He Built His SaaS for $500 Instead of $23K

So I grabbed coffee with my buddy Rohan last week, and his story is kind of wild.

He's been sitting on this enterprise SaaS idea in the HRTech space for months. Good idea too - validated with potential customers. But he can't code much.

So he started getting quotes.

The developer route?

> Senior devs wanted $120K-150K a year plus equity. Even juniors were $80K+. But it's not just the salary - it's the commitment. What if it doesn't work? He was worried about bleeding cash every month on payroll while trying to figure out if anyone will pay for his product.

Dev agencies?

> Cheapest quote: $23,000. Most expensive: $47K. Timeline? 3-4 months. And any changes after delivery? Extra. Always extra.

Then he found this AI coding thing.

He took a $500 course on Agentic spec coding - basically using specialized AI agents to build software without being a developer.

A month later, he had a working MVP. Not a prototype. An actual product he's testing with real users.

The math:

Devs: $120K+ per year
Agency: $23K, months of waiting
His way: $500, one month

What surprised him most: The speed, flexibility, and scalability. With an agency, every change takes days or weeks of negotiation. Now he iterates in hours. Idea in the morning, tested and fixed by dinner.

This isn't magic. Rohan had frustrating nights because of the lack of experience with spec coding. Things broke. You still need to understand what you're building - the AI doesn't think for you.

But if you're scrappy? This is viable.

Three years ago, non-technical founders had to learn to code for years or raise money. Now there's another path. Not replacing developers for complex stuff, but for getting an MVP out there? Completely different game.

Rohan's product isn't perfect. But it exists. People are using it. Built for the cost of a used iPhone and a month of late nights.

What would you build if you didn't need to raise $500K first?

0 comments