5 products I shipped in the last 12 months.
Not a portfolio.
Not a resume.
Each one taught me something different about building for founders.
Product 1: A creator platform processing $10K+ per month in payouts for 200+ creators.
Lesson: Payments aren't a feature. They're infrastructure.
We moved payout state from Stripe's API into our own database.
- Zero missed payouts.
- Founder stopped worrying about creator payments.
- Community grew to 1,000+ members.
Product 2: An InsurTech quote engine where quotes took over 10 minutes.
Lesson: Slow isn't a server problem. It's an architecture problem.
- Added a caching layer.
- Switched API calls from sequential to parallel.
- Quote delivery dropped below 2 minutes.
- Support calls about speed nearly disappeared.
Product 3: An AI form builder for a multi-tenant SaaS platform.
Lesson: AI features without cost controls are a ticking time bomb.
- Added server-side token validation.
- Introduced workspace-level rate limiting.
- Manual editing dropped 60%.
- OpenAI costs stayed predictable.
Product 4: An immigration case management platform handling hundreds of active cases.
Lesson: The best feature is the one that eliminates the support ticket.
We surfaced the information users kept calling about.
- Support queries dropped 40%.
- No chatbot required.
Product 5: An EdTech platform built on a non-profit budget.
Lesson: Constraints force better decisions.
- Serverless architecture reduced infrastructure costs by 60-70%.
- Prioritized 3 launch features instead of 10.
- Shipped on time, under budget, with a foundation built to scale.
Different industries.
Different budgets.
Different challenges.
The pattern was the same every time.
- One developer.
- Full ownership.
- Production-ready software.
- Founder stays focused on growing the business.
If you're building a SaaS product and need someone who works this way, my DMs are open.
Or book a call.
Which of these five lessons resonates most with where your product is right now?