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Jack Brauner
Jack Brauner

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I Built a SaaS in 9 Days for $200, Launched on HN to Zero Signups - Here's What I Learned

#saas #ai #startup #buildinpublic

Hey everyone! I'm Jack, a consultant in Denmark who just launched my first SaaS product. Here's what happened.

What I Built

ClearNoteLab - a tool that transforms messy meeting notes into professional, client-ready PDFs in 30 seconds using AI.

The problem:
As a consultant, I waste 8+ hours per week formatting meeting notes into deliverable documents for clients. It's mind-numbing work.

The solution:
Upload your messy notes, pick a template (Meeting Summary, SOP, Project Brief, or LLM Transcript), and get a polished PDF in 30 seconds.

The Build

Timeline:
9 days
Cost:
$200 (Bolt AI subscription)
Stack:
React/Vercel, Supabase, Stripe, Claude Sonnet 4 API
No-code tool:
Bolt AI did the heavy lifting

I'm not a developer by trade, but Bolt AI let me ship fast. The product works, the tech stack is solid, and I even built proper Stripe integration.

The Bug That Almost Killed Me

Right before launch, I discovered a critical Stripe webhook bug: canceled users were keeping Pro access indefinitely. My webhook was returning error codes instead of HTTP 200, so Stripe marked every event as "failed" and kept retrying.

Fixed it just in time. Lesson learned: test your payment flows thoroughly BEFORE launch.

The Launch Disaster

Date:
December 22, 2025 (3 days before Christmas)

Platform:
Hacker News

Time:
7 AM Eastern

Result:
0 signups, 0 comments, 1 upvote (mine)

My post immediately got buried. Position #28 by 9 AM, dead by noon.

What I Did Wrong

1. Holiday timing

Launching 3 days before Christmas = everyone's offline or checked out mentally. Terrible timing.

2. Zero social proof

My landing page had no testimonials, no "As seen on," no trust signals. Just a guy asking you to trust his product. Landing page audit score: 68/100, Trust score: 4/10.

3. No audience

I have 0 followers on Twitter, LinkedIn, anywhere. I was shouting into the void.

What I'm Learning

Building is easy. Distribution is hard.

I can ship a working SaaS in 9 days for $200, but I can't make anyone care about it. That's the real challenge.

The HN launch taught me:

  • Timing matters (don't launch during holidays)
  • Social proof is critical (even for free tiers)
  • You need an audience before you need a product

What I'm Doing Next

I've set myself a January 31st deadline. If I can't get traction by then, I kill the project and move on.

My plan:

  1. Get 5 beta users for testimonials (in progress)
  2. Update landing page with social proof
  3. Build a small audience (LinkedIn, dev.to, builder communities)
  4. Product Hunt launch (early January)
  5. Second HN attempt (mid-January with proof)

Current asks:

  • If you're a consultant who hates formatting meeting notes, try the free tier: https://clearnotelab.com
  • If you've launched on HN successfully, what did you do differently?
  • If you've failed a launch like I did, how did you recover?

I'm documenting the whole journey - the wins, the failures, the lessons. Happy to answer questions about the build process, the Stripe bugs, or why launching during Christmas week was a terrible idea.

Thanks for reading!

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