A full-featured business planning SaaS built from scratch, from concept to commercial launch in 12 months.
UX/UI design, frontend and backend development, integrations with ads, payments and other services, QA, project management
VueJS, PHP Slim, MySQL, Docker, Apache
IdeaBuddy, a SaaS platform for entrepreneurs to develop and validate business ideas
TMS Outsource handled the full product lifecycle for IdeaBuddy, from UX/UI design through MVP to commercial launch with subscription billing, payment integration, and ongoing monthly releases. The only greenfield SaaS build in our portfolio.
IdeaBuddy is a platform that allows users to develop and evaluate their idea, and to light their way from concept to completion. IdeaBuddy can help with identifying target customers, conducting a competitor analysis, performing a SWOT analysis, determining market share, forecasting revenue and growth, calculating profit and cash flow, comparing to industry standards, and many more, all in a nice and intuitive interface. Advanced finance calculation is made easy for everyone, even for those who are not mathematically inclined.
The platform operates as a full SaaS product: users sign up for trial access, choose from multiple subscription plans, and get role-based permissions depending on their tier. Payment processing is fully integrated, and the application handles subscription lifecycle, billing, and account management automatically.
Building a full SaaS from scratch means solving every layer, not just the UI.
The platform needed to perform SWOT analysis, revenue forecasting, cash flow calculation, profit modeling, and market share estimation. These are non-trivial calculations that must be correct, fast, and handle edge cases gracefully. Our team had to acquire deep domain knowledge in business planning to implement them accurately.
Building a multi-tier SaaS from scratch meant designing the entire subscription lifecycle: trial access, multiple plans, role-based permissions, payment provider integration, and automated billing. Every tier needed its own feature gates and access rules.
IdeaBuddy was the first project in the business planning industry that we developed. Although algorithms and industry-specific needs were new for us, we managed to investigate and advance our knowledge in the process. Inter-connected features and cross-task dependencies were one of the reasons our developers needed to go the extra mile, but the final product was worth it.
The platform integrates with advertising services, payment processors, and other external APIs. Each integration needed to be robust, handle failures gracefully, and stay in sync with the subscription state. Docker and Apache were used to manage the deployment infrastructure.
From initial planning to commercial launch in 12 months.
In early March 2019, our app development team with a guide from our experienced project manager started an initial planning and project review. With the help of creative UX/UI designers who did the design for the MVP, we started the development of the first features, so kick-off was in late March 2019.
Several months later, we had the first features ready: Story Mode and Overview modules of the IdeaBuddy app. Before the pre-MVP release in December, we did bug triage and detailed testing of the app. We wanted to make sure that the algorithm we developed worked fast and without errors. With great satisfaction of our client and beta testers of the app, who got access to the MVP released in January 2020, the commercial release took place in March 2020.
Since the commercial launch in March 2020, TMS Outsource has continued maintaining and extending the platform with monthly releases, adding new features and improving the user experience.
What shipped, and what it took to get there.
The commercial launch was completed in March 2020, approximately 12 months from the initial planning kickoff in March 2019. The platform went from greenfield to a live, paying SaaS product within that window.
From initial planning to commercial launch, March 2019 to March 2020
Trial access, multiple subscription tiers, role-based permissions, and payment provider integration
Financial calculation engine built from scratch: revenue forecasting, cash flow, profit modeling, SWOT, market share
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