Startup · Fixed Price
A solo founder with a validated idea, design mocks, and no technical co-founder. Every Sydney agency she approached quoted $25k and a 4-month runway. We shipped a production-ready SaaS for under $3k - in 6 weeks.
01 · The Challenge
Sarah had spent three months validating her idea - a scheduling and client management tool for independent personal trainers. She had 20 waitlist sign-ups, a complete Figma design from a freelance designer, and a clear sense of exactly what v1 needed to do.
What she didn't have was a technical co-founder. She approached four agencies in Melbourne and Sydney. Quotes ranged from $22,000 to $35,000, with timelines of 3–5 months. One agency suggested she “consider raising a seed round first.” She reached out through Upwork instead.
Self-funded with $5k set aside for the build. Needed room for marketing after launch.
Had Figma files but no developer. Design was desktop-only and needed responsive adaptation.
Waitlist was cooling. Wanted to be in beta within 6 weeks before momentum was lost.
Product needed subscription billing from day one - not bolted on later.
02 · The Approach
The first conversation wasn't about tech - it was about scope. I reviewed her Figma files and her 20 waitlist responses and told her which features were table stakes for launch and which were nice-to-haves. We cut the scope by 30% before writing a single line of code. That's how we hit the timeline and the budget.
Audited the Figma files. Cut two features that waitlist users hadn't mentioned (a native mobile app and a public profile page). Defined a Supabase + Next.js stack for speed of development and low hosting cost at early scale. Set up the repo, CI, and staging environment on day three.
Built Supabase auth (email/password + Google), a PostgreSQL schema for trainers, clients, and bookings, and a full Stripe billing flow - monthly and annual plans with a 14-day trial. Sarah could test the checkout end-to-end by end of week three.
Built the booking calendar, client profiles, session notes, and the trainer dashboard. Adapted the Figma designs for mobile as I went. No pixel-perfect theatre - fast, clean, and functional on every screen.
Deployed to Vercel. Onboarded her first five beta users live on a Zoom call. Recorded a full Loom walkthrough. Handed over the codebase with a README that her future developers could actually understand.
03 · Tech Stack
Stack was chosen for low hosting cost at early scale and maximum handover-ability - she didn't want to be locked into a setup that only I could maintain.
04 · Results
Beta launched with 20 users. First paid subscription activated 9 days after launch. Sarah has since brought on a junior developer who took over without needing to call me.
Two Sydney agencies quoted me $25k. Ammar scoped the same project honestly, told me I was overbuilding, and shipped it in 3 weeks under $3k. Still on retainer 4 months later.
Tell me what you're building and I'll give you an honest scope within 48 hours.
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