building-saaslisted

# Building a SaaS ## Overview Building a SaaS company is not the same as building a SaaS product. The product is one component of a system that includes pricing, distribution, support, compliance, and operations. This skill covers the complete build: from architecture decisions at $0 to scaling infrastructure at $10M ARR. ## When to Use - "How do I build a SaaS company?" - "What tech stack should I use?" - "Start a SaaS from scratch" - "Scale our SaaS infrastructure" - "What should I build first?" - "SaaS architecture decisions" - "Build vs buy for SaaS tools" ## Authoritative Foundations - **David Skok (Matrix Partners)** — SaaS metrics and unit economics. LTV:CAC ratios by stage, CAC payback benchmarks, Magic Number. - **SaaStr (Jason Lemkin)** — ARR stages and hiring triggers. Founder must personally close 10-20 deals before first sales hire. - **Winning by Design GTM Index** — 1-10 scoring across 6 models to assess revenue system maturity. ## Step-by-Step Process ### Phase 1: $0-10K MRR — Validation **Product:** - Ship the smallest thing that solves one real problem - No microservices. Monolith or simple backend + frontend - Host on one provider (Vercel + Supabase, or Railway, or Fly.io) - Don't build auth, billing, or infrastructure yourself — use Stripe, Clerk, etc. - Time to first user: days, not months **Pricing:** - Start with one plan. Add tiers when customers ask for them - Price based on value, not cost. If they save $1,000/mo, $100/mo is cheap - A