From the authors
Alexey Afanasyev
This book is dedicated to my family — the people who supported me through years of entrepreneurial experiments and helped me survive each crash.
My first attempt at building a business started back in 2011
Like many startup stories, it began with a great idea, a trusting investor, and a team of developers. I thought I was doing everything right: signed contracts, created detailed specs, even motivated the team by giving them shares. Then came the long wait.
About a year later, we had the first version of our platform — a service for building online stores in just a few clicks. It kind of worked, but it was full of bugs and glitches. More months passed as we fixed bugs, tested, and made improvements..
A year and a half in, we replaced the entire development team. Within a few months, we had a somewhat stable product. First users came in, and with them — a wave of feature requests.
But it quickly became clear that scaling the product wasn’t realistic. The code was a mess — a patchwork of workarounds and outdated logic. I kept pouring money into it, selling off personal belongings, living in the office for months — desperately trying to make it work.
“The financial hole is the deepest of all — you can fall into it forever…”
At some point, I realized there was no point in going any further — I wiped all the data from the servers, shut the business down, and threw myself into learning how to code.
A year later, I landed my first freelance project: building an online store. More serious projects followed.
By 2022, we launched a new company and started growing a digital agency. The failures, the skills I gained from client work, the research into successful startups, and the experience of building and improving my own SaaS platform — all of it helped shape my current approach to building a startup.
My advice: If you want to avoid wasting your savings and ending up with nothing — invest in knowledge and experience.
Study the market you want to work in. Use affordable tools to build your MVP. Focus on reaching operational profitability first — and only then think about raising money.
Or better yet — don’t raise money at all.
Instead, aim to generate revenue from day one. Apply for grants and IT subsidies. Build this into your strategy from the beginning.
Forget about registering a company, hiring designers, making fancy logos, renting offices, or hiring assistants.
Your only goal right now is to reach profitability as fast as possible.
You don’t have to be a genius to build a successful startup.
Stick to a scientific approach — make decisions based on data, not gut feeling or client assumptions.
Learn our framework and build your own micro-SaaS from scratch — from idea to revenue in just 3 months.
And you can do it without quitting your day job.
Maria Afanasyeva
Hello to everyone who dreams of building their own SaaS product and changing the IT world!
In today’s world, success comes to those who are willing to invest in themselves and their knowledge.
This eBook is your personal guide to building a digital product from the ground up.
We’ve broken down the complex process of SaaS development into simple, actionable steps anyone can follow. From finding an idea to launching your product — every stage is clearly explained and proven in practice.
Remember: your most valuable asset as an entrepreneur is your skills and knowledge.
That’s why we’ve collected our best tips and insights to help you avoid common mistakes and achieve results quickly.
Start investing in your education today, and in just a few months you’ll have your very own working product.
Let’s go make something great!
