Why Building from Scratch Might Be Slowing Down Your SaaS Growth

Globally, the low-code application development platform market size was at USD 24.83 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow at an annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.5% from 2024 to 2030. In 2019, a SaaS startup named Spectrm.io had it all. Yes! It was a $ 2 M+ in funding, a sharp founding team, and a bold vision to revolutionize sales automation. But instead of launching quickly, they chose the complex route. That is building everything from scratch: backend, UI, analytics, infrastructure… the whole nine yards.

Eighteen months later, they still hadn’t launched.

Meanwhile, their burn rate ballooned, bugs became endless, and their team was buried in fixing infrastructure instead of building value. By the time they did go live, Outreach and Apollo had already scooped up the market with functional MVPs built using existing tools and platforms.

Was their idea flawed? No. Was their team inexperienced? Not. So, what went wrong?

They clung too tightly to perfection and control, at the cost of speed, learning, and market relevance.

Source:www.grandviewresearch.com

The Cost of the “Scratch” Mindset

There’s something incredibly tempting about building your SaaS product from the ground up. It feels like control. Like craftsmanship. Like doing things “right.”

But the hard truth is, in the early stages, building from scratch isn’t a strength but a trap.

The Illusion of Full Control

In the early days of a SaaS product, founders fall terribly believing that,

Custom code = Better UX
Native stack = Unmatched performance
In-house everything = Long-term stability

On paper, this sounds smart. Who doesn’t want total control? But in reality most founders learn the hard way,

You’re not building a product. You’re rebuilding the wheel. Instead of delivering value fast, you’re solving technical puzzles better, cheaper, and faster than others have already solved

Let’s break it down:

You’re coding login authentication instead of using
You’re setting up payment gateways instead of plugging into Stripe or
You’re debugging custom dashboards instead of using UI kits or admin

And while you’re doing all this, your users are waiting. Or worse, already switching to faster alternatives.

Control Is NOT About Code — It’s About Outcomes

Control doesn’t mean touching every line of code. Real control is about owning results:

Getting to market quickly
Learning from real users
Adapting in real-time
Scaling what works — and killing what doesn’t

That’s the mindset that wins in SaaS today. Because in this game, the product that moves fastest usually wins, not the one that’s “technically perfect.”

Time-to-Market! Your First Superpower

In a competitive landscape, speed is your biggest advantage. Think about it.

Slack started as an internal messaging tool inside a failed But it launched fast and evolved based on real-world feedback.
Superhuman skipped months of guesswork by using real-time onboarding to observe how users interacted and where they got stuck.
Notion put out an early version with core features, then let actual user behavior shape the roadmap.

None of these companies waited for perfection.

They chose momentum over mastery, and that’s what fueled their growth. Now flip the coin, if you’re still stuck “perfecting” your MVP…

You’re not getting feedback
You’re not gaining traction
You’re not validating product-market fit* And most critically: You’re not in the

While you’re polishing your code, someone else is shipping, iterating, and winning.

The Hidden Cost of Custom Development

Let’s get real. If your development team costs ₹5–₹10 lakhs/month ($10K–$20K) and you spend 6 months building your product from scratch, that’s already

₹30–₹60 lakhs ($60K–$120K) gone
Before you have a single active user
Before your product proves any demand And that’s just the start. Now add the cost of
QA and testing
Post-launch bugs and hotfixes
Feature reworks based on late feedback
DevOps and infrastructure fixes

What you’re really losing it’s momentum. Momentum builds credibility. Credibility attracts users, teams, and investors.

But if your roadmap is full of infrastructure problems and internal tooling, it sends the wrong signal:

You’re prioritizing code over customers
You’re burning time on things users never see
You’re too focused on perfection, not progress

And trust me, investors notice. So better to sought the help of a startup mobile app development company that has the most advanced solutions.

Agility > Perfection

In SaaS, agility is everything. Your product will evolve. Your users will surprise you. Your roadmap will shift.

Every new feature becomes a battle if your codebase is bulky, overengineered, or rigid. Instead,

Build only what makes you truly unique
Plug in tools for everything else
Keep your code lightweight and adaptable

Think of your first version as a learning tool, not a legacy.

Real Stories, Real Lessons: Startups Teach Us About Focus Let’s zoom in on a few SaaS stories from the gritty trenches of startup life. Basecamp: Build Once, Empower Thousands

Basecamp didn’t just build a project management tool. They built Ruby on Rails. It is a framework that went on to power apps like Shopify, Airbnb, and GitHub.

Why does that matter?

Because their secret wasn’t custom-made. It was about creating a scalable foundation

once, and letting that serve both their product and a whole generation of developers. Their win? Speed and simplicity.

Trello: A Product-Market Fit

Trello’s MVP was barebones. A Kanban board. A few draggable cards. No fancy AI, no enterprise dashboards.

But it worked. Why?

Because it solved one clear problem: visual task tracking. They didn’t chase complexity. They chased clarity and let the users guide what came next.

The “Build-Everything” Trap

Now, contrast that with the cautionary tales no one likes to tweet about.

Early-stage founders who tried to build Stripe, Zoom, Slack, and Notion, all inside one app.

What happened?

18 months of dev
Zero
Burned out
Burned investor

They didn’t lose because the idea was bad.

They lost because time ran out before they even started.

The SaaS Growth Formula – What Works Today?

Let go of the “we built it all ourselves” ego. The new SaaS success mantra is simple,

Launch fast.

Get something usable in front of real users even if it’s not pixel-perfect. MVP isn’t a compromise. It’s a strategy.

Learn fast.

Use the early traction to ask

What do users love?
What confuses them?
Where’s the real pain point?

This feedback is more valuable than any investor meeting or internal brainstorming.

Iterate smart

Don’t build features for the future. Build for what users need now. Fix what’s broken. Drop what’s unused. Improve what matters.

And here’s how to make that formula work even faster

Use Firebase or Supabase for auth, not custom
Pick Stripe or Razorpay for payments, not your own
Plug in Mixpanel or PostHog for
Customize a React template for admin — don’t code it line-by-

These tools aren’t shortcuts. They’re force multipliers.

Final Thoughts: Start Smart, Scale Fast

It’s easy to fall for the myth that control = quality. But in SaaS, control without traction is just expensive stagnation.

Here’s what building from scratch costs you,

Burn without return
Delays that competitors exploit
A distracted team solving problems your users don’t even see What propels real SaaS growth?
Fast shipping
Smart execution
Continuous feedback

So if you’re an ambitious SaaS founder, ask yourself this, Do I want to build everything?

Or do I want to build something users love — faster than anyone else?

Because the truth is, your users don’t care if your backend is a masterpiece. They care about, “Did this app solve my problem today?”

And if the answer is yes, you’re already winning.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is this 3-3-2-2-2 Rule of SaaS?

The “3-3-2-2-2” rule, also known as the T2D3 framework, is an aggressive growth path for SaaS companies. After reaching a big revenue milestone (e.g., $1m ARR), you should:

Tripe your revenue in the first year
Tripe again in the second year
Double in the third year
Double again in the fourth year
Double once more in the fifth year

Many successful SaaS companies have used this model to scale fast and attract investors.

2. How to Build a SaaS Product from Scratch?

Building a SaaS product involves:

Find a Market Need and validate a problem your SaaS will
Define Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP).State what sets your product
Choose the Right Tech Stack that aligns with your product requirements and scalability goals.
Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to test core functionality and get user
Iterate Based on Feedback and solving pain

Speed up development and save costs using no-code tools and Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) platforms like Firebase or Supabase can.

3. Is SaaS Slowing Down?

While SaaS is still growing, some segments are slowing down. Market saturation, competition, and economic pressure are the culprits. But overall, the market is still growing and projections are huge for the next years.

4. Is Building a SaaS Hard?

The available tools and platforms have made building a SaaS is easier than ever. Then what is hard? Building a successful SaaS business is hard. Here are the challenges:

Product-Market Fit: Your product meets the needs of your target
Customer Acquisition and Retention: Marketing your product and keeping users
Scalability: Designing your product to handle growth without performance

While development is easy, these business aspects require strategy and execution.

5. Why Do Most SaaS Startups Fail?

Several reasons contribute to the high failure rate of SaaS startups:

Only SaaS Founders: Home
No Market Need: Building a product with no
Poor Product-Market Fit: Not aligning the product with customer
Bad User Experience: Ignoring design and
Weak Marketing and Sales: Ineffective promotion and customer
Not Enough Funding: Running out of cash before

Solving these problems requires market research, strategy, and continuous iteration based on user feedback.

6. Can One Person Build a SaaS?

Yes, one person can build and launch a SaaS. With no-code platforms, open-source tools, and cloud services, one can build functional apps. There are success stories of solo founders building profitable SaaS businesses.

But solo founders will have to handle everything like development, marketing, customer support, and operations. Time management and prioritization is key to managing all these.