Building and Selling a Subscription Software (SaaS) Tool
Originally published Sep 16, 2026 — Sean Dollwet
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One of 4 ideas covered in this video
You build a software tool that solves a specific problem and charge users a monthly subscription. The business can later be sold, often at a higher price than other online businesses.
The presenter calls this the highest ceiling on his list, because software with retained subscribers can sell for a lot and scales well once built. He uses his own tool, coauthor.ai, an AI book-writing product for KDP publishers, as the example. He says the initial build cost $53,000 and took a year, followed by over $25,000 a month in ongoing development, about $140,000 invested so far, plus constant bug fixes, customer support and pressure to add features.
People with real coding skills, or enough money to hire developers, who can fund development for a long time while other income pays the bills.
His cost figures are a useful reality check against claims that anyone can quickly build software with AI, and he argues that experienced developers are not relying on vibe coding. The high sale value of profitable subscription software is real, but most software products never reach meaningful revenue. His spending numbers are self-reported, and the segment doubles as a promotion for his own product, which he calls the best AI book-writing software. He recommends against starting here unless you have strong tech skills or money to invest.