GTM Strategy

What Needs to Happen Before Launch

Must-have (blocks charging $299)

1. Stripe billing integration

This is non-negotiable. Every boilerplate comparison article asks "does it have Stripe?" Missing it = instant disqualification for 60%+ of the ICP. The payment abstraction interface is already architecturally ready — ship Stripe first, document Paddle/Lemon Squeezy as future extensions.

2. Minimal admin panel

B2B SaaS buyers need to impersonate users, disable accounts, and see org data without touching the database. Minimum scope: user list, impersonation, org overview. Signals "production-ready" in a way that auth alone does not.

High-priority Phase 2 (post-launch, ranked by conversion/retention impact)

Skip for now

Notifications, audit logs, themes, marketplace, plugins system — none are conversion drivers at launch.

Pricing

Recommended structure

Why this structure

• Early-bird creates launch urgency without fake scarcity; rewards early adopters who provide feedback
• Team tier captures the natural indie startup unit (2-3 devs buying together) — flat $299 leaves this on the table
• Lifetime cap prevents infinite support obligation; high perceived value at $799
• "12-month updates" is a specific, defensible commitment — not vague "lifetime updates" that raises abandonment doubts

Pricing validation

Market data confirms $299 is correctly positioned. Supastarter validated price increases from $49 → $149 → $299 → $349 with improved conversion at every step. ShipFast runs at $199-$299 with a much simpler stack. Roxabi at $299-$549 is justified by:

• TanStack Start + NestJS (more future-proof than any Next.js stack)
• PostgreSQL RLS multi-tenancy (correct architecture, not the lazy version)
• 10-agent AI team (no competitor at any price point has this)

What NOT to do:

• No countdown timers
• No "Limited time offer" — this persona knows it's fake
• No "Join 500+ developers" unless the number is real and verifiable

Launch Sequence

6–8 weeks before launch: Infrastructure

Weeks 1–2:

• Build the dedicated landing page (separate from the docs site — docs are for buyers, landing page is for prospects)
• Open email waitlist
• Post first 2-3 build-in-public threads on Twitter/X: "Building a SaaS boilerplate with a 10-agent AI development team — here's what's inside." Include a screenshot of the agent team working.

Weeks 3–4:

• Record 3 demo videos (see Demo Strategy below)
• Post one "dev log" thread per week on Twitter/X

Weeks 5–6:

• Pitch 3-5 developer newsletters: Bytes.dev, JavaScript Weekly, The Pragmatic Engineer — newsletter slots book 2-4 weeks ahead
• Post to IndieHackers "Looking for Feedback" — generates early traffic and social proof comments
• Open a waitlist-only Discord with a #waitlist channel

Week 7 (pre-launch):

• Email the waitlist: "launching in 7 days" + early-bird price ($249 vs $299, valid 48 hours)
• Submit to discovery directories: BoilerplateHub, BoilerplateList, BoilerplateSearch
• Submit "Show HN" draft — let it sit, refine the title

Launch day sequence

6:00 AM ET  → Email waitlist (early-bird $249, 48h only)
9:00 AM ET  → Show HN post (see title guidelines below)
10:00 AM ET → Twitter/X launch thread (screenshots + demo + CTA)
12:00 PM ET → IndieHackers post (link to HN for social proof)
              r/SideProject, r/webdev, r/ClaudeAI, r/node

Show HN title — what works:

Use: Show HN: SaaS boilerplate with a 10-agent Claude Code AI development team (Bun, NestJS, TanStack)

Avoid: Any marketing language ("Launch your SaaS in days", "The ultimate boilerplate") — HN penalizes this framing. Be technical and specific.

Key data point: IndieHackers delivers 23.1% conversion per engaged post vs Product Hunt's 3.1%. Prioritize IH over PH.

Post-launch: First 30 days

• Reply to every HN comment personally — this sustains HN momentum
• 7-day buyer email: "What's the first thing you built?" → collects testimonials
• Document one buyer success story per month (with permission)
• Ship billing integration publicly → "Phase 2 just dropped" = second launch event

Distribution Channels

Tier 1 — Highest ROI

Tier 2 — Strong, underrated

Tier 3 — Long-term compounds

Demo Strategy

The AI agent team is the differentiator. The only thing that makes it believable is showing it doing something real.

What doesn't work

• Screenshots of prompts
• "AI-powered" marketing copy
• Productivity claims without verifiable proof

What works: specificity and verifiability

Demo 1 — The full pipeline (60-second screen recording)

Show /dev #42 typed → issue read → spec written → agents spawned → PR created. No voiceover. Real terminal, real agent names, real output.

Caption: "This is a real session. No cuts for the first feature of a new clone."

Demo 2 — "The week to 47 minutes"

Show a specific feature (e.g., adding an RBAC permission) implemented end-to-end. Time-stamp it. "This took 47 minutes with the agent team. It would have taken me 3-4 hours." More credible than "10x faster."

Demo 3 — The adversarial quality loop

Show the security-auditor agent catching a real issue the backend-dev missed. fixer resolves it. PR updated. This demonstrates agents checking each other's work — genuinely novel, no competitor can replicate it.

Credibility frame to establish in every demo

"This is Claude Code with structure baked in. You already pay for Claude Code — this makes it 3x more useful."

Positions the AI team as an enhancement to a tool they already use, not a new AI thing to evaluate.

Community Strategy

Phase 1: Now → 200 customers — GitHub Discussions only

Why not Discord first: Linear chat is bad for technical Q&A. Knowledge is unsearchable and impermanent. GitHub Discussions integrates with the repo, is searchable, and generates permanent answers future buyers will find.

Setup — enable 3 categories:

1. Q&A (support — mark answers as accepted)
2. Show & Tell (buyers sharing what they built — your best marketing asset)
3. Ideas (feature requests — doubles as a public roadmap signal)

Phase 2: 200+ customers — add Discord (as a perk, not support)

• Discord is a Lifetime tier perk, not general support
• 3 channels max: #general, #showcase, #announcements
• Do not create channels you'll need to moderate

Support boundary — set at launch

"Support is community-based via GitHub Discussions. Response time: 48 hours. No DM support — public answers benefit everyone."

Set this expectation at launch. Walking it back after buyers form habits is much harder.

Sustainable solo-creator support model:

• GitHub Discussions handles async Q&A (low time cost, builds searchable knowledge base)
• Monthly 1-hour office hours for Lifetime tier members (high perceived value, low time cost)
• A "common issues" doc you update as patterns emerge (highest-leverage support investment)

Key Metrics

What actually matters at launch

What to skip early on

CAC, LTV, churn — these metrics apply to SaaS products, not code assets sold one-time. Focus on activation and word-of-mouth until you have 50+ customers.

Docs as Marketing

The Fumadocs setup is a strategic asset. Documentation pages rank for long-tail technical queries with high buyer intent.

High-value pages to add for SEO:

Docs as conversion driver: Link prominently from the landing page — "Explore the full documentation" reduces purchase uncertainty more than any feature list.