Bootstrap to Breakeven on $65K: The SaaS Playbook

Most startup advice comes from founders who raised millions. This is not that playbook. This is the detailed, dollar-by-dollar breakdown of building a SaaS product from nothing to breakeven on a total budget of $65,000. No venture capital. No rich uncle. No safety net. Just relentless prioritization and a refusal to spend money on anything that did not directly drive revenue. The $65K broke down like this: $18,000 on infrastructure and tooling over 8 months. $22,000 on contract design and development work. $15,000 on marketing and customer acquisition. $10,000 on legal, accounting, and miscellaneous operational costs. Month one was pure validation. Before writing a single line of code, the first $500 went to customer discovery.