If you are a software developer today and would like to own a profitable SaaS business within five years, I recommend this path: 1. Start saving 25%+ of your income. This will serve as your runway when you self-fund your business, which you should absolutely do. Saving this much isn't easy, but it is straightforward. Starting a successful company is neither easy nor straightforward, so consider this your warmup. 2. Launch a series of small products in your spare time. Your first goal is to get a stranger from the internet to pay you even one dollar for something you've made. Start by selling one-time purchases (videos, ebooks, courses, workshops, repos) and work your way up to simple apps with recurring revenue. Don't work on anything for more than 60 days without trying to charge for it. 3. Make friends with the founders of profitable SaaS companies. Go to MicroConf a few times. Notice these people aren't usually smarter than you. Ask lots of direct questions. Find out how much revenue *and profit* they're doing. 4. Learn things from your day job: the tools they pay for that aren't very good, what it actually takes to get it to adopt a new tool, what the procurement process looks like. 5. Keep your eyes open for co-founders. You want at least one, ideally two. Prioritize integrity and conflict resolution skills above all else. Make sure at least one of you has a very strong work ethic. Try to launch some small things with your best candidates. 6. Avoid at all costs: raising venture capital, listening to advice meant for VC-backed companies, worrying about "scaling", starting anything B2C. --- Several years from now, you will have 18 months of runway, 1-2 great co-founders, hard-won wisdom from launching a series of side projects, and insider knowledge about how and why companies buy things. At that point, you're ready to quit your job and take a crack at your best B2B app idea. Lower your expenses even further and try to become sustainably profitable before you run out of cash. Good luck!