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Many founders don’t struggle with building.
They struggle with choosing the right idea.

I recently came across a post on Simon’s X profile about generating SaaS ideas using n8n workflows. I think it’s a very practical process, especially for founders who want to move quickly instead of staying stuck in idea mode.

So I’m sharing it here.

Today, building a product is no longer the biggest challenge. AI and modern tools have made development significantly easier. The real challenge is choosing the right idea — and pairing it with proper distribution from day one.

Before sharing Simon’s framework, I want to add one important point about validation.

Validating an idea by checking how much people are already paying to solve the problem is one of the most effective approaches.

If someone is spending their own valuable time solving the same task repeatedly — every week or every month — that already tells you the problem is real. Time has value.

If they are hiring someone and paying $500–$1000 to solve it, the signal becomes even stronger.

In both cases, real resources are being invested to remove that pain.

Now, if you can solve the same problem in a simpler and more structured way at even 5x lower cost, there is a strong chance they will buy from you. You are not convincing them that the problem exists — they already know it does.

So when evaluating a workflow, don’t just ask, “Is this interesting?”
Ask, “Are people already paying for this?”

If you find that people are spending $500–$1000 for the current solution, and hundreds or thousands are facing the same issue, that is not just an idea. That is a business opportunity.

Below is Simon Høiberg’s original framework:

n8n is a free SaaS idea catalog.

There is an arbitrage opportunity that can take you from idea to profitable SaaS with near-zero risk and a very low budget.

Here’s how it works:

1️⃣ Browse n8n Workflows

Stop imagining what your SaaS should be about. Look for real problems people are already solving with n8n.

Search on n8n’s website.
Search on YouTube.
Find 1–2 popular workflows that are already getting attention.

2️⃣ Break It Down

An n8n workflow is essentially a problem being solved.

Break it down carefully.
Understand the core mechanism.
Understand the outcome it produces.

3️⃣ Rebuild It Simply

n8n is powerful, but it’s not user-friendly for everyone.

Recreate the workflow idea in a simpler, more structured SaaS format.

Use AI to analyze the workflow logic.
Rebuild the frontend for clarity and usability.
Recreate the backend mechanism in a more accessible way.

4️⃣ Charge

Put your solution behind a paywall using Stripe checkout.

Keep it simple.
Start charging from day one.

Then begin marketing your solution:

• Run ads
• Use social media
• Use cold outreach

Worst case: you spend a few hundred dollars and some hours of work.
Best case: you build a SaaS solving a real problem for real users paying real money.

If you’ve been stuck on how to find the right SaaS idea and haven’t started building because of that uncertainty, Simon’s framework is a very practical starting point. Combine it with the two validation factors I mentioned — especially the economic signal — and you can begin with much more clarity.

And if you’re a technical founder who wants a validated SaaS product plan with distribution built in — before writing a single line of code — that’s exactly what I design. You can book a strategic call, and we’ll explore whether your next SaaS truly deserves to be built.

Building SaaS is a trend now. AI has made it easier than ever to build software.

But building is not the real challenge.

A long time ago — even when I was studying software engineering, and even after I finished almost 25 years ago — one question was always in my mind:

• What kind of software should I build?
• Where do I get the idea from?
• What will people actually use?

Even a few years ago, I was still thinking about this.

To build a SaaS, you need an idea first. There are many steps involved in deciding whether an idea is worth developing. But I struggled even with the first step.

Now it has become natural for me to spot ideas and evaluate whether they are worth building.

I see the same struggle among many developers and founders. They want to build a SaaS. They want to have their own product — something real people use. They want fulfillment. And of course, they want income.

Recently, I spoke with an experienced developer who is building two SaaS products. While talking with him, I noticed several issues — things most successful founders would not do.

Mistake 1 — Choosing an Idea From Personal Belief

The idea came from his own perspective. He believed the tool would be useful. But he did not properly validate it.

Idea validation is essential.

You must confirm:

• Do other people have this problem?
• Are they actively looking for a solution?
• Is there a sizable market?
• Are people willing to pay?

Spending months on a product that no one will use is a loss of time, money, and opportunity cost.

When you build without validation, you are investing months of your life on hope. If there is no real demand, you lose time, focus, and momentum. That same time could have been used to build something people actually need.

Mistake 2 — Asking the Wrong People for Feedback

He asked other developers for feedback.

But developers were not his target users.

They did not experience the pain he was trying to solve.

Most technical peers will appreciate the idea. They may suggest improvements. But they are unlikely to give strong negative feedback. They also do not feel the urgency of the problem.

This creates a false sense of validation.

Instead, you must talk directly to potential users — people who face the problem and might pay for a solution.

Validation must come from pain and payment intent, not technical appreciation.

When building a business, you are making a strategic decision. It is not about emotional satisfaction. It is about choosing the right problem before writing a single line of code.

Mistake 3 — Marketing Without Strategy

He started marketing by posting in subreddits for developers.

But developers were not necessarily his target audience.

He should have identified at least 10–15 communities directly related to the problem he was solving. Communities where people actively discuss their pain. Communities where people are already looking for solutions.

Marketing is not random posting.
It is placing your solution in front of the right audience.

If the audience is wrong, even a good product will look weak.

Why These Mistakes Are Enough to Fail

These three mistakes alone are enough to fail a SaaS — even after 6–12 months of hard work:

• Idea chosen from personal belief
• Validation from the wrong people
• Marketing to the wrong audience

Each mistake reduces your probability of success. Together, they make failure very likely.

SaaS failure is often not about bad coding.
It is about weak strategic decisions at the beginning.

The Path I Recommend

Building SaaS is easier than ever.

If you are building — or planning to build — here is my recommendation.

From 25 years of working in the industry, and from actively studying SaaS success and failure stories, this is the path I suggest:

• Start with a validated idea.
• Ship your MVP in 2–3 weeks.
• Work on distribution in parallel.
• Be strategic from day one.
• If possible, work with someone senior and experienced.
• At any cost, avoid guesswork.

SaaS today is not limited by technology.
It is limited by judgment.

Choose carefully. Build intentionally.

I created a Reddit Distribution Playbook as a systematic process to help SaaS founders start client acquisition on Reddit while they are building their product. Not after launch. During development.

Before explaining what’s inside the playbook, let me explain why I built it.

First Reason: Reddit Is Extremely Powerful for SaaS Client Acquisition

Reddit has over 100 million daily active users, and hundreds of millions of people use it every month — many of them talking openly about their real problems and actively looking for solutions.

For many SaaS businesses, Reddit is one of the strongest acquisition platforms. On Reddit, users openly discuss their real problems. They ask for recommendations. They compare tools. They look for better alternatives.

The problems already exist. The conversations are already happening.

If you enter those conversations correctly — with context and clarity — there is a real opportunity to present your solution. That makes Reddit very different from traditional outbound marketing.

Second Reason: You Don’t Need Your Own Audience.

Many founders don’t have an email list. They don’t have a large social following. They don’t have a personal brand. But on Reddit, subreddits already have thousands of members who are interested in very specific topics.

That means even if you don’t own an audience, you still have access to one. If approached systematically, Reddit can become a real distribution channel — not just random posting.

Third Reason: I Studied the Patterns of Successful Founders .

I’ve read many SaaS success stories and watched numerous founder interviews. Many early-stage founders relied heavily on Reddit to get their first users. Some built meaningful traction using Reddit as a core early distribution strategy.

When I analyzed those stories, I noticed patterns. The strategies were not random. They were repeatable.

At the same time, platforms like Twitter (X) are excellent for build-in-public. They help in long-term audience building.

But for direct user acquisition and immediate feedback, Reddit often works faster. So I realized Reddit could play a very specific and powerful role inside a broader distribution system.

Fourth Reason: Teams Need Structure.

Reddit is powerful, but most team members don’t have training or structured experience using it properly. Learning through trial and error takes time. And right now, time is expensive.

Some people struggle to organize scattered knowledge into a clear system. But when you give them a defined process, they execute well. Since I work with a team — and since I need documentation and process clarity — I built this playbook as a structured guide.

Something repeatable. Something trainable. Something executable.

Fifth Reason: Developers Need a Companion Guide.

Most founders I work with through my Done-For-You SaaS Idea service are developers. They are strong at building. They are not always strong at marketing. And they don’t have time to spend months learning distribution theory. They need a companion guide that runs alongside development. In simple terms, both my team and the developers I work with needed a practical, executable Reddit playbook.

Why New Founders Should Start Marketing on Reddit Right Now — Here Is Why

New founders, specially if you are developer like most people I work with, please listen this part carefully.

You are good at building code. But marketing feels hard, scary, and takes too much time. You think “I will finish product first, then I will do marketing.” This is big mistake. Many founders lose months this way.

Reddit is different. Here is why you should start there from day one:

1. You find real people who have same problem you are solving — they are already talking about it in subreddits. No need to guess what customer want. Just read posts and comments.
2. You get first users almost free. No big ad budget needed. Just helpful comments, answer questions honestly, share your progress. Many founders get first 10–50 paying users only from Reddit.
3. You get fast feedback while building. Post small demo or idea, people tell you what is good, what is missing, what they will pay for. This saves you from building wrong features.
4. You build trust slowly but strong. Reddit people hate direct selling, but they love when someone helps genuinely. If you do it right, your name becomes known in community. Later it turns into signups without extra effort.
5. It matches perfectly with early stage. You don’t need big audience, fancy website, or perfect product. You just need to show up where problems are discussed — and Reddit has those places ready.

If you wait till launch, you miss all this. Many successful SaaS stories I studied started exactly like this on Reddit. They got traction fast because they joined conversations during building, not after.

So start small today. Pick 3–5 subreddits that match your idea. Read daily. Answer 5 questions helpfully. See what happens. This is low risk, high learning way.

This one change — starting distribution early on Reddit — can make your SaaS journey much faster and less stressful.

Another Important Factor:

Development and Revenue Must Run in Parallel. While creating this playbook, I focused heavily on alignment between development and revenue. The modern SaaS philosophy is clear:

• Ship early.
• Get early users.
• Collect feedback.
• Build features gradually.

That means distribution cannot wait until everything is ready. It must run in parallel with:

• Pre-building research.
• MVP stage.
• Feature releases.
• Iteration cycles.

So I needed a system that works alongside development — not after it. That became the foundation of this playbook.

What’s Inside This Playbook?

This Reddit Distribution Playbook is not a collection of tips. It is an operating system. At its core, it includes:

• A Subreddit Qualification Framework: A structured method to identify the right subreddits based on ICP alignment, discussion frequency, and revenue relevance — not just size.
• A Pain-to-Feature Mapping Model: Before posting anything, the founder defines one clear pain point and connects it to one focused feature or demo. No vague positioning.
• A Problem-Led Posting Structure: Guidelines for framing posts around solving a problem instead of promoting a product.
• 15-Day Controlled Execution Loops : Instead of random posting, the system runs in structured cycles. One subreddit at a time. Logged results. Measured adjustments.
• Objection Mining System: Every comment is analyzed and categorized — confusion, resistance, feature gap, pricing concern. These insights directly influence copy, onboarding, and roadmap.
• Revenue Discipline Rules: Early pricing validation. Early buy buttons. Trial tracking. Clear revenue checkpoints. Upvotes are not considered traction.
• Moderation Awareness & Survival Guidelines: How to participate without being flagged as spam. How to build credibility before linking.
• Signal & Conversion Tracking Structure: UTM discipline and subreddit-level tracking to identify which communities generate actual paid users.
• A Clear Early Target (~$3K MRR): The playbook is optimized for reaching meaningful early revenue where patterns become visible and repeatable.

What Changed After Building This Playbook

Building this system solved the biggest issue I kept encountering — uncertainty. Before this, distribution felt fragmented. We would build first and think about marketing later.

The process lacked structure, and momentum depended too much on experimentation.

Now, distribution feels controlled. I’m confident that I’m becoming distribution-first — not just in mindset, but in execution. The difference is clarity.

Here’s what changed in practice:

• No random experimentation.
• No wasted time trying to “figure it out.”
• No unnecessary mistakes repeated across cycles.
• A ready-to-use playbook the team can execute immediately.
• A clear system for onboarding users alongside development.
• A defined execution flow instead of scattered effort.
• A structured way to decide what to post, when to post, and where to post.
• A framework for engaging without triggering resistance.
• A signal-reading method for interpreting objections, confusion, and buying intent.
• A data-driven pivot process instead of emotional reactions.

That clarity changes everything. I know what the team will execute. I know what signal we are looking for. And I know exactly what outcomes we are optimizing toward.

What This Means for Founders Hiring Us for Done-For-You SaaS Ideas

When developers hire us for a Done-For-You SaaS idea, they are not just buying a product concept. They are stepping into a structured execution system. Most founders can build.

The uncertainty begins after building. That gap between shipping and acquiring users is where momentum dies. This playbook removes that gap.

Here’s what that practically means:

• You don’t just receive a product roadmap — you receive a distribution operating system.
• You don’t launch into silence — you launch into structured conversations.
• You don’t waste months “learning marketing” — you execute a defined process.
• You don’t guess what to post — you follow a mapped signal-driven approach.
• You don’t react emotionally — you pivot based on real data.
• You don’t build blindly — you validate revenue alongside development.

This changes the experience of building SaaS. You are no longer finishing a product and then asking, “Now what?” You are building and distributing in parallel, with clarity at every stage. And that is the difference between guessing — and executing.

For a long time, I believed product quality came first.

I’ve been building a SaaS — an outreach link-building tool designed to replace nearly seven different tools. It removes spreadsheets, structures workflows, manages campaigns, tracks replies, and centralizes what most teams handle manually. It’s complex by design.

While building it, my thinking was simple: finish the product properly. Make it robust. Make it scalable. Make it truly “launch-ready.” Then focus on marketing.

I wanted it complete before anyone saw it.

But as I approached launch, I began studying successful SaaS founders more closely. I analyzed growth stories, listened to interviews, and examined how early traction actually happened.

A pattern became impossible to ignore.

They didn’t win because they built the most complex product.

They won because they built distribution.

That realization changed how I think about SaaS.

The Structural Shift in SaaS

We are living through a structural shift in how software is built.

AI has accelerated development dramatically. Boilerplate code is generated automatically. Architecture patterns are standardized. A solo founder can now build what previously required a team.

Building SaaS has never been faster.

Which also means building SaaS has never been less scarce.

If everyone can build, building is no longer the competitive edge.

Attention is.

Across interviews and growth breakdowns, one idea keeps resurfacing: distribution matters more than product. I would go even further. It’s not just important. It has become foundational.

You must be distribution-first.

The Real Mistake I Made

My mistake wasn’t technical. The system I built works. The architecture is strong. The workflows are structured.

The mistake was structural.

I separated building from distribution.

My model was linear: build, finish, launch, promote.

But distribution does not operate linearly.

When you wait until launch to start building attention, you are effectively starting from zero. There is no audience waiting. No conversation already happening. No anticipation. No feedback loop shaping the product.

The product might be strong.

But the signal is weak.

And in a crowded SaaS market, weak signals disappear.

What Distribution-First SaaS Actually Means

Distribution-first SaaS means designing audience access before designing feature depth.

It means understanding who you are building for before deciding how many features to ship. It means engaging potential users while the product is still evolving. It means refining positioning in public rather than polishing silently. It means growing reach in parallel with development so that launch becomes activation rather than introduction.

This is not about becoming an online personality. It is about reducing uncertainty.

Without distribution, you are making assumptions. With distribution, you are responding to signal.

That distinction changes everything.

The Patterns Behind Successful SaaS Growth

When I studied successful SaaS growth stories, I noticed recurring patterns.

Some founders built personal brands within their niche, consistently sharing insights and progress until trust compounded naturally. Others embedded themselves deeply in niche communities, especially on platforms like Reddit, where real pain is expressed openly. Some focused heavily on search, building educational content around high-intent problems long before their product was complete. Others positioned themselves inside ecosystems such as SEO, Shopify, or developer communities, earning credibility before ever selling. Many leveraged partnerships and authority borrowing — appearing in newsletters, collaborating with complementary tools, or being featured in curated lists.

Different approaches. Same principle.

Distribution was built early.

Not added later.

Why Distribution Compounds and Features Do Not

Features can be replicated. Interfaces can be redesigned. Workflows can be copied.

Attention compounds.

If you pivot your product, your audience remains. If you refine pricing, your audience remains. If you reposition your offer, your audience remains.

An engaged audience, consistent visibility, community trust, search presence, and strategic relationships — these are assets that outlive feature sets.

This is leverage.

And leverage determines outcomes in SaaS.

What I Would Do Differently

If I were starting my outreach SaaS again, I would approach it differently.

Before building deep automation layers, I would spend more time publicly breaking down the inefficiencies of link-building workflows. I would share stories of spreadsheet chaos and fragmented tool stacks. I would discuss outreach pain long before presenting a solution. I would collect emails while features were still evolving and test pricing assumptions early.

Not after launch.

During development.

Because in 2026, SaaS is no longer product-first.

It is distribution-first.

What I’m Building Next

As distribution becomes the key determinant of SaaS success, I am formalizing what I’ve learned into structured playbooks.

Not generic marketing advice. Not surface-level tactics.

Operational systems.

I am developing companion guides around Reddit, X, build-in-public, SEO, partnerships, and outreach — each designed to help founders embed distribution into their thinking from day one.

These are being built as companions to my SaaS Idea + Distribution Done-for-You service, where the objective is simple: build with distribution integrated from the beginning.

If this way of thinking resonates with you — if you want to build with structure instead of guesswork — you can book a call through the menu at the top.

Because in today’s SaaS environment, product without distribution is risk.

Distribution with product is leverage.