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 👇
Top comments (5)
5 products in parallel is wild. I'm doing 2 (Japanese e-commerce + a side SaaS for Japan sourcing) and even that feels stretching.
What's your context-switching system across the 5?
Hey Mamoru! 👋 Thanks for reading — "wild" is honestly the right
word, some weeks it feels exactly like that 😅
Honestly, my context-switching system is pretty simple:
1. Weekly focus blocks — I dedicate ONE week per project at
a time. This week is SmartLangAI, next week is Animal Rescue.
Switching daily would kill me.
2. Shared infrastructure — My commerce SaaS and education
SaaS share 80% of the codebase (auth, billing, multi-tenancy,
admin panel). So "switching" between them is actually pretty light.
3. Aggressive ruthless prioritization — One project is always
my "main." Right now SmartLangAI gets 60% of my time, the rest
split the remaining 40%. Without this, I scatter.
4. Documentation > memory — Every project has a
/docs/notes.mdfile where I dump where I left off. When I come back to it after
2 weeks, I don't have to "reload" my brain.
Japanese e-commerce sounds awesome btw — that's a tough market
to crack. Are you doing localization for international sellers?
Btw if your Japan sourcing SaaS ever needs multilingual support
(JP ↔ EN ↔ CN etc.), I'd love to give you free credits to try
SmartLangAI — would love to get your feedback as a fellow builder 🚀
What's your biggest bottleneck right now between the 2 projects?
Hey Vicky! Thanks for the detailed breakdown — the Weekly focus blocks idea hits hard. I've been daily-switching and it's wrecking me.
Japan e-commerce IS brutal. We sell on Amazon JP, Rakuten, Yahoo — and we don't currently localize for international sellers, that's actually exactly the gap I want to fill with Japan Brand Finder (japanbrandfinder.lovable.app/): making Japanese suppliers discoverable in English.
SmartLangAI free credits would be amazing — JP→EN product description generation is on my roadmap. Where do I sign up?
Biggest bottleneck right now: distribution. The product is built, the audience isn't.
How did you get traction on your first SaaS?
So glad the weekly focus idea resonated! 🙌 Daily switching is
a productivity killer — try it for a week, you'll feel the
difference.
Japan Brand Finder is brilliant — just checked it out. There's
a massive gap there. International buyers struggle SO much to
discover Japanese suppliers because of the language barrier.
Smart positioning! 🇯🇵
For SmartLangAI signup:
👉 Just head to smartlangai.com and register as a User
👉 You'll get 35K free characters on signup to try it out
I'd LOVE to hear your feedback specifically on:
On distribution — honest answer: my first traction came from
THIS kind of content. Writing in public on DEV, sharing what
I'm learning, being honest about struggles. No paid ads, no
cold DMs.
A few things that actually worked:
Japan Brand Finder's audience is probably hanging out in
r/FulfillmentByAmazon, r/dropship, ecommerce Twitter, and
Japan-import Facebook groups. That's where I'd start.
Excited to see where you take this — let's stay in touch! 🤝
Vicky, this is gold — thank you. Going to register for SmartLangAI tonight and try JP→EN translations on real product descriptions. Will share specific feedback once I've run a batch.
Your 4-point distribution playbook just became my next 30-day plan:
r/FulfillmentByAmazon as a starting point is brilliant — never thought of cross-posting there.
Let's definitely stay in touch! 🤝
What's the one mistake you wish you'd avoided in your first 6 months?