Building in Public - Week 1
The first week of building our SaaS. What we learned, what we shipped, and what's next.
By Indie Hacker
Week 1: From Zero to MVP
It’s been exactly one week since we started building. Here’s the honest breakdown.
What We Shipped
This week was all about foundation:
- ✅ Authentication (email/password + OAuth)
- ✅ Database schema with Drizzle ORM
- ✅ Stripe integration for payments
- ✅ Basic dashboard UI
Lessons Learned
1. Start with Payments
This might be controversial, but we integrated Stripe on day 2. Why?
If you can’t charge for it, you don’t have a business. You have a project.
Having the payment flow ready forces you to think about value from the start.
2. SQLite is Underrated
We went with SQLite instead of Postgres. For 99% of SaaS products, SQLite is:
- Faster to set up
- Cheaper to host ($0)
- Easier to backup (it’s just a file)
- Plenty fast for most workloads
3. Ship the Ugly Version
Our first dashboard looked terrible. We shipped it anyway. Users don’t care about pixel-perfect designs—they care about solving their problem.
Numbers
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Commits | 47 |
| Lines of code | ~3,200 |
| Coffees consumed | 14 |
| Hours of sleep | Not enough |
Next Week
- User onboarding flow
- Email notifications
- Landing page copy
- First beta users
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