My First Micro-SaaS, Defining the MVP

It is important to limit and clearly define the MVP for your Micro-SaaS project. My goal was to launch https://hostifi.net in 30-days or less, and only build the minimum amount of features that would create enough value to be able to get my first few customers.
Even with a clearly defined, super simple MVP, it still took about 2 months to build it, and after hitting some roadblocks, I lost interest a few times and almost gave up along the way.
From the start, I had several features in mind for my UniFi controller hosting service — Let’s Encrypt SSL automatically installed, a nightly off-site backup script, and 24/7 monitoring agents on every server which would alert me right away to any problems that would come up. I considered all of them to be absolutely mandatory to be completed before launching.
But I had also read about the importance of building an MVP.
So I decided to launch the product with only a UniFi server installation. It came with the self-signed SSL which gave browser warnings, no backups were included, and there was no monitoring solution in place.
To my surprise, I was able to get my first 20 customers before completing those “mandatory” features, even though I felt the product wasn’t complete without them.
I was really glad that I had launched the MVP instead of the full-featured product. Those initial customers gave me a huge push in motivation to finish the features that I wanted to build. I don’t think I would have kept with it if I didn’t have those early customers depending on the service to be improved.
The decision to build and launch the MVP first was mainly inspired by Tyler Tringas’s Micro-SaaS Ebook, which I highly recommend reading.
Timeline of HostiFi Launch and Features
May 24, 2018 — Launch. 0 customers. https://hostifi.net/
After 2 months of programming, ~$500 in expenses, 1,500 lines of Python, ~100 lines of PHP, I launched my first SaaS today. The motivation to keep trying was largely inspired by @ca98am79 @omerkhan @tylertringas from reading Micro SaaS and listening to https://t.co/4XbtItgot4 https://t.co/umR59gCJgd
— Reilly Chase☁️☁️☁️ (@_rchase_) May 24, 2018
June 13, 2018 — Added Let’s Encrypt SSL. ~10 customers
New feature -> All of our #UniFi servers are automatically provisioned with valid SSLs provided by @letsencrypt pic.twitter.com/Srww5FaxjB
— HostiFi ☁️ (@hostifi_net) June 13, 2018
June 28, 2018 — Added Zabbix monitoring. 18 customers
Last night we rolled out @zabbix monitoring on all of our #UniFi controllers! We are watching over 40 server metrics including UniFi load time, CPU utilization, percent disk free, and more in order to increase uptime at https://t.co/7YoDjwvHZm pic.twitter.com/YjU4vKzT7X
— HostiFi ☁️ (@hostifi_net) June 28, 2018
July 10, 2018 — Added nightly off-site backups. ~22 customers
All of our #UniFi servers now have offsite backups in addition to @ubnt autobackup, we rolled out a script which takes a copy from each of our @vultr instances nightly and stores it on @digitalocean Spaces (similar @AWScloud S3). This is included for our customers no extra charge pic.twitter.com/vV3zgwcBRN
— HostiFi ☁️ (@hostifi_net) July 10, 2018
After completing all of the mandatory features that I had planned for the UniFi controller hosting service, I moved on to build new products.
Expanding to the new products was significantly easier than the original development because I was able to reuse so much of the work that I had already done.
July 25, 2018 — Launched UNMS hosting
It's official, we are now hosting @ubnt #UNMS servers for $15/month! Includes automatic install, 24/7 monitoring, nightly off-site backups, and migration assistance https://t.co/Q0IGUszCPv pic.twitter.com/P4QoGZxoc8
— HostiFi ☁️ (@hostifi_net) July 25, 2018
August 15, 2018 — Launched UCRM hosting
