10 Essential Resources for Starting and Growing a SaaS Business
Building a software as a service business from scratch requires more than just a great idea. You need the right tools, knowledge, and support systems to turn your vision into a profitable company. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to scale your existing SaaS product, having access to quality resources can make the difference between struggling alone and building something sustainable. This list covers practical resources that address the real challenges SaaS founders face, from finding talent to understanding customer metrics to managing your finances.
- Legiit
Finding reliable talent without breaking the bank is one of the biggest challenges for early-stage SaaS companies. Legiit connects you with freelancers who specialize in the exact skills SaaS businesses need, from developers and designers to marketing experts and content creators. Unlike general freelance platforms, Legiit focuses on digital services, which means you’re more likely to find people who understand the technical and marketing demands of software products. The platform offers fixed-price services, making it easier to budget and avoid hourly rate surprises. For bootstrapped founders who need to move fast without hiring full-time employees, Legiit provides a practical way to build your team as you grow.
- Stripe Atlas
Setting up the legal and financial foundation for your SaaS business can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re not based in the United States but want to incorporate there. Stripe Atlas simplifies this process by helping you form a Delaware C-corp, get a tax ID number, and open a bank account, all through one streamlined system. It also sets you up with Stripe for payment processing, which is essential for any subscription-based business. The service includes templates for common legal documents and guides you through the paperwork that would otherwise require expensive lawyers. While there’s a fee for the service, it’s far less than what you’d pay for traditional incorporation services, and everything is designed specifically with startups in mind.
- Product Hunt
Getting your first users is one of the hardest parts of launching a SaaS product. Product Hunt gives you a platform to introduce your software to a community of early adopters who actively look for new tools to try. A successful launch on Product Hunt can bring hundreds or even thousands of visitors to your site in a single day, along with valuable feedback from real users. The community tends to be tech-savvy and willing to test beta products, making it an ideal place to validate your idea and gather testimonials. Preparing for a launch requires some strategy, including building a teaser page beforehand and engaging with the community, but the effort often pays off in visibility and initial traction.
- ChartMogul
Understanding your subscription metrics is critical for making smart decisions about pricing, retention, and growth. ChartMogul connects to your payment processor and automatically calculates important SaaS metrics like monthly recurring revenue, churn rate, customer lifetime value, and cohort analysis. Instead of building complex spreadsheets or guessing at your numbers, you get clear dashboards that show exactly how your business is performing. The tool helps you spot problems early, like when a specific customer segment has high churn or when a pricing change affects revenue. For founders who need to present data to investors or simply want to understand what’s working, ChartMogul turns raw transaction data into actionable insights.
- Indie Hackers
Building a SaaS business can be lonely, especially in the early days when you’re figuring everything out on your own. Indie Hackers is a community where founders share their experiences, revenue numbers, and lessons learned in a transparent way. You can read detailed case studies of other SaaS businesses, ask questions in the forums, and connect with people who are at similar stages in their company-building process. The community skews toward bootstrapped and small teams rather than venture-backed startups, so the advice tends to be practical and focused on profitability rather than hypergrowth. Many founders find accountability partners, cofounders, or just moral support from being part of this group.
- Intercom
Talking to your customers is essential for understanding what they need and how to improve your product. Intercom provides a complete customer communication platform that includes live chat, email campaigns, product tours, and a help center, all in one place. The live chat feature lets you support customers in real time, while the automated messages can onboard new users or re-engage people who haven’t logged in recently. You can segment your users based on behavior and send targeted messages to specific groups, which is particularly useful for encouraging upgrades or reducing churn. While the pricing can add up as you grow, the ability to maintain close relationships with your customers often justifies the cost for SaaS companies that prioritize customer success.
- MicroConf
Conferences designed for SaaS founders offer more than just networking opportunities. MicroConf specifically caters to bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped software companies, with talks that focus on practical growth strategies rather than raising venture capital. You’ll hear from founders who have built profitable SaaS businesses about topics like pricing psychology, customer acquisition channels that actually work, and how to hire your first employees. The community continues beyond the conference through online groups and local meetups. Attending in person gives you concentrated time to work on your business strategy, learn from others’ mistakes, and build relationships with people who understand the specific challenges of subscription software. The investment in a ticket often pays for itself through a single good idea or connection.
- Baremetrics
Similar to ChartMogul, Baremetrics focuses on making your subscription analytics clear and accessible. It pulls data directly from payment processors like Stripe and provides real-time dashboards showing your key metrics. What sets Baremetrics apart is its additional features like a public dashboard option that lets you share your metrics transparently, forecasting tools that project future revenue, and cancellation insights that help you understand why customers leave. The forecasting feature is particularly useful for planning expenses and runway. You can model different scenarios, like what happens if you increase prices or improve retention by a certain percentage. For data-driven founders who want to base decisions on numbers rather than gut feelings, Baremetrics turns your payment data into a strategic asset.
- Patio11’s Blog and Writings
Patrick McKenzie, known online as patio11, has written extensively about building and growing software businesses over many years. His blog posts and Twitter threads cover everything from pricing strategy to hiring to the technical aspects of running a SaaS company. What makes his content valuable is the depth and specificity. He doesn’t just say pricing matters, he explains exactly how to structure pricing tiers, how to conduct pricing experiments, and how to communicate value to different customer segments. His writing on salary negotiation, while not SaaS-specific, has helped countless people in the tech industry get paid fairly. Reading through his archives is like getting a free MBA focused on the practical realities of software businesses. The advice is detailed enough to implement immediately and comes from someone who has actually done the work.
- Profitwell
Pricing is one of the most important decisions you’ll make for your SaaS business, yet many founders set prices based on guesswork or what competitors charge. Profitwell offers free subscription metrics and analytics, but their real value comes from their research and tools around pricing strategy. They’ve analyzed thousands of SaaS companies to understand what pricing models work best for different types of products. Their blog and resources explain concepts like value-based pricing, how to structure trials, when to offer discounts, and how to implement price increases without losing customers. They also offer a service that uses data science to recommend optimal pricing for your specific product. Even if you just read their free content, you’ll gain a much better understanding of how to price your software to maximize revenue while keeping customers happy.
Starting and growing a SaaS business requires juggling many different aspects, from the technical product to customer relationships to financial planning. The resources on this list address these different needs in practical ways. Some help you build your team or product, others help you understand your numbers, and a few connect you with communities of people facing similar challenges. You don’t need to use all of these resources at once. Start with the ones that address your most pressing needs right now, whether that’s getting your first customers, understanding your metrics, or simply finding others who understand what you’re going through. As your business grows, your needs will change, and you can return to this list for tools and communities that match your new stage. The key is to remember that you don’t have to figure everything out alone. These resources exist because other founders faced the same problems and built solutions.