How I'm Building 5 SaaS Products as a Solo Developer in Malaysia 🇲🇾

VickyLee — Mon, 18 May 2026 15:04:12 +0000

TL;DR

I'm Vicky, a solo developer from Malaysia 🇲🇾 building 5 SaaS products simultaneously. This is the story of how I manage my time, what I'm working on, and what I've learned shipping solo.

How it started

A year ago, I was just another developer with too many ideas and not enough time. Every weekend, I'd sketch out a new SaaS idea, get excited for a week, then abandon it for the next shiny thing.

Sound familiar?

Then I realized: the problem wasn't having too many ideas — it was not having a system to ship them.

So I committed to one principle: ship something every week, even if it's small.

A year later, I have 5 active SaaS projects. Here's what they are and what I learned.

My 5 Projects (and why I'm building each)

🌍 1. SmartLangAI — My Main Focus

What it is: A translation API for developers. Translate apps and websites into 200+ languages with one API call. Auto-generates i18n language packs (JSON → ZIP).

Why I'm building it: As a developer myself, I was tired of how complex i18n setup is. Google Translate API requires too much configuration, DeepL is expensive, and there's no easy way to generate language pack files for React/Next.js/Flutter projects.

Tech stack: Next.js, Node.js, AI/LLMs, PostgreSQL

Status: Live and accepting users at smartlangai.com

🐾 2. Animal Rescue Platform

What it is: A platform connecting animal rescuers, adopters, and donors in Southeast Asia.

Why I'm building it: This one's a passion project. There's no centralized platform for animal rescue in my region, and rescuers struggle to find homes and funding. Sometimes you build things just because they need to exist.

Status: In active development

🛒 3. Multi-tenant Commerce SaaS

What it is: A platform that lets businesses spin up their own e-commerce stores without coding.

Why I'm building it: Small businesses in Asia need affordable Shopify alternatives. Building multi-tenant from day one taught me a lot about scaling architecture.

Status: Private beta

🎓 4. Multi-tenant Education Platform

What it is: A SaaS that lets educators and coaches launch their own learning platforms.

Why I'm building it: Same multi-tenant architecture as the commerce project, different vertical. I'm exploring whether one codebase can power multiple SaaS verticals.

Status: MVP

🎨 5. PromoCraft AI

What it is: An AI tool that generates marketing content (copy, images, posts) for small businesses.

Why I'm building it: Small business owners often can't afford marketing teams. AI can democratize this.

Status: Prototype

How I manage 5 projects without burning out

People always ask: "How do you have time for all this?" Here's my honest answer:

1. I rotate, not multitask

Each week, I focus on ONE project deeply. I don't context-switch between projects daily. That kills productivity.

This week: SmartLangAI launch prep.
Next week: Animal Rescue Platform features.

2. I share infrastructure

My commerce SaaS and education SaaS share 80% of the same codebase (multi-tenant core, auth, billing, admin). Building one helps me ship the other faster.

3. I time-box everything

Each project gets max 2 weeks before I move to the next. If I can't ship something meaningful in 2 weeks, I'm overscoping.

4. I embrace "good enough"

My first versions are NEVER pretty. They're ugly, hacky, and barely functional. Done > perfect — always.

5. I have one "main" project at a time

Right now it's SmartLangAI. It gets 60% of my time. The other 4 split the remaining 40%. Without a clear priority, you scatter.

What I've learned shipping solo

After 12 months of this approach, here are my biggest takeaways:

🎯 Quantity helps you find quality. I didn't know SmartLangAI would be the one to take off until I built 4 other things first. You can't think your way to product-market fit — you have to ship.

🚀 Speed compounds. The faster you ship, the more you learn. The more you learn, the better your next project. Don't optimize the first version — optimize the learning loop.

💸 Money isn't the only metric. Some of my projects (like Animal Rescue) won't make money. That's fine. They keep me motivated and remind me why I build.

🤝 Solo doesn't mean alone. I'm part of indie hacker communities, lurk on this very platform, and DM other founders constantly. Solo founders need MORE community, not less.

📈 Distribution > Product. I made this mistake early — building in a cave for months. Now I build in public. SmartLangAI's first users came from sharing my journey, not from cold marketing.

What's next

I'm planning to:

Hit my first $1K MRR with SmartLangAI
Open source my SDK for SmartLangAI on GitHub
Write more dev tutorials here on DEV
Maybe... finally finish the animal rescue platform 🥹

I'll be sharing my journey here regularly. If you're also building solo, I'd love to hear about your projects in the comments!

Connect with me

🌐 SmartLangAI: smartlangai.com — try the free translation API
💻 GitHub: @WAISINLEE
📧 Email: open for collabs

If this post resonated with you, drop a 💖 and let me know what you're building. Always excited to connect with fellow indie hackers!

Building solo? Multiple projects too? Let's chat in the comments 👇

DEV Community: VickyLee