The Solo blog
Everything after “it works”.
Field notes on turning a working app into a running business — the parts nobody wants to build, and how to keep them running. Written by the team building Solo.
FeaturedAugust 30, 2026 · 8 min readFrom Idea to Operating Business: How Solo Runs ListMyCar.aiHow Solo turns strategy into supervised work, operates ListMyCar.ai with the tools its team chooses, and carries verified lessons forward.SoloRead the guide →Start here: the founder series
Eight pieces on what a SaaS business needs, how to find its first customers, how to market it, how to run it in production — and the business we learned it all on. Written to be read in order.
- 01How to Start a SaaS Business Beyond the AppHow to start a SaaS business beyond the product: the auth, billing, infrastructure, support, compliance, and distribution systems you need to plan.
- 02How to Get Your First 25 SaaS Customers Without AdsA practical customer-acquisition playbook for finding your first 25 SaaS customers by hand, learning why they buy, and separating traction from noise.
- 03Your First 90 Days of SaaS SEOA practical guide to SaaS SEO: choosing realistic topics for a new domain, publishing useful pages, fixing the technical floor, and measuring progress.
- 04Google Ads or Meta Ads for Startups? A First-Campaign GuideHow to choose Google or Meta for a startup ad campaign, build a test budget from your economics, track conversions, and avoid wasting early spend.
- 05The SaaS Production Readiness Checklist for Small TeamsA practical SaaS production readiness checklist: repeatable deploys, tested recovery, useful alerts, essential infrastructure, and operating costs.
- 06From Idea to Operating Business: How Solo Runs ListMyCar.aiHow Solo turns strategy into supervised work, operates ListMyCar.ai with the tools its team chooses, and carries verified lessons forward.
- 07Composable Software: Inside Solo’s Block ArchitectureHow Solo uses versioned blocks, declared contracts, and file ownership to assemble a SaaS business without hiding its application code.
- 08Own Your Code: What Solo Gives Developers Control OfHow developers work with Solo: own and push the repository, use their preferred coding tools, keep application code portable, and understand the limits.
Browse by topicMore from the blog
- TopicStarting outWhat a business needs before it can take money, and what that costs.Browse 2 →
- TopicGetting customersFinding the first ones by hand, then SEO and ads once something works.Browse 1 →
- TopicRunning itDeploys, monitoring, incidents — the work that never finishes.Browse 2 →
- TopicBuilding with AIThe tools, what they leave out, and getting from prototype to production.Browse 5 →
Starting out2 articles
- August 16, 2026 · 5 minWhat is an AI employee? A practical definitionAn AI employee owns a job, not a task: it works a schedule, uses real tools, and escalates when unsure. What that means for a small business in 2026.Read →
- August 16, 2026 · 5 minMicro SaaS: what it is, what it earns, and where it failsWhat a micro SaaS is, the economics of a $29/month product, how to pick a niche, and why operations, not code, is where one-person companies live or die.Read →
Getting customers1 article
Running it2 articles
- August 16, 2026 · 6 minVibe coding to production: the eight-step checklistVibe coding to production, step by step: auth, secrets, database, payments, hosting, monitoring, legal, analytics, and the operations that never end.Read →
- August 16, 2026 · 6 minVibe coding security: the seven holes AI-generated apps ship withVibe coding security: the seven holes that recur in AI-generated apps, from browser-side paywalls to open RLS, and a 20-minute audit to find them in yours.Read →
Building with AI5 articles
- August 16, 2026 · 5 minWhat is vibe coding? Definition, examples, and where it stopsVibe coding is building software by describing what you want and judging the running result, not the code. Origin, examples, strengths, and where it stops.Read →
- August 16, 2026 · 5 minHow to monetize a vibe-coded app: pricing and billing that hold upHow to monetize a vibe-coded app: pick the pricing model, wire Stripe so it survives the unhappy paths, and gate features on the server, not in the browser.Read →
- August 16, 2026 · 6 minBest vibe coding tools in 2026, ranked for the week after the demoThe best vibe coding tools in 2026: Lovable, Cursor, Claude Code, Bolt, v0, and Replit compared on code ownership, backend reality, and real cost.Read →
- August 16, 2026 · 5 minAI agents for business, minus the hypeAI agents for business in 2026: what they reliably do, where they still fail, and the guardrails that separate useful autonomy from an expensive incident.Read →
- August 16, 2026 · 5 minWhat to do after building with Lovable: a five-step roadmapWhat to do after building with Lovable: export the code, audit the security defaults, wire real billing, choose hosting on purpose, and own the operations.Read →