I built a Micro Saas that nobody used (Here’s why)
I had always dreamt of building a micro saas app, and just recently, when I was free from my usual construction job, I thought to myself, let’s build a micro saas app, but I had no idea what to build.
So I looked up online, read forums, watched YouTube videos, and so on. I knew the basics of it, though. Solve a problem for a specific niche or community and just get paid. Yes, it’s that simple until I actually started.
Where do I get my niche? Look for a niche where you already have domain knowledge, in what industry you are already working in, and what small problems you encounter every day. So I came across dozens of ideas and problems over the course of a few days. I took it slow at first, but I was eager to just get something out.
I was already working in HVAC, and to find some side jobs, I just had to build relationships with general contractors, but how do I find them? I just looked up manually on Google Maps, called a lot of them. This process is long term which yields results later on, not right away.
So I tried to look up current permits being filed in the city; it was public information that anyone could look up online without even making an account. I used to go to those sites that were under construction and would usually find some more information, and considering I already knew that there was construction going on at a particular site, there were more chances of me getting the work on the spot by calling the general contractor or owner.
I thought to myself that other small trades, one man or a small team, would be struggling to find work, and if I can organize this permit information, which I think most tradies don’t know about, it would be a great solution to their problems of finding work and directly approaching a warm lead.
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So, I went back and forth with ChatGPT about this, evaluating this idea. Finally, I just thought of going ahead and build this without actually doing any real market research or talking to any potential customer, because in my eyes, this app was awesome, it was bound to work.
I used Base 44 to build the app in under 24 hours. I even got their builder plan and spent $50 overall for this small project. It was back and forth with some troubleshooting in the app, but I finally got everything figured out, and after about a day of work, the app was ready to use.
It was a different kind of feeling, of accomplishing something but still having nothing achieved, I mean, it was the reality. So, I crafted a message about what my app does, along with the website link, and sent it to some general contractors and acquaintances.
I thought to myself, “OMG, they are gonna call me now and ask me about it, I will be rich overnight, this is gonna spread like fire!”
Nothing, not even a signup… which was free, of course. I was a little bit disappointed at this stage, but didn’t give up yet. I tried posting about this app in multiple Facebook groups where I got most of the traffic from, around 200 views, and I got 2 signups only, and zero paid users to date. Good thing I didn’t get banned from Facebook, unlike Reddit.
It’s been 3 weeks since I launched my app now. I was really hopeful about this because I thought this was a great idea, but that’s where I was wrong. “I” was the part where it all went wrong. I never asked anyone about this before building something; there was no feedback at all about this idea before I started. I talked with a couple of my friends after 2 weeks of launching this app because I was a little busy as well and couldn’t do full outreach.
They didn’t express that much interest in the app either as well, even though they are in construction as well, and this idea just didn’t seem good enough for them. “They already have their own guys”, “That’s a lot of work to go knock doors”, “Idk man” are the type of responses that I got overall, and with time, I knew that this is over.
I didn’t validate the idea before, and I didn’t pinpoint my exact ICP and didn’t talk to them at all. This was the biggest mistake that I made. Not the execution, not the outreach, not the product. It was about the market. You can have the perfect product, but if there’s no market or if the market is not interested in your product at all, then you can’t convince them otherwise.
