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Ask HN: How to make money with SaaS without network or VC funding?

5 points squareloop | 1 comments | 04 Jul 25 02:09 UTC | HN request time: 0.414s | source

Hi HN, Long time reader here. I am posting for the first time. I am building a SaaS after leaving my job in 2024. I was at one of the FAANG (sweat shop one). After FAANG I joined a mid-size company in Texas. I left on my own accord after seeing how terrible decision it was to leave FAANG. I was an engineer turned manager at both companies. I am not against managing but I am old enough now to be in L5 SWE role.

I am coming to realization that job was more comfortable than building the startup. I haven't stopped working for last 6 months and consistently worked 15-16 hours. I have to do so many things such as write code to some extent, sales, marketing, administrative work, compliance, keeping track of accounts, managing churn. It just never ends.

It's been a hell of experience but we (team of 2) are not even bringing in survival money. We had two customers and lost one recently. What a shame!

We raised money from an unknown VC group (sub $100k) but it has been total disaster. They actually pulled us down, misguided us, and demanded things that we do things "their" way. I wish I had never applied or took funding. It has left a bitter taste in my mouth regarding VC. They have no network and in fact they bad mouthed us to a few investors we met with that resulted in some investers ghosting us completely.

Now, we are facing a dilemma. We are giving it one last push before we shut things down. Here is the problem - 1. We are in the domain where we have no expertise in. We are technologists and generalists (Data, ML, AI, Python, C++). Implementation and technical solutions are never problem for us. We can build.

2. I have read and come to realization that without network there is no business. Either you have existing network of founders, customers or you make one through VCs like YC. How sweet is that anything you build you have buyers lined up or at least providing great advice and early validation.

Should we pivot to completely new domain? We dont have expertise in one particular domains area (accounting, tax, supply chain etc.), but we have good knowledge of technology software (think data pipelines, ML, AI models). If we do software for software (e.g. Cursor, Lovable), we worry that closed source might hurt us. Do you think having open source would be a better path for making money?

We can back to job market but things are not green on other side and it is taking 6 months or so for people to get jobs based on my reading. I want to try one last time.

We are stuck without much guidance. What would be your recommendation?

1. Fendy ◴[04 Jul 25 08:40 UTC] No.44462497[source]▶
This is a broad but really important question, and I feel for your situation. I've interviewed and spoken with quite a few early-stage founders this year, and many of them share similar struggles — the first year or two of a startup can be brutal, especially without a solid network or domain expertise.

From what you’ve written, I wonder if you’re approaching the problem from the wrong direction. Rather than asking "How can I make money without a network or VC backing?" maybe the more useful question is:

- Who exactly are my users? - What painful, urgent problems do they have?

If that’s unclear, it doesn’t matter how technically great your product is or whether it’s built with AI or rocket science — it likely won’t stick.

Most users don’t care how fancy your tech is; they care if it makes their life easier, saves them time, or HELP THEM MAKE MONEY. If you can't pinpoint that user pain and address it clearly, even pivoting to another domain might lead to the same frustration.

One founder I spoke with recently built a job search platform. The space is totally dominated by big names like LinkedIn and Indeed, but their insight was super niche: they focused on foreign job seekers who needed H1B sponsorship. That tight focus helped them grow fast, even without VC money or big marketing budgets. It wasn’t a flashy idea — just solving a specific, urgent pain for a specific group.

Marketing is another area that often gets overlooked by technical founders. Maybe try strategies like: content marketing, Product Hunt launches, engaging with communities, even open-sourcing parts of your stack because it helps with visibility and credibility. Open source can definitely help attract users — but it still needs a strong value prop and ideally some paid tier or enterprise offering to make it sustainable.

One more insight: some of the best early adopters for AI tools right now are… other AI teams. They understand the value and are quicker to pay for solid infrastructure or automation tools. If you’re thinking of building “software for software,” maybe that’s a niche to explore more intentionally.

You're obviously capable builders. If you're going to give it one more shot, I'd say zoom in hard on the problem and the user. Get out of “build mode” and into “discovery mode” for a bit. Try talking to 10, 20, 50 people in a space where you think you can help. It might open up clearer paths than trying to guess from the outside.

Hope this helps, and best of luck — respect for sticking it out this long.