From Clients to Customers: My First Year as a Bootstrapped SaaS Founder

Last year, I stepped away from a leadership role at a fairly large company — not for a flashy startup idea or VC money but to build a sustainable, profitable business. No AI hype, no pitch decks, no funding. Just a gut instinct and a decision to bet on myself.

This wasn’t my first rodeo. Back in 2019, way before the AI wave, I had moved back from the US to India to start Code Heroku, an AI/ML focused EdTech platform. That didn’t go the way I had hoped. But the itch to build never really went away.

This time, I started from what I knew best — Software Services. It felt safer. Lower risk. Tangible outcomes. I rented an office, hired a small team, and we began helping clients build AI chatbots. On paper, it made sense — I had a strong AI background and had built similar tools before. But just a few months in, it felt like déjà vu.

The sales grind, the endless follow-ups, the custom requests — it brought back the same frustrations I had in my previous job. And deep down, I knew that even if we cracked the sales, I wouldn’t enjoy the journey. More than the business model, I realized, I was the misfit. I wasn’t energized by high-touch sales or chasing clients. I craved ownership, low-friction selling, and the freedom to work at my own pace. I knew I didn’t want to spend another decade doing this.

So I made the switch! stepping away from the safety of delivering services and into the uncertainty of building our own software products.

From Safe Bets to Self-Belief: Quitting Services to Build for Myself

I called an all-hands meeting with my (very lean) team. I shared the shift in direction. We were moving away from services to building simple, focused products for businesses.

That also meant having some tough conversations. The salary levels, I had initially promised were no longer feasible. We were stepping into uncertain territory, and any future growth, including compensation, would depend entirely on how our products performed.

One team member decided to move on, which I completely respected. It wasn’t what they signed up for, and honestly, I knew this was going to be a long, patient game.

Around the same time, I was helping my wife, Prachi, who is the founder of a D2C brand - Decor By The Way, with her Shopify powered website. We were paying thousands of rupees every month for apps/plugins on the site. That’s when it hit me: I didn’t need to chase a hypothetical user. There was a real one right in front of me. So instead of guessing what the market needed, I built what we needed.

The first app we built was a simple WhatsApp chat plugin for Shopify. No AI, no fancy features - Just a simple customizable widget we could use.

But in the classic dev rabbit hole, what should’ve taken three weeks, took three months! Unnecessary infrastructure setups, my obsession with how a button should look, edge case handling, you name it. But eventually, we shipped.

Fast forward to now — that tiny WhatsApp plugin has been installed by over 2,000 Shopify stores. We have 100+ paying customers. We just broke even on dev costs, but what’s amazing is we haven’t made any major changes in 9 months — and it still grows month over month. Some other apps even copied our layout and UX — and honestly, that felt like validation.

Building in a Crowded Market: The Retentionly Story

Shipping the WhatsApp plugin was a turning point. It made one thing clear: I didn’t want to chase a dozen of micro SaaS ideas. I wanted to focus — go deeper, not wider. Our team was small, and so was our bandwidth. We couldn’t afford scatter.

When we started building our second product, I faced a critical decision: Should we chase emerging trends with uncertain demand? Or tackle a proven market where customers already spend money? I chose the latter. Not because it was easier—but because I'd rather fight competitors than fight for market validation.

The Essential vs. Nice-to-Have Test

Over time, I’ve come to believe every B2B SaaS tool needs to be one of two things:

• A cost-saver

• A revenue-driver (better choice)

Everything else? A "nice-to-have" — the kind of tool that’s first to get cut when budgets shrink. With that lens, we explored a few categories. The one we chose to go after: Age Old Email marketing! But as a small team with limited bandwidth, I knew we had to go narrower. So we zoomed in:

• Email Marketing →

• Email Marketing for Shopify →

• Email Marketing for Shopify Brands doing $100K to $1M in revenue

That's how Retentionly was born - a lightweight email marketing app specifically built for Shopify stores who want a quick setup and done for you templates.

Finding Our Edge

We didn't need to reinvent email marketing. We just needed to execute better for our specific audience:

• Faster setup: Minutes, not hours

• Streamlined UX: Only the features you'll actually use

• Better deliverability: Emails that actually reach inboxes

• Pre-built designs: Professional templates ready on day one

Real Results Already

The approach is working. For our own store, Decor By The Way, Retentionly has already added over 40K INR in additional revenue in the last month alone. That's an ROI of around 10x. And we're just getting started.

The Road Ahead

Coming from a technical background, building the product was the easier part. Build a marketing flywheel is my current challenge. We do have one advantage: a proven distribution strategy we've already validated with our first app. The question is whether we can apply those same techniques to Retentionly.

This year taught me that:

1. I work best when I believe in the problem.

2. Low-touch, high-leverage products suit my personality.

3. Momentum often beats ideas. Just ship and see what sticks.

4. You don’t need a "big idea" to start. You need a real problem and a user who cares. Even if it's just one.

That’s a wrap for now! If you'd like to stay in the loop as I share more from my journey, drop your email below. No spam—just real stories, lessons, and updates delivered straight to your inbox 👇