Launch a Micro‑SaaS in 48 Hours: A Playbook for Indie Developers

Shipping a profitable SaaS no longer demands a year of sleepless nights or a seed round. With pre‑built code packs, serverless platforms, and AI copilots, solo developers can validate, build, and launch in a single weekend. Here's the blueprint.

1. Friday Evening — Nail the Problem

Pick a Niche Pain Scan a curated idea bank (e.g., the 1000 SaaS Ideas PDF). Filter by your domain knowledge and a clear willingness‑to‑pay signal. Dive deeper in our comprehensive guide for frameworks on evaluating market size, competition analysis, and identifying profitable niches.
Write a One‑Sentence Value Prop "Async Teams need reliable uptime alerts that don't wake the whole Slack channel." If you can't state it simply, choose a tighter niche.

2. Friday Night — Brand the Code Base

Fork a Starter Repo Clone the closest matching full‑stack template—Next.js 14, Postgres, Stripe, and Tailwind are table stakes. Browse our startup code collections for battle-tested templates that include authentication, payments, and deployment configurations.
Re‑Skin Quickly Replace colors, logos, and copy. Don't overthink design; focus on clarity.

3. Saturday Morning — Deploy the MVP

Spin Up Infra in Minutes → Frontend: Vercel → Database: Supabase/Postgres → Auth & Payments: Supabase Auth + Stripe
Configure Environment Variables Store keys securely; test signup, login, and checkout flows end‑to‑end.

4. Saturday Afternoon — Craft Your Landing Page

Hero Section: State the pain and the promise in 10 words.
Demo GIF: Record a 15‑second Loom while using your own product.
Social Proof Placeholder: Add empty testimonial cards—real quotes will fill in post‑beta.

5. Saturday Night — Build Buzz

Indie Hackers & Twitter Thread Share the journey (#buildinpublic). Ask for beta testers, not customers—yet.
Email Wait‑List Use a free ConvertKit tier. A list of 50 engaged prospects trumps 500 casual likes.

6. Sunday Morning — Iterate With Real Feedback

Instrument Logging & Analytics Capture errors, session replays, and funnel drop‑offs.
Fix the First Five Bugs Speed beats completeness; patch blockers immediately.

7. Sunday Afternoon — Flip the Paywall

Introduce a Founder‑Friendly Price $9 / mo early‑access plan with lifetime discount.
Soft‑Launch Announcement DM your wait‑list, post the Stripe receipt screenshots (with consent), and celebrate the first customer publicly.

8. Post‑Launch Rhythm

| Cadence | Task | Purpose | | ------- | --------------------------------------- | -------------- | | Daily | Triage support tickets | Build trust | | Weekly | Ship one small feature or tutorial post | Momentum | | Monthly | Review churn & activation metrics | Course‑correct |

Key Takeaways

Leverage Leverage: Pre‑built SaaS packs cut 90% of boilerplate. The development templates in our code collections have helped hundreds of developers skip the setup phase and focus on building unique value.
Ship Fast, Learn Faster: Real users refine ideas better than whiteboards.
Small but Mighty: A single‑feature micro‑SaaS with tight positioning can out‑earn bloated all‑in‑one suites.

Ready to trade code overwhelm for customer conversations? Block off a weekend, follow this playbook, and join the ranks of indie hackers earning recurring revenue on Monday morning. Get the complete methodology in our detailed entrepreneurship guide and check out our curated SaaS code packs to start building immediately.