Monetization
AI Product Research Without Fooling Yourself
AI will validate any product idea you bring it. Here is how to run AI product research that tests demand honestly and ends in a price, not a persona.
Colson
Articles by Colson
Distribution
AI Competitor Analysis That Changes Real Decisions
How to run AI competitor analysis that produces decisions instead of feature grids, what AI can actually verify, and how to find a positioning gap.
Dev Tools
How to Measure AI Content Operations With Real Metrics
The metrics that tell you whether an AI-assisted content operation works, the quality gates that make it publishable, and the vanity numbers to ignore.
Founder Systems
AI Customer Support Workflow: When to Use It, When Not To
Where AI belongs in a solo founder's support workflow and where it destroys trust, with a five-rung automation ladder and a reversibility test.
SaaS Playbooks
The AI Operating Assistant Setup for Solo Founders
How to set up an AI operating assistant that stays accurate on a real codebase: the ledger files, precedence rules, session protocols, and gates.
Monetization
Founder Finances: The Cash Dashboard
A simple cash dashboard for founders: the money numbers that keep you solvent, how to set aside taxes and owner pay, and bookkeeping hygiene done solo.
Distribution
A Product Roadmap System for Solo Founders
A lightweight product roadmap system for solo founders: how to capture ideas, prioritize with a now-next-later board, and say no without losing customers.
Dev Tools
Hiring Your First Contractor as a Solo Founder
When and how to hire your first contractor as a solo founder: what to delegate first, how to scope a trial, and how to manage without becoming a manager.
Founder Systems
Runway Planning for Bootstrapped Founders
Runway planning for bootstrapped founders: how to calculate your runway, the scenarios that extend it, and how to decide before the money runs out.
SaaS Playbooks
The SaaS Launch Checklist (Beyond Product Hunt)
A channel-agnostic SaaS launch checklist: what to prepare before launch, how to run launch day across channels, and the post-launch follow-through.
Monetization
How to Build a Founder CRM Without Overbuilding
A founder CRM you'll actually keep: the few fields and stages that matter, why a spreadsheet beats Salesforce early, and when to graduate to a real tool.
Distribution
Running a SaaS Async Across Time Zones
How a solo founder runs a SaaS async across time zones: turning a big time gap into an advantage with support windows, docs, and self-serve systems.
Dev Tools
The Single-VPS SaaS Playbook
When one server is enough: how to run a bootstrapped SaaS on a single VPS, what to put on it, when to split, and how to sleep at night doing it.
Founder Systems
How to Form a US LLC as a Non-Resident
How to form a US LLC as a non-resident founder: Doola vs Stripe Atlas vs Firstbase, getting an EIN without an SSN, and the gotchas nobody warns you about.
SaaS Playbooks
US Business Banking for Non-US Founders
US business banking for non-US founders: why Mercury often won't work, how Relay and Payoneer compare, and how money actually flows back home.
Monetization
Customer Success for Solo Founders
Customer success for solo founders: a proactive, high-touch low-volume system to drive activation, reduce churn, and expand accounts without a CS team.
Distribution
The Productized Service Playbook
A productized service turns custom work into a fixed-scope, fixed-price offer. How to package, price, and run one, and when to graduate it to SaaS.
Dev Tools
How to Write SaaS Case Studies That Sell
How to write SaaS case studies that convert: the structure that sells, how to get them with few customers, and how to stay honest without fake numbers.
Founder Systems
Referral Loops for SaaS: When They Actually Work
An honest look at referral loops for SaaS: where they genuinely work, why they backfire for most bootstrappers, and what to do instead of bolting one on.
SaaS Playbooks
The Solo-Founder Customer Support Playbook
A customer support playbook for solo founders: the channels to run, response-time targets, cheap tooling, and how to turn support into product insight.
Monetization
The Bootstrapped Founder Metrics Dashboard
The SaaS metrics a bootstrapped founder should track, defined: MRR, churn, ARPU, LTV, CAC, payback, NRR, and quick ratio, plus how to assemble them.
Distribution
Micro-SaaS Ideas Hidden in Workflow Pain
How to find micro-SaaS ideas in everyday workflow pain: where to look, the questions that surface real problems, and how to filter ideas worth building.
Dev Tools
Landing Page Demand Tests for SaaS
How to run a landing page demand test for a SaaS idea: what to put on the page, which signal counts as real demand, and how to read the result honestly.
Founder Systems
How to Build a SaaS Demo Video
How to build a SaaS demo video that converts: the 90-second structure, what to show, recording setup for solo founders, and where to put it.
SaaS Playbooks
B2B SaaS Security Pages Buyers Trust
What a B2B SaaS security page needs to win buyer trust: the sections enterprise buyers look for, what to write before you have SOC 2, and what to avoid.
Monetization
Status Pages as a Trust Signal
Why a status page builds buyer trust for a bootstrapped SaaS: what to put on it, how to handle incidents honestly, and the cheap way to run one solo.
Distribution
Technical Docs That Actually Sell
How technical documentation drives SaaS sales: docs as marketing, the Diataxis structure, quickstarts that convert, and docs that rank in search.
Dev Tools
API Pricing Models for Small SaaS Teams
API pricing models explained: per-request, tiered, credit-based, and hybrid. How a small SaaS team picks a metric, sets limits, and avoids bill shock.
Founder Systems
Open Source to SaaS: The Conversion Playbook
How to turn an open-source project into SaaS revenue: the open-core line, what to charge for, hosting vs features, and the model that converts.
SaaS Playbooks
Developer Tool Pricing: A Practical Guide
How to price a developer tool: per-seat vs usage vs hybrid, where to put the free tier, and how to price for engineers who hate opaque pricing.
Monetization
How to Turn a Service Into SaaS
How to turn a service business into SaaS: productize what you already do by hand, find the repeatable core, and climb the ladder to self-serve software.
Distribution
Product Hunt Launch Checklist for SaaS
A practical Product Hunt launch checklist for SaaS founders: what to do before launch day, during the 24 hours, and after, to get a real result.
Dev Tools
Founder-Led Sales for Technical Builders
Founder-led sales for technical founders who hate selling: how to find buyers, run honest sales conversations, demo, and close without a sales team.
Founder Systems
SaaS Onboarding Emails That Reduce Churn
A SaaS onboarding email sequence that reduces churn: which emails to send, when to trigger them, and what each one should make the user do.
SaaS Playbooks
How to Pre-Sell a B2B SaaS
How to pre-sell a B2B SaaS before you build it: the offer, letters of intent, deposits, and paid pilots that prove demand and fund the work.
Monetization
AI Workflows for Solo SaaS Founders
Practical AI workflows a solo SaaS founder actually uses: where AI earns its place across building, support, and content, and where it does not.
Distribution
How to Use Decision Logs as a Founder
A founder decision log fights hindsight bias and speeds future calls. What to capture, a reusable template, and how to review decisions over time.
Dev Tools
Founder Dashboards: What to Track Weekly
The handful of numbers a bootstrapped founder should track weekly, why fewer metrics beat more, and how to build a one-screen dashboard cheaply.
Founder Systems
A Weekly Review for Technical Founders
A weekly review built for solo technical founders: the exact questions to ask, what to track, how to run it in under an hour, and a reusable template.
SaaS Playbooks
The Solo Founder Operating System
The real operating system one solo founder runs to ship multiple SaaS products: the capture, build, ship, and review loops, and the tools that matter.
Monetization
Break-Even MRR: The Metric Founders Ignore
Break-even MRR is the revenue that covers your real costs, including you. How to calculate both lines, find ramen profitability, and read your runway.
Distribution
Free Trial vs Freemium: Which Converts Better?
Free trial vs freemium for bootstrapped SaaS: which converts better, what each model optimizes for, the reverse trial, and a decision tree to choose.
Dev Tools
SaaS Pricing Tiers: A Founder's Guide
How to design SaaS pricing tiers as a bootstrapped founder: why three tiers, price the middle one first, and how to pick the right value metric.
Founder Systems
Finding Your First Paying SaaS Customer
Where the first paying SaaS customer actually comes from: a by-hand sourcing map, the concierge close, and the exact script for asking someone to pay.
SaaS Playbooks
How to Validate a SaaS Idea Before Coding
SaaS idea validation without writing code: the 5-conversation test, how to pre-sell software that doesn't exist, and a scorecard for when to build or walk.