One year. That's how long it's been since I jumped headfirst into this startup thing. And what a year it's been.
Let me give you the highlight reel: I built 3 microservices that power 2 SaaS products and 1 internal accounting tool. Not bad for a guy who used to think "scalability" was just a buzzword people threw around in meetings.
First up, tenant.ph. This is the big one. A full-blown property management platform that handles tenants, payments, maintenance requests—the whole shebang. It's been a beast to build, and honestly? It taught me something important. My next product should be small. Like, embarrassingly small. The kind of small where you can explain it in one sentence and someone actually gets it. Because giant apps are great and all, but they also take forever to build and even longer to iterate on.
Then there's UniSMS API—our SMS API for the Philippines. Now this one's small. Beautifully, wonderfully small. It sends text messages. That's it. And people are actually using it! We've got 986 users (not all paying, because that's just how the game works), and in just 2 months we've successfully sent 14,209 SMS. I call it "ramen money" right now—it covers the noodles, but not the toppings yet.
Here's something funny though. A couple of large firms reached out. Big names. I got excited every single time. Then they found out we're only a year old, and poof—ghosted. Radio silence. It's not just foreign companies either. Local firms do the same dance. At first it stung. But you know what? I get it. Trust takes time, and we're building that trust one message at a time. Keep the service stable, keep it dependable, and they'll come around eventually.
On the government front? Still a pain. I applied for a permit to develop a SaaS for government services—still pending. Every time I call to follow up, all I hear is an electric fan whizzing in the background. No joke. I don't even know who I'm talking to half the time. But hey, it's the Philippines. You learn to laugh about it or you go crazy.
And what's next? I'm working on a 3rd SaaS product. Smaller scope this time—I promised myself. I'll share more details once the prototype is done. But I'm excited about it.
One year in, and I'm still here. Still building. Still ramen-funded. But I wouldn't trade it for anything.