I’m building my own SaaS.
I’m joining a growing cohort of AI-powered developers choosing to go it alone. Or at least try.
This isn’t coming out of nowhere. The contracting market has been rough for the past three years. My LinkedIn inbox is eerily silent, when recruiters used to cold-contact me 2–3 times a week. This isn’t a brag – I have just never seen the market in such a terrible state for such a long time in my 20-year career.
Maybe it’s the lingering effects of Brexit. Or the post-Covid hiring spree still correcting. Or the competition from cheaper labour overseas. Or the AI storm making companies question their headcount. Or maybe it’s the PHP language finally, actually losing steam. Whatever the reason, it’s time for a rethink.
And now feels like a good time to give entrepreneurship – or “solopreneurship” – a try. Everyone seems to agree that recent model upgrades (Opus 4.5, Gemini 3, ChatGPT 5.2…) represent a new milestone in capability, so much so that unsupervised agentic work is now a viable option. That changes the economics of building software as a small team... or a team of one.
Generative AI can make up for a lack of skills in many areas. A hardened backend developer like me should be able to conjure up half-decent frontend code without losing his mind. Heck, I even think I can come up with a respectable design, so long as the right skills are loaded.
It’s too early to be specific about the product I’m intending to build. What I can say though is that it’s hardly an original idea. There are plenty of competitors doing more or less the same thing already, but I think I can do it simpler and cheaper. Instead of being disrupted, I’d rather do a bit of the disrupting myself.
To be clear though, this is an experiment. How far can I go on my own? Design and frontend are one thing, but how about marketing? UX? Customer support? SEO? (If that’s even a thing in the age of LLMs.)
There’s a lot of hype out there, and while I’m confident some of it is justified, I also want to see for myself. But there’s one thing I’m absolutely certain of: software development has changed forever. And there is no way in hell I’ll be late to the party.
As others have pointed out, developers resisting AI today look a lot like assembly programmers resisting high-level languages in the 80s – too slow, not “crafty” enough. History didn’t side with them.
The problem is that no one will let you tear down and rebuild your workflow during office hours. Some companies might encourage a level of experimentation, but it will always be constrained by culture and deadlines. It’s no coincidence that the most interesting AI setups are coming from independent developers and founders.
So I’m using this project as a playground. I’ll test tools, workflows, and ideas, and build an AI-powered setup that reflects this new era of software development. If the SaaS takes off, great. If not, the learning alone is worth it.
And I’m planning to write about it, too. Good old written blog posts, right here. So make sure to subscribe to the newsletter below if that sounds good. No videos with silly faces. Promise.