19yo, deciding between saas vs service

[Thaddel6867]

I’m 19, still in school. I’ve got enough free time. My brother (1 year older) is a very good developer,

I’ve been learning about SaaS for the past 2–3 months. I know the basic idea (find a problem, validate, build), and I’ve spent time trying to do that, looking through Reddit, forums, etc.

One idea I looked into was a crosslisting tool. I used to flip thinkpads, so I know that space. My thought was to build something for the German/Austrian market since most existing tools are US-focused. The idea originally came from my own need, I would’ve used it myself. There isnt any crosslisting tool for the german region currently.

But when I tried to validate it, I couldn’t find people in germany/austria actively asking for this. And existing US tools already seem pretty solid. Also someone with an existing audience (~10k users from another ecom tool) is already building something similar for this market. So I dropped it for now.

I keep seeing advice that “boring B2B problems” are where real SaaS opportunities are. That makes sense, but I have zero experience in those kinds of industries, and it would be hard for me compared to people who’ve worked in those fields for years. I did search for "boring" problems on reddit for a while, I saw people complaining that the spreadsheets they get from their suppliers often come with missing data, and filling it in manually takes way too long. There are some standalone data enrichment tools out there, but not that many. I found a recent, not so well known product called ProductLasso, it doesn’t have much users at all, trust mrr shows 0 users, but their founders received $400k funding, and productlasso seems to be their main project, so i think it suggests there’s at least some interest in this space. The idea itself seems pretty straightforward: you upload a spreadsheet, and a tool fills in the missing data automatically. It feels like something that could be built without too much complexity, especially since my brother has a lot of experience working with AI models. He doesn’t have B2B domain experience either, but he’s strong on the technical side.

So I’m a bit stuck between two paths:

1. Go straight into SaaS and keep trying to find/validate a real problem. Of course in domains that I at least understand a bit or can relate to.
2. Start with a service first, get real customers/experience, and then transition into SaaS later. Also what services would you recommend me?

For context:

• basic selling experience online (flipping stuff mainly) since I was a kid.
• I'm tech savvy
• not an experienced coder, but my brother is (he would help me, he also has enough free time)

What would you do in my position?

 

[xspy_cloud]

You need to start building small SaaS ideas and test them using all possible traffic sources - including free ones. If you manage to get even one or a few subscriptions on a project, that’s already a signal that the idea is worth developing further. That’s why I recommend always starting with small but useful projects.

 

[Bluefrog_1974]

SaaS projects are better because in the long run they are more profitable, and although it represents some work to be done, it's worth it. Don't copy other competitors completely but try to get inspiration from their products.

 

[Thaddel6867]

SaaS projects are better because in the long run they are more profitable, and although it represents some work to be done, it's worth it. Don't copy other competitors completely but try to get inspiration from their products.

Yes, my primary goal is saas. I just thought about if i should start with a service first, or saas first. If i start with a service first, it would only be to get experience I can use to create saas or pivot my service into saas.

 

[Bluefrog_1974]

Yes, my primary goal is saas. I just thought about if i should start with a service first, or saas first. If i start with a service first, it would only be to get experience I can use to create saas or pivot my service into saas.

You're right if you want to get more experience and build some brackground first then that's understandable. Since you got a lot of free time why not.

 

[peux pas]

saas is hard bro, main reason is because it heavily saturated

if there is an opportunity, it already has been tried by someone else. this is very competitive game you are playing. identifying a b2b problem is hard because you don't know the depth of every business, their specific need

the only way to understand this depth is talk to real people in their business or genuine pursue the business yourself

even me with my 10+ year of internet market knowledge, i can't think of any specific business need that a saas product can be built for and to monetize. everything i could think of already have been done, like backtesting saas or trading journal for traders. automated email saas, there is loads of that. website builder saas. tracking saas for affiliate marketers that want to use paid ads. all those things have already been done and there's already product out there for it

with all my venture and journey, i never had a problem finding a saas product that i needed

what does this tell you? that market is already saturated through the brim

this is why people say saas is very hard to get in and make load of money, and why there are few people who are doing it with success. it's just a matter of reality bro

 

[kaliahmse]

saas was a good idea like 3 years ago now ai make it super fast to copy any saas in other hand if you run some dm or any specific service that need expertise rather than just building tools that's something you should work on

 

[SpaceToast]

Hit up accountancy forums, real estate agents forums, and other similar boring sounding jobs with repetative elements, I'm looking into this area at the moment as I suspect are a lot of people. My GF is an accountant, I found you don't really get far speaking to people in person ime, they don't really have the vision of what could be solved by Saas so you are just best sticking to observing their conversations or perhaps quationaires if you want a more proactive approach.

 

[GroByTech]

You should start with the service first, as you are too young. If you have some experience, you can find the problem that exists in the market and wait for a solution as a SaaS. Starting with SaaS might work, but it can fail miserably, and you would waste your time. Make slow and steady progress, smartness wins and jumps make hard crashes

 

[Thaddel6867]

saas is hard bro, main reason is because it heavily saturated

if there is an opportunity, it already has been tried by someone else. this is very competitive game you are playing. identifying a b2b problem is hard because you don't know the depth of every business, their specific need

the only way to understand this depth is talk to real people in their business or genuine pursue the business yourself

even me with my 10+ year of internet market knowledge, i can't think of any specific business need that a saas product can be built for and to monetize. everything i could think of already have been done, like backtesting saas or trading journal for traders. automated email saas, there is loads of that. website builder saas. tracking saas for affiliate marketers that want to use paid ads. all those things have already been done and there's already product out there for it

with all my venture and journey, i never had a problem finding a saas product that i needed

what does this tell you? that market is already saturated through the brim

this is why people say saas is very hard to get in and make load of money, and why there are few people who are doing it with success. it's just a matter of reality bro

yeah, everything is saturated, people still make money and will continue to do so, even in saturated markets multiple tools coexist and still get customers, its not winner takes all. and even if a tool exists it might not serve a specific niche well, you can take the same concept and make it work better for a smaller group. But i agree its very hard to find a problem worth building a solution for.

Hit up accountancy forums, real estate agents forums, and other similar boring sounding jobs with repetative elements, I'm looking into this area at the moment as I suspect are a lot of people. My GF is an accountant, I found you don't really get far speaking to people in person ime, they don't really have the vision of what could be solved by Saas so you are just best sticking to observing their conversations or perhaps quationaires if you want a more proactive approach.

what would you do in my position? im 19, no real work experience, no domain expertise in any boring b2b industry. my sister works at a logistics company, in front of a pc, and i could probably map out her exact workflow and spot things that could be improved, but i doubt id be able to close deals with companies even if i had a solid product, because whoever built the existing solutions actually felt the problem themselves and had way more expertise than me going in. so why would my solution be better than theirs.
on the other hand b2c feels more natural to me but everyone goes that direction because its more approachable. maybe the middle ground is something like the reseller space, not really b2c but not deep b2b either, like resellers.

You should start with the service first, as you are too young. If you have some experience, you can find the problem that exists in the market and wait for a solution as a SaaS. Starting with SaaS might work, but it can fail miserably, and you would waste your time. Make slow and steady progress, smartness wins and jumps make hard crashes

what service would you recommend? the service only makes sense if it puts me close to a problem i eventually want to productize.

 

[MattELD]

probably best to do service first to get real experience/insights

 

[aquarius213]

At 19 the answer is almost always start with service, not SaaS. Here's why.


SaaS looks sexy because of the recurring revenue and scale stories, but building a real SaaS takes 6-18 months before you see meaningful money, assuming you pick the right problem and ship something people actually pay for. Most first-time SaaS attempts fail not because the code is bad but because the founder has no idea what the market actually needs. You don't know what to build yet.


Service work solves that problem. You learn by doing paid work for real clients who tell you exactly what their pain points are. Every project teaches you what problems are worth solving, what people will pay, and how businesses actually operate. That knowledge is the foundation for any SaaS you build later.


The pattern that works for most people under 25: start a service business in a niche you understand, land 5-10 clients, notice the repeatable pain points across all of them, then build a tool that automates the thing you keep doing manually. That tool becomes your SaaS, and your existing service clients become your first paying users. You skip the hardest part of SaaS which is finding product-market fit from scratch.


Also the financial math favors service early on. A service business can hit $5-10K/month within 3 months if you hustle. A SaaS making $5K MRR in the first year is considered a success story. At 19 you probably need cash flow now, not a 2-year runway burning savings.


What's your skill set and the niche you're thinking about? The specific advice changes a lot depending on whether you're looking at web design, marketing, development, or something else.

 

[smmping]

SaaS is better for long term scaling, you are young, so I think the long term strategy will be the best for you