaS product alone was the ultimate badge of honor.
The late nights, the infinite to-do lists, the quiet thrill of shipping something you created from scratch — it all felt like some poetic rite of passage. Just me, my laptop, and the occasional existential crisis. I wore the “solo founder” label like armor. But what I didn’t realize was how heavy that armor becomes when you carry it too long.
Because SaaS is a solo sport… until it’s not.
The Silent Strain of Doing It Alone
No one really talks about the emotional toll of building in silence.
You’re stuck in your own feedback loop. There’s no one to call out your blind spots, no one to validate that your roadmap makes sense, no one to tell you the feature you’re obsessing over doesn’t matter.
I remember one week where I rewrote the onboarding flow four times — not because users asked for it, but because I just couldn’t decide. It wasn’t perfectionism. It was fatigue masked as control.
“I was spending 12 hours a day coding, but I had no idea if anyone even needed what I was building.”
— Josh Pigford, Founder of Baremetrics
That quote hit me like a gut punch. Because that was me.
The Turning Point
Everything changed the moment I decided to share.
Not pitch decks. Not polished launches. Just honest, messy thoughts in a Slack group of indie builders.
At first, it felt weird. Like I was breaking some sacred solo-maker code. But slowly, I started realizing the truth: collaboration isn’t weakness — it’s fuel.
I wasn’t giving up control. I was creating space for others to add value.
“The moment I hired a part-time designer, my whole product started to breathe. It wasn’t just mine anymore — it was ours.”
— Courtland Allen, Indie Hackers
And it’s true — something shifts when you stop building in a vacuum. Your product becomes sharper. Your ideas stretch further. You feel… lighter.
SaaS Doesn’t Scale Solo
There’s a myth in tech that greatness is born in isolation — that the lone founder is some kind of modern-day hero.
But in reality? Most of the products we admire — Stripe, Notion, Figma — they were shaped by teams. Even Pieter Levels, the ultimate indie icon, eventually hired help.
The thing is, collaboration doesn’t always mean co-founders or full-time hires. Sometimes, it’s just someone who gets it. Someone who tells you, “Yeah, that copy could hit harder,” or “Hey, did you consider this flow instead?”
That’s enough to make you feel less insane. More grounded. More alive in the process.
The Future Is Human
In a world of SaaS automation, AI co-pilots, and faceless UIs, I truly believe the next generation of tools will be defined not by how fast they ship — but by how human they feel.
And that humanity starts at the source: the builder.
Your loneliness seeps into your product. So does your joy. Your conviction. Your clarity.
SaaS is a solo sport at the start — but the moment you invite others in, it becomes a movement.
“Build with people who love the problem, not just the product.”
— Naval Ravikant
My Bytes of Wisdom
If you’re building alone right now, I see you. And I respect the grind.
But don’t stay isolated for too long. Not because you can’t succeed — but because it’s harder to feel alive when no one else is there to witness the journey.
Find your people. Open the door.
You might just build something even bigger than you imagined.
– Michael Ratnam
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