Six months ago, I started building a web app. Not because I had a business plan or VC funding — but because I talked to a builder friend who was still using a paper site diary in 2026. That conversation turned into JobSight, an Australian-made construction site diary app with QR check-ins.
Here’s what building a SaaS product solo has taught me — the good, the bad, and the stuff nobody tells you.
1. Talk to Users Before You Write Code
I spent the first two weeks just talking to tradies. Not selling anything — just asking: “How do you manage your site diary now? What’s annoying about it? What would make it better?”
Every feature in JobSight — the QR code check-in system, the photo attachments, the weather auto-logging — came from those conversations. Not from a product roadmap written in isolation.
Lesson: If you’re building a product, spend more time listening than coding in the first month.
2. Being Small Is Actually an Advantage
When someone emails hello@jobsight.com.au, they get me — the person who wrote every line of code. Not a support ticket. Not an outsourced call centre. The founder.
That means feature requests ship in days or weeks, not quarters. It means when a tradie says “I need to export my diary entries as a PDF for the builder,” I build it that week. Sitemate and the big players can’t do that.
Lesson: Solo developers can out-ship enterprise teams. Use that.
3. The Tech Stack Matters Less Than You Think
JobSight runs on FastAPI (Python), Angular, and SQLite — deployed on an ARM64 Oracle Cloud free-tier instance behind Nginx Proxy Manager with Authentik for SSO. It’s not Kubernetes. It’s not microservices. It’s a Docker Compose file and a Drone CI pipeline.
Nobody has ever asked me what database I use. They ask: “Does it work on my phone? Can my subcontractors check in with a QR code? Can I export my diary to show the builder?”
Lesson: Ship features, not architecture diagrams. Your users care about what your app does, not how it’s hosted.
4. SEO Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint
Month one: zero organic traffic. Month three: starting to appear for “site diary app australia” and “digital site diary.” The key? Content that actually helps people — like a guide on how to keep a construction site diary that covers legal requirements by state.
SEO for a solo dev means: write useful stuff, target one keyword per page, and be patient. Google rewards helpful content — eventually.
Lesson: Blog posts are the cheapest marketing you’ll ever do. One well-written article earns traffic for years.
5. You Can’t Build Everything at Once
Early on, I wanted JobSight to be everything: site diary, project management, invoicing, equipment tracking, crew scheduling. Bad idea. I stripped it back to three things: site diary, QR check-ins, and visitor management. Everything else can wait.
Every week I add one improvement based on actual user feedback. Not a giant roadmap — just the thing that most helps the people using it right now.
Lesson: Build less. Ship faster. Let users tell you what’s next.
The Result So Far
JobSight is free for up to 3 jobsites. It’s built for Australian tradies, by an Australian developer who answers every email personally. If you’re still using a paper site diary — or if you’re a developer thinking about building something solo — I hope this helps.
Try it: jobsight.tekonline.com.au — free tier, no credit card.
Email me: hello@jobsight.com.au — I read every one.
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