Start as done-for-you service, then automate the proven process into software
Insight from Romàn Czerny
When to use
When you have a complex problem space and need to deeply understand customer workflows before building. Ideal when you're unsure which parts of the process to automate or how to price the solution.
Don't do this
Building software features based on assumptions about customer needs, then discovering the automated solution doesn't match real-world workflows or misses critical edge cases.
5 Founders Who Did This
Built only the SDK while manually handling all survey creation, configuration, targeting, and data analysis - essentially operating as the customer's PM/researcher
Started by selling online courses teaching manual content blocking techniques. Then automated those proven processes into a SaaS DNS filtering product. Course customers became first SaaS users.
Started as a done-for-you service where Christina manually extracted AWS data and wrote compliance reports overnight. Told customers reports would arrive 'the next day' to mask manual processes. Gradually automated the proven workflow into software.
Started as a done-for-you B2C finance tool for SMEs, discovered the real value was the underlying infrastructure, then automated it into an API platform that other companies embed
Delivered AI cold calling as done-for-you service using Vapi, Zapier, and cal.com with custom prompting per customer before building SaaS