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33 Comments

What's the fastest you've launched a software product?

Hi! Doing a litle bit of research here.
What's the fastest you've launched a software product?

Did you use any boilerplates or did you code it all up, maybe used no-code?
Not talking about just a landing page, but an actual working software product, even with no-code tools.

Thanks for your responses!

  1. 4

    I did a softlaunch of Writeprint.ai in less than a month chipping away at it in the early mornings and weekends while I was (and still am) working a 9-5 job. I used MakerKit as a boilerplate to get started faster.

    1. 2

      Oh I've heard about MakerKit but haven't actually used it, looks cool. Your site looks nice and clean!

  2. 4

    A real product I delivered quickly (for me) and made sales with is my last one StartupUtils.com where I spent more than 80 hours over 3 weeks.

    I reused my NextJS code, and saved lots of time - but still could've simplified the MVP features and delivered it probably within 1.5 weeks.

    I'm a full stack dev, so I'm not gonna buy boilerplates, better to iterate on my projects and as a result create my own "boilerplate" matching my coding style, design, fav libraries, etc.

    Also spent more time polishing the landing page, got positive feedback, yet I'm new into building profitable businesses, must focus more on marketing part :)

    Coding and launching a new biz isn't the end of the road!

    1. 2

      I'm with you there @przybytniewski! Also need to focus more on the distribution side.

  3. 3

    Fast2build - The #1 Nuxt.js SaaS Startup Boilerplate ( https://fast2build.com ). Launch your SaaS product in hours. I have generated several products with this boilerplate.

      1. 2

        Thanks for your reply

  4. 3

    Depends, but I'd say get your prototyping process streamlined (start with user flows, wireframes, mockups, prototype) and you'll save a lot of time in the beginning.

  5. 3

    We built the actual functionality within a 2 weeks two person on-site burn-in workshop. Then 2 months remotely to finalize the first two tiers with all the resilience and automation stuff on top. Quite some tech-stack with the usual web dev stack + grafana, prometheus, redis streaming, docker, ci/cd, payment processor integration and payment flow, subscription and authentification automation,.... it's like more than 20 services running on our dedicated infra. But the result is fanatstic. Any web dev can use it easily by just wrapping content terms with a <ai-term> html tag and get all the benefits like on page explanation instantly.

  6. 3

    We are launching our first Software in 2 weeks and had 4 weeks of developing. So 1 month is the fastest by now.

    1. 1

      Nice! What are you launching? 👀

      1. 1

        We're launching a time management tool specifically designed for Digital Nomads. Our waitlist page in case you wanna check it out -> www.digidos.app

  7. 3

    The fastest software launch I've witnessed was within two weeks. It involved an agile team, rapid prototyping, minimal viable product (MVP) approach, and intensive collaboration for streamlined development.

    1. 2

      Nice, I like using prototypes first when in teams, is definitely faster to get ideas across to the stakeholders

  8. 2

    built/launched a no-code visa chatbot in one day. Used webflow templates for the website, and a no-code chatgpt based chatbot tool embedded to the webflow landing page. Eventually got a few hundred free users but took it down since I didn't want to pay for webflow hosting anymore.

    definitely a fun side project and lots of people have problem with tourist visas!

    https://easy-visa.webflow.io/

    1. 1

      This looks fun! So there was no way to monetize all that free traffic?

      1. 1

        I didn't automate the whole thing so if i wanted to charge for writing an itinerary letter (a requirement for visa submissions) I'd still have to do some manual work for maybe $5 or $10 each, so didn't end up continuing it!

  9. 2

    One time, I launched an app in one month, using Next.js and the Vercel tools, including their hosting and database solutions. It was a minimalistic forum to post and vote on things, like Indie Hackers.

    1. 2

      Next.js + Vercel seem to be pretty popular these days, I guess the deployment overhead otherwise could get overwhelming?

      1. 1

        The deployment is one of the critical things for me to use Vercel and Next.js, but I wish I could have an easy way to deploy to different cloud and hosting providers

  10. 2

    I launched an app called Client Note Tracker for iOS and Android using React Native and a backend in Django over about 4 months, ~40 per week. No boilerplate, just wrote all the code. Hoping that the next project will be more like 2 months because I could reuse some of the components from this first project.

    1. 2

      That's definitely an advantage when coding from scratch, we can reuse tons of it...hopefully!

  11. 2

    I launched https://upfollow.app (a streamlined eng/product management tool) in under 40 hours. It was usable much earlier than that, but all the revisions and iterations after feedback brought it up into the 30s.

    I built it solo (with AI), vanilla js on the frontend, node/express on the backend. Both deployed on render.com.

    I didn’t use any boilerplate or no-code. Closest would be using https://tachyons.io for styling. I wanted to use react, but got really turned off because the only recommended way to use it now is with a big framework like next.js or remix.

    It’s probably getting too into the weeds to talk about how the front end is built (using nanohtml and nanomorph), but happy to share if anyone is interested.

    1. 2

      Oh I didn't know about nanohtml and nanomorph!
      I hear what you are saying about Next or Remix, to be honest unless I need server-side rendering most of my projects run on React + Vite, super fast to get started too!

  12. 2

    6 hours, freaky friday kind of deal, internal in the sense that it got sold to my employers current customer-base. But I got a decent bonus from it so not too shabby.

    It was a specific broadcasting thing, written in python with a sqlite db and some libs.

    1. 3

      Love it! My first product was built in 8 hours like this too, only did $5 in it's lifetime though xD

      1. 1

        xD
        I think the thing I built made decent money for the corp, like 200k-300k. If I remember correctly I got a 5k bonus or something like that. Might seem like a small amount of the total but given the amount of work, no risk for me and that it was sold by others I think it's actually quite fare.

  13. 2

    I've recently launched a small CRM, built it within 2-3 weeks aside from working full-time. It is really hard focused on being a MVP, and I've built it while using it. I am doing cold outreach for another project, and wanted to track the contacts. They are both built on shared components and modules, so this saved a lot of time with building.

    1. 2

      Was it a component library that you used? or your own components and modules?
      2-3 weeks for a CRM is not bad!
      Is that other project your own? 👀

  14. 1

    Hats off to Hec Sanchez for accelerating software launches! Your efficiency in product development is truly inspiring and commendable.

  15. 1

    I've developed an editor (https://easyfrontend.com/) that allows you to create React and Tailwind CSS landing pages in just minutes, completely free of charge.
    In the editor, you can easily modify content, preview your changes, and download the entire website, all set for launch.

    1. 1

      Oh, this looks really useful! So basically I build it in the editor and then just copy/paste on my codebase and deploy.

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