Harnessing ChatGPT: My Journey to Building a Solopreneur SaaS Business

TL;DR: ChatGPT makes it possible to launch that great SaaS idea for those patient enough to work through the speed bumps of the experience.

For the first time since 2020, I've been able to write a decent MVP project. So much so, I'm sure to release it and make it public in the next couple of months. And here’s the wild part – ChatGPT has helped me write it. In fact, it’s the most complete code I’ve written for a project since I last embarked on (and abandoned) building Medalloid version 2.0.

For those keeping score, my long COVID had made it challenging for me to write decent code, let alone finish a project. I won't delve into the career impact of that because this isn't that post. Instead, I'm here to talk about my next horizon and my new tomorrows.

My goal has been to write a mobile-first web app and launch it by September. As of this morning, I have all the elements ready to go as a functional application. Now it's just a matter of connecting them together, designing the look and feel of the experience, and opening up signups.

For anyone willing to put the time in, you can use ChatGPT for development, especially if you understand the fundamentals of setting up a well-formed project.

My project victory lap (thus far) includes:

• User creation, validation, and logged-in app states
• Three language support (EN / FR / ES)
• API middleware logic (think of it as if-this-then-that)
• Simple task workflows (enter the form data, show a result)
• Hosting in Netlify, using Supabase, with a front-end as a Flutter web-app framework

As a UX consultant, these milestones would typically involve working with a team on a project. Each of these items would require weeks of planning, architecture, and even a few hard decisions. Instead, this time around, it has been all about asking the right questions and having the patience to work through the bugs or request rewrites.

While ChatGPT isn’t perfect, it has augmented my already strong knowledge of product design and application development. Sometimes it’s like having a co-worker to brainstorm the what-if ideas, and in others, specifically figuring out the best method for abstracting a feature to make it useful across the app. In all cases, it’s been nothing short of incredible.

After 25 years as a UX designer and front-end developer, I can honestly say it is possible to build a solopreneur SaaS business. And if I haven’t said it directly, thank you, OpenAI and the ChatGPT dev team. The platform has been a game changer, and all the patience it's taken to develop this tool, I’m forever grateful. It’s enabled me and been the spark for all the ideas I've been pushing along.

If you're thinking of an idea or wanting to explore the art of the possible, jump on ChatGPT, ask it questions, and give it some prompts to see where it goes. And if you're looking for a UX consultant who can help you bring your idea to life, give me a shout or check out some of my articles on Humanjava.com. The future is what we choose to make it. Make it the one you've always wanted to manifest.