How I Built a SaaS in Days (Not Months) Using a .NET Boilerplate
How fast is “fast” for launching a SaaS? Here’s an honest timeline: from blank repo to live, paid SaaS MVP in under a week—and why no modern founder should try building foundation from scratch.
Before You Touch Code: Demand, Niche, and User #1
- Started by validating a real pain: hung out in niche forums, tallied up “I wish I had X” comments
- Emailed 12 potential users with a 2-question survey—got 7 replies, 3 on a call
- Wrote my core feature list around actual must-haves, not “what could be cool”
- Only after one prospect expressed readiness to pay did I move past mockups
Days 1–2: Infrastructure On Autopilot (The Boilerplate Advantage)
- Downloaded the CodeBlock DevKit SaaS Template
- Immediately had:
- Auth/sign-up/user roles
- SaaS billing (Stripe subscriptions, invoice flows)
- Admin and user panel
- Ready-to-go monitoring/logging modules
- Spent 3 hours configuring plans, rebranding the UI, and updating support emails
- Wired in my actual “core differentiator” feature (unique for my use case) as a new Blazor page/module
Day 3: Customization and CI/CD
- Setup CI pipeline (GitHub Actions) with push-to-staging preview
- Setup domain, DNS, and TLS/cert for staging
—Tip: Don’t leave this until launch day - Adjusted onboarding emails, added quick tooltip docs for user onboarding
- Sent staging link to my 3 live user prospects—live, clickable feedback in hours
Days 4–5: Iterate With Real User Feedback
- Ran two user testing sessions via Zoom (screen share, task walkthrough, feedback survey in Notion after)
- Fixed onboarding confusion, added CTA for payments, improved dashboard layout
- Added transactional emails for upgrades, paid/failed invoices (using built-in DevKit modules)
- Found that 80% of the “feedback” involved flows the DevKit already supported or documented—just needed to tweak copy or onboarding
Day 6: Launch—and First Paying Customer
- Final round of QA, UAT with actual payments in Stripe test mode, then live
- Pushed to prod, upgraded DNS, and publicly announced in two relevant SaaS/LinkedIn groups
- Got first paid signup the same day via launch post, and two more within 48 hours
- All onboarding, billing, support, and admin in place—even had monitoring and error alerts running out of the box
What Changed Everything (vs. My Previous SaaS Launch Without Boilerplate)
- Used to spend weeks on auth, billing, and admin panels that clients never see
- This time: shipped value immediately because DevKit handled the 80% of code that’s not my “special sauce”
- Unified docs and upgrades: all via NuGet, never merged boilerplate changes by hand
- Bugs/edge cases: ran into 10x fewer unhandled exceptions, and could support users right after launch
What I Would Do Differently / My Advice
- Start with user outreach and a DevKit—never build from a blank template for a paid SaaS MVP
- Lean on community (DocBlock Discord/Slack) for support/custom module ideas
- Go public earlier: get something in front of real users on day 2, not week 2
- Keep detailed launch diary—makes writing posts (like this) and onboarding docs much easier!
Launch Checklist for DevKit-Powered SaaS MVPs
- Real user, validated must-have pain point (not just your hunch)
- DevKit SaaS template cloned and deployed to staging in 1 day
- Core logic/features as new module/pages
- Custom onboarding emails/flows
- Stripe plans and admin panel tested
- Live user feedback processed and acted on before public launch
- Monitoring/logging checked and in admin alerts
- Docs, support, and after-launch retention emails + support ready