Thomas Hartmann

Co-founded a software agency (40+ people). Left.

Now building SaaS solo and sharing the real numbers, failures included.

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

Co-founded a software agency and grew it to 40+ people. Then I left.

Since then I've been building SaaS solo. The last one didn't work.

Here I'll share what I build next, with the real numbers. Failures included.

First up: the full post-mortem

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

To post one image from my IDE I need:

1. generate it
2. add text in Canva
3. save it
4. upload it to a host
5. paste the URL into the scheduler

Five steps for one post.

How are you doing it?

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

@dev_bre @X Done so 🙂

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

@b4dgerr This product should be a non brained.
I think I see a lot of browser extensions advertised on reddit for these kind of things

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

@pelloiafilippo How else will you get your dopamine? 😅

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

@pmitu So what is the real problem in your opinion?

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

@nikhilx22 Voting for vercel

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

@solopribuilds At least you haven't missed NFTs in 2021 😅

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

@pelloiafilippo Therapy? 😁

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

@b4dgerr How else did you grow if not by replying to bigger account?

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

@FilipPanoski ok, if that one is proven I will try. thx 🙂

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

@AkarsaDyniq Ok, maybe this is worth another try.
Thanks :)

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

My last SaaS launched at $99 and $199/month.

On purpose. I wanted to see if anything happens at all. Lowering is always possible.

10 weeks. 0 paying customers.

Dropped the $99 plan to $29.

Week 11: first paying customer. On the $29 plan.

Price wasn't the only problem. But it was the first wall.

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

@brams404 They are using the tool to search for opportunities and thus mostly just learn how the market and tool looks like

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

My last SaaS had 10 premium accounts.

1 paid.
9 I gave away: friends, test accounts, 2 strangers from Reddit and the support chat.

Giving access away felt like progress.
It just postponed finding out if anyone would pay.

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

The free tier of my last SaaS showed 20 rows.

The best results were blurred.
The idea: see what you're missing, upgrade.

411 signups. 1 paid.

20 rows were enough to learn from.
Learners don't pay.

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

My last SaaS had exactly 1 paying customer.

I don't know where he came from.
He never replied to a single email.
I activated his access by hand in the database.

411 signups. The one who paid is the one I know least about.

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

@Osquareartist ok, got it 🙏

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

My last SaaS sent ~2,100 emails.
Onboarding sequence + 6 campaigns.

11 clicks. Practically 0 replies.

Twice I asked: "Reply with one thing I should improve."
Silence.

The worst part isn't that nobody paid.
It's that I never found out why.

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

@pmitu What's the right marketing in 2026 then?

[Thomas Hartmann @ThomasShips]

@b4dgerr Should have built the landing page first, but decided for MVP first