What I learned as a SaaS B2B Startup Co-Founder — so far.

Building your own software product is a dream for many developers — including me. When my partner came up with an idea, we decided to turn it into a SaaS for retail stores in Brazil. That’s how My Turn was born, launching two years ago with just two customers.

At the time, I was purely a software guy. But over these past two years, I’ve had to learn — often the hard way — what it really takes to run a business. There’s still a long road ahead, and I know there’s plenty more to figure out, but I wanted to share what I’ve learned so far. If you’re a developer thinking about launching your own product, this might help you understand the challenges of working with users, the market, and the business customers.

A Great Product Isn’t Enough.

Imagine you have a brilliant idea for a SaaS. As a developer, you dive right in — crafting a seamless experience, designing a beautiful UI, optimizing your API, and making sure your server runs lightning fast. But… where are your users?

Unless you put as much effort into marketing as you do into engineering, your perfect product will be like a stunning, deserted island — beautiful, but empty.

You need to understand your market and plan your marketing strategy with the same dedication and passion you put into building your product. And trust me, I’m still learning this myself. That’s why my first tip is: make sure you have a well-tested marketing strategy before launch.

Managing Servers Manually? Not Worth the Effort.

When starting a product on a tight budget, it’s common to choose the cheapest server option — usually a Linux VPS that you set up and maintain yourself. At first, this seems like a great idea. But in the long run, it’s not worth it.

You’ll find yourself splitting time between improving your product and managing server updates, security patches, and configurations. Tasks that are just a few clicks away on managed platforms like DigitalOcean’s App Platform or Heroku become time-consuming headaches. Instead of focusing on growing your business, you’ll be stuck maintaining infrastructure.

Business Customers Won’t Subscribe on Their Own.

Over the past two years, I’ve learned that business customers rarely sign up for your SaaS just by reading your landing page and going through an automated onboarding. They want to see the real people behind the product, fully understand what they’re subscribing to, and often expect a hands-on setup.

This means your self-serve onboarding might not be as crucial as you think — at least in the beginning. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have one, but don’t rely on it too much. You can launch your B2B SaaS without a perfect onboarding flow and focus instead on direct sales and customer relationships.

Choosing the Right Payment Methods.

When we first launched My Turn, we designed the subscription process to be credit card-only. However, in Brazil, many businesses prefer paying with Boleto — a bank-issued payment slip that can be used to pay for goods and services.

Integrating Boleto into our flow has been a challenge because, unlike credit card payments, Boleto payments aren’t immediately processed. It can take 1 to 2 business days for payments to be credited.

My advice here is to research and understand the payment preferences of business customers in your country. Make sure you’re offering the most common and convenient methods for them to subscribe.

Building a Scalable Architecture from the Start.

When you’re building a product from scratch, especially with a small team or on your own, it’s tempting to go with the quickest approach — usually a full-stack application. While this might work in the short term, it’s not the best idea for the long haul.

To scale your product and add new features more effectively, I highly recommend building an API-only backend with your preferred programming language and a separate frontend with your preferred framework.

This approach will make your life much easier when it’s time to add new features or maintain the existing ones, as it provides greater flexibility and separation of concerns.

Keep Software Responsibilities Separate.

When it comes to managing the responsibilities of your software, I recommend thinking carefully before you decide to implement everything within your API infrastructure.

For example, if you need to send scheduled email reports to your customers daily or weekly, rather than setting up a cron job within your API, it might be simpler and more efficient to use a Serverless Function that fetches the data from your API and sends the email.

Similarly, you might not want to handle invoice generation directly in your API. It’s often a better idea to use an automation tool that generates and sends invoices based on events from your payment gateway. For instance, when a Stripe payment succeeds, an automated workflow can create and send the invoice to the customer.

The key takeaway here is: keep your API focused on the core product responsibilities, and offload other tasks to specialized services when possible.

Your First Customers Have the Most to Say — Listen.

No matter how well you understand the market for your product, your customers will always know it better. They live it every day.

Over the past two years, many of the features integrated into My Turn were suggested by our early customers. These features not only added value to the product but also became key elements of our current sales strategy.

The lesson here is simple: listen to your customers, actively seek their feedback, and maintain a close relationship with them. They’re the ones who can help you take your product to the next level.

Conclusion

Building and growing a SaaS product isn’t just about writing great code — it’s about understanding your market, listening to your customers, and making smart decisions about your infrastructure and business strategy. By focusing on the right payment methods, keeping your API responsibilities clear, and maintaining strong customer relationships, you’ll be better equipped to build a sustainable product. The journey is long, but with the right mindset and approach, you’ll be able to scale and adapt as you go.

Don’t fear failure, and remember to enjoy the journey along the way :)