The first ever product that I built for my own startup was an Ad Server.

Second, I tried to build a social networking site for travellers and tourists.

Then I built a private search engine for all of your personal digital data.

There were numerous other products that I built after that and there are 2 things common in all those products.

1. They were all Software/SaaS products.

2. They were all failures.

I am not saying those products failed because they were software products.

Since I was a developer and I knew that I can build a technically strong product and I expected the product to sell itself. That's not how things work. If you focus only on the technical side of a startup, you are setting yourself up for failure.

But then, what other alternatives are available?

Here are a few simple ones to start:

1. Start a Blog or a podcast or a newsletter. Learn to monetize it. Sells ads on it.

2. Info products. You might think it's easy to make someone buy a $0.99 ebook. But there are many nuances in it. How would you come up with upsells, different packages, marketing it, etc.

3. Productized Services. Recently, this is one of my favourites. Instead of consulting for clients and selling your time for money, package your expertise and sell them as products.

Some popular examples of founders who started with a non-software product and then moved over to Saas are Nathan Barry of Convertkit fame and Brennan Dunn of Right Message.

As developers it's important we learn the other skills that help us market and sell ourselves and our products better. Try to build such non-software products and learn those skills and you can transfer those skills when you build your SaaS.

So, what would you build next?