10 Essential Resources for Starting and Growing a SaaS Business

Building a SaaS business from the ground up requires more than just a great idea. You need the right resources to turn your vision into a product that customers love and that generates reliable revenue. Whether you’re writing your first line of code or scaling to your next thousand users, having access to quality tools, knowledge, and support can make the difference between struggling and thriving. This list covers ten practical resources that address the real challenges SaaS founders face, from getting expert help to understanding your numbers to connecting with other builders who’ve been where you are.

1. Legiit

   When you’re building a SaaS product, you’ll quickly realize that you can’t do everything yourself. Legiit connects you with freelancers who specialize in the exact services SaaS businesses need. Need a developer to build out a feature? Someone to write your help documentation? A designer to polish your interface? You can find vetted professionals who understand software businesses and can deliver quality work without the overhead of full-time hires.

   What makes Legiit particularly useful for SaaS founders is the platform’s focus on digital services rather than generic tasks. You’re not wading through thousands of irrelevant listings. Instead, you can quickly find specialists in areas like API integration, SaaS marketing, customer onboarding flows, and technical writing. For early-stage companies watching every dollar, being able to bring in expertise exactly when you need it, and only for as long as you need it, helps you move faster without burning through your runway.

2. Stripe Atlas

   Starting a company involves paperwork, legal structures, and banking setup that can feel overwhelming when you just want to build software. Stripe Atlas handles the incorporation process for you, setting up a Delaware C-corp, getting you an EIN, and even helping you open a business bank account. The service walks you through each step with clear guidance, so you don’t need to hire an expensive lawyer just to get started.

   Beyond the initial setup, Atlas gives you access to resources like legal templates, accounting software discounts, and advice on fundraising. For international founders, Atlas is especially valuable because it lets you create a US entity that makes it easier to work with investors, payment processors, and enterprise customers who expect to do business with American companies. The upfront cost pays for itself in time saved and mistakes avoided.

3. Product Hunt

   Getting your first users is one of the hardest parts of launching a SaaS product. Product Hunt gives you a platform to introduce your software to an audience that actively looks for new tools to try. A successful launch on Product Hunt can bring thousands of visitors to your site, hundreds of signups, and valuable feedback from early adopters who understand software.

   The community on Product Hunt includes other founders, investors, journalists, and tech enthusiasts who can become champions for your product if it solves a real problem. Even if you don’t hit the top of the rankings, simply having a presence on the platform gives you credibility and a permanent landing page that continues to drive traffic over time. Many successful SaaS companies credit their Product Hunt launch as the moment they gained real momentum.

4. Indie Hackers

   Building a SaaS business can feel isolating, especially in the early days when you’re working alone or with a tiny team. Indie Hackers is a community where founders share their experiences, revenue numbers, and lessons learned in public. You can read detailed stories from people who’ve built profitable SaaS businesses, ask questions in the forums, and connect with others who are dealing with the same challenges you are.

   The transparency on Indie Hackers is what makes it valuable. Instead of polished success stories that skip over the hard parts, you get honest accounts of what worked, what failed, and how much money people are actually making. Many founders find accountability partners, co-founders, or their first customers through the community. The podcast and regular AMAs with successful founders give you direct access to advice that would otherwise cost thousands in consulting fees.

5. Baremetrics

   Understanding your numbers is critical when you’re running a subscription business, but calculating metrics like monthly recurring revenue, churn rate, and customer lifetime value by hand is tedious and error-prone. Baremetrics connects directly to your payment processor and automatically calculates all the metrics SaaS businesses need to track. You get a real-time dashboard that shows exactly how your business is performing.

   What sets Baremetrics apart is how it presents complex data in a way that’s easy to understand. You can see which customers are at risk of canceling, how much revenue you’re recovering from failed payments, and whether your growth is accelerating or slowing down. The forecasting tools help you plan for the future by showing where you’ll be in three, six, or twelve months if current trends continue. For founders who aren’t naturally numbers-focused, Baremetrics makes financial data accessible and actionable.

6. Intercom

   Customer communication can make or break a SaaS business, especially in the early stages when every user matters. Intercom combines live chat, help articles, product tours, and email campaigns in one platform. When someone visits your site, they can instantly message your team with questions. When a user seems confused inside your product, you can trigger a helpful message at exactly the right moment.

   The platform grows with you. Early on, you might just use the chat feature to provide personal support and learn what users struggle with. As you scale, you can build a knowledge base to answer common questions automatically, create onboarding sequences that guide new users, and segment your communication so different types of customers get relevant messages. The insights you gain from seeing where users get stuck and what questions they ask repeatedly will directly improve your product.

7. MicroConf

   Most startup advice is written for venture-backed companies trying to grow at any cost. MicroConf focuses specifically on bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped SaaS businesses that prioritize profitability and sustainable growth. The conferences bring together founders who are building real businesses without relying on outside funding, and the talks focus on practical tactics you can implement immediately.

   Attending a MicroConf event, whether in person or virtually, connects you with a community of founders who understand the specific challenges of building a SaaS business without a safety net. The conversations in the hallways are often as valuable as the formal talks. You’ll meet potential partners, get introductions to service providers who work well with small SaaS companies, and leave with a notebook full of ideas to test. The MicroConf community stays connected between events through online forums and local meetups.

8. SaaS Marketing Resources by Demand Curve

   Building a great product is only half the battle. You also need to get it in front of people who will pay for it. Demand Curve offers comprehensive guides and frameworks specifically for SaaS marketing, covering everything from positioning to paid ads to conversion optimization. The content is detailed and actionable, written by people who’ve actually done the work at growing companies.

   What makes these resources particularly useful is that they acknowledge the budget constraints most SaaS founders face. Instead of recommending expensive agency work or huge ad budgets, the guides focus on strategies you can execute yourself or with a small team. You’ll learn how to set up basic analytics correctly, write copy that converts, choose the right channels for your audience, and optimize your funnel step by step. The frameworks give you a structured approach to marketing instead of just throwing tactics at the wall.

9. AWS Activate

   Hosting costs can eat up a significant portion of your budget, especially as your user base grows. AWS Activate provides startups with credits for Amazon Web Services, sometimes worth tens of thousands of dollars depending on your stage and whether you’re backed by a participating accelerator or investor. These credits cover compute, storage, databases, and all the other infrastructure services you need to run your SaaS application.

   Beyond the credits, Activate gives you access to technical support, training resources, and architecture reviews. If you’re not sure how to structure your infrastructure for scale or security, AWS experts can guide you toward best practices. The credits typically last for one or two years, giving you runway to grow your revenue before infrastructure costs become a major expense. Even if you’re not sure whether AWS is the right platform long-term, the free credits make it a smart choice while you’re getting started.

10. Close CRM

    As your SaaS business grows beyond self-service signups, you’ll likely need to talk to potential customers, especially for higher-priced plans or enterprise deals. Close is a CRM built specifically for inside sales teams that need to move fast. It combines contact management, email, calling, and pipeline tracking in one interface designed for speed and simplicity.

    Unlike bloated enterprise CRMs that require weeks of setup and training, Close works the way sales people actually work. You can call leads directly from the app, send and track emails, set follow-up tasks, and see your entire pipeline at a glance. The built-in reporting shows you which activities actually lead to closed deals, so you can focus your time on what works. For SaaS founders doing their own sales or managing a small sales team, Close provides structure without complexity.

11. SaaS Agreement Templates from Docsketch

    Legal documents are necessary but expensive if you’re paying a lawyer to draft everything from scratch. Docsketch offers templates for the standard agreements SaaS businesses need, including terms of service, privacy policies, data processing agreements, and customer contracts. The templates are written in plain language and designed to be customized for your specific situation.

    Having solid legal documents protects both you and your customers. Clear terms of service prevent disputes about what your software does and doesn’t do. A proper privacy policy is required by law in many jurisdictions and builds trust with users. Data processing agreements are necessary if you’re selling to European customers or anyone else concerned about GDPR compliance. While you should still have a lawyer review anything before you use it, starting with a quality template saves hours of billable time and ensures you haven’t forgotten anything important.

Building a successful SaaS business requires combining great software with smart business practices. The resources on this list address different parts of that equation, from legal setup to customer communication to understanding your metrics. You don’t need to use all of them at once. Start with the ones that solve your most pressing problems right now, whether that’s getting expert help, finding your first customers, or simply connecting with other founders who understand what you’re going through. Each resource here has helped thousands of SaaS businesses grow, and they can help yours too. The key is to actually use them rather than just bookmarking them for later.