The Story of a SaaS That Went Nowhere

I spent six months building a SaaS MVP from scratch—backend, frontend, DevOps, analytics, everything. It had all the ‘right’ features, a sleek UI, and even paid ads running. Yet… it completely failed.

• I was hired to develop an MVP for a startup that wanted to launch a new SaaS every month.
• The vision was big, but from day one, we made critical mistakes that killed the project before it even had a chance.
• What went wrong? Here’s the raw truth.

A little bit about this project

This SaaS MVP was designed as a people search engine for the USA. Users could search for a person by full name or phone number, and the system would return a list of potential matches. To refine results, users could filter by state, gender, and age.

Behind the scenes, the platform aggregated data from multiple paid 3rd-party APIs, chaining them together to deliver the most comprehensive information possible.

How the Funnel Worked (User Flow):

1️⃣ User searches for a person → Gets a blurred preview of limited data.
2️⃣ Pre-checkout page prompts the user to unlock the full report.
3️⃣ Checkout & payment (Stripe integration).
4️⃣ User gets full access to the report & can download a PDF.
5️⃣ Optional: Users could pay extra for a criminal background check.

Tech Stack Used:

✅ Backend: Laravel (PHP)
✅ Frontend: Livewire & TailwindCSS
✅ UX/UI Design: Figma
✅ Hosting & Infrastructure: Google Cloud

Why This Matters in the Context of the MVP Failure

• The core business model was solid—monetizing premium data access.
• The problem wasn’t the tech but the lack of early validation & strategic execution.
• This experience reinforced a key lesson: A strong idea with great features can still fail if you don’t validate demand and optimize the conversion funnel first.

‍

🚨 The SaaS MVP Mistakes That Killed the Project❌

‍

Mistake #1: No Market Validation – We Built Before Testing Demand

The biggest assumption that led to failure? The founder believed that if we built it, users would come.

We spent months coding, integrating APIs, and designing the perfect user experience—without ever stopping to ask: “Do people actually want this?”

🚨 The reality: Just because a product solves a problem doesn’t mean people will pay for it.

When we launched, we expected high conversions from paid ads. Instead, we got:
❌ Lots of clicks, but no purchases.
❌ Users dropping off at the checkout page.
❌ Confused feedback like “Why would I pay for this when I can Google for free?”

We should have validated demand first instead of assuming.

‍

❌ Mistake #2: Wrong hire - No Clear Leadership

TL;DR Leadership Chaos killed the SaaS MVP

1️⃣First PM: Didn't understand founder's version, unfamiliar with analytics, funnels, google tools, stripe dashboard → prioritized wrong features.

2️⃣ Second PM: lack of project organization skills, constantly shifted priorities, unrealistic deadlines & sprints, AI obssesed, lack of people management and communication.

3️⃣ Third PM was actually UX/UI designer promoted to junior PM. It was few shades better but most of the time he was proxy between development team and founder. Founder was still PM in one hand.

❌ Result: No clear product direction. Constant rework. Wasted months.

✅ Lesson: A SaaS needs a clear, focused product strategy—not leadership chaos.

❌ Mistake #3: Feature Creep – We Focused on the Wrong Things

Instead of focusing on monetization and validation, we got lost in feature creep—building things that felt important but didn’t move the needle.

For weeks, we worked on:
❌ Fancy dashboards – We spent time perfecting visual reports instead of validating if users even needed them.
❌ Over-engineered automations – We built complex backend workflows before we had a single paying user.
❌ Pixel-perfect UI tweaks – The designer (who was also the PM) focused on marginal visual improvements instead of fixing user friction.

🚀 What We Should Have Done Instead:

✅ Stripe payments first – No monetization = no business. The ability to pay easily should have been priority #1.
✅ A working funnel + analytics – We needed basic conversion tracking before adding any extra features.

💡 Lesson learned: The simplest working version of a product is better than a perfect product no one pays for.

❌ Mistake #4: Relying on Paid Ads Instead of Organic Validation

After six months of work, we finally launched. The founder was confident we’d see traction immediately—so he pumped money into Google Ads.

🚨 The result? Zero conversions.

Why? Because paid ads can’t fix:
❌ A weak product-market fit – People clicked but didn’t see enough value to buy.
❌ A broken user journey – Users got to checkout but didn’t trust the product enough to pay.

🚀 What We Should Have Done Instead:

✅ Organic validation first – Testing on LinkedIn, Reddit, and direct cold outreach would have told us if people were actually interested before spending on ads.
✅ Pre-sales before development – We should have offered early access discounts or manually provided reports to validate demand before automating everything.

💡 Lesson learned: If users won’t buy from a direct conversation, they won’t buy from an ad.

📢 What I’d Do Differently Next Time

🚀 MVP Rule #1: Prove people want the product before writing a single line of code.
💳 MVP Rule #2: Prioritize payments and onboarding over features—if users can’t pay, nothing else matters.
📈 MVP Rule #3: Paid ads don’t save a bad product. Validate demand first, scale later.

👉 Thinking about launching an MVP? I help SaaS founders avoid these mistakes and launch faster and smarter. Let’s talk.