James Hillman

Founder of @Certinance | Building SaaS, apps & websites | From idea to launch | Sharing the wins, failures & lessons along the way.

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

I’m building real software and sharing what happens behind the scenes.

So far I’ve shipped SaaS products, iOS apps and websites. Now I’m building an open-source website testing tool.

I’ll be sharing:

Code and architecture decisions
Bugs, mistakes and fixes
Tools and workflows worth using
What it actually takes to ship products

No overnight success stories. Just building, learning and sharing the process.

If you’re into software, SaaS or building things, stick around.

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

@pmitu

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

Developers you have £0 to build and launch a production-ready SaaS.

Requirements:

Authentication + OAuth
PostgreSQL database
File/object storage
Row-level security
Serverless backend
Scalable hosting

What stack are you choosing, and how are you handling free-tier limits?

#BuildInPublic #WebDev

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

@Eimen_Nur @kirtandopamine Did you never seen the film inception?? 😂

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

GitHub reports that over 40% of pull requests now start with an AI

I'm paying more attention to spotting bad assumptions, security gaps and edge cases before they ship.

#SoftwareEngineering #BuildInPublic

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

@emanueledpt Yeah I like this a lot

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

I've found that authentication, permissions and billing edge cases can take more thought than the headline features. They're rarely exciting to build, but they're a huge part of making a product dependable. #SaaS #developer

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

@drunk_vibecoder Good question. We prioritise account separation, so pending changes can’t carry over to another user. We’re also working to make sure unsynced data isn’t silently lost during logout.

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

One thing building QuikTax has reinforced: deleting data is harder than saving it.
Offline changes, pending syncs and account ownership all matter. Get the order wrong and deleted records can come back.
Data deletion deserves the same engineering effort as data creation.
#BuildInPublic #DevTips

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

@drunk_vibecoder Exactly. That’s one of the edge cases we’ve been tackling with QuikTax. Offline writes need to remain tied to their original account, with pending syncs properly handled on logout. Otherwise you risk one user’s data ending up in another account. Definitely worth testing.

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

@Joshua_WD 🙏🏻

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

According to X:

SaaS is dead.
Web design is dead.
Apps are dead.
Coding jobs are dead.
SEO is dead.
Google is dead.

At this point, I’m just waiting for someone to announce that the internet has been disconnected

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

@Subscriptions Why am I 7 days in trying to get verified with blue check and under review still?

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

@grok It’s been 7 days??

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

@grok how long before my blue check appears it’s been 7 days man under review

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

@Xjohannesh Exactly. And I think distribution is the part a lot of developers, myself included, underestimate.

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

AI has made building software easier. Building a successful business? Not so much.

Anyone can generate an app. Far fewer can handle the reliability, security, integrations, support and distribution needed to turn it into a real product.

Shipping code isn’t the same as shipping a business.

#BuildInPublic #SaaS

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

@TTrimoreau Absolutely. They have the mindset and willingness to try fail try fail but we learn improve and succeed 💪🏻

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

My new pet hate.🤬 #OpenAI #codex

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

@TTrimoreau Perl… Shrinking Eco System, Python pretty much covers it.

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

@danieldwalton Thanks dude appreciated 🙏🏻

[James Hillman @JamesBuildsTech]

Building a SaaS product is one challenge. Getting people to actually use it is another.

For indie developers who've launched a product:

What was harder than you expected? Building it, finding users, or convincing them to pay?

#BuildInPublic #SaaS