I Built a SaaS Without Looking at a Single Competitor. Here’s What I Learned

The story of PostPulsar, a solo-developed AI tool born from personal frustration, a stubborn rule, and an unexpected AI pair programmer.

It all starts with a feeling every content creator knows: you’ve just finished writing an amazing blog post. You feel accomplished. But the work is far from over.

Now, you have to slice, dice, and re-write that single piece of content for a half-dozen different platforms. It needs to become a professional post for LinkedIn, a punchy thread for X (Twitter), a visually-driven caption for Instagram, and maybe even an announcement for Discord.

This is the “content repurposing hell.” It’s a soul-crushing, creativity-draining process. And it was in the middle of this frustration that I had an idea: What if an AI could do it all for me? What if one link could be transformed into a dozen perfectly optimized social media posts in seconds?

That idea became PostPulsar.

The Rule: Build From a Blank Slate

From the very first day, I set a stubborn rule for myself:

I would not research or analyze any competitors.

I wanted PostPulsar to be a solution born from my pain, shaped by my vision of how the problem should be solved. I didn’t want to be influenced by existing features, UI patterns, or pricing models. I wanted to build something pure, focused solely on solving the core problem in the most intuitive way I could imagine.

This decision forced me to think from first principles. Every feature, from the user authentication flow to the way content is generated and displayed, was designed in a vacuum. It was harder, but it resulted in a tool that feels uniquely authentic to its purpose.

The Rollercoaster: Battling APIs and Documentation

Building a product like this alone is a true rollercoaster. My Plano de Ação.md (Action Plan) file became a testament to the journey, with dozens of tasks checked off, each representing a hard-won battle.

Integrating with each social network’s API was an adventure in itself. It was a constant struggle against contradictory documentation, byzantine authentication flows, and cryptic error messages. I learned a few key lessons along the way.

Lesson 1: Documentation Isn't Reality

The Instagram API was a masterclass in this. The official docs clearly stated that video carousels required a specific media_type. After days of failures, I tried the exact opposite of what was documented, and it worked. The lesson? Trust, but verify—with your own code.

Lesson 2: Technical Debt Can Ambush You

At one point, the entire payment integration ground to a halt. The culprit? An old, pinned version of the Stripe API that didn’t support the features I needed. The only solution was a complete architectural refactor to use Stripe Checkout, a significant detour that taught me the importance of keeping core dependencies current.

Every feature, from processing video uploads to managing multiple Discord webhooks, was its own puzzle.

My Unexpected Copilot

On this journey, I wasn’t entirely alone. I had a fundamental, if unexpected, partner: Gemini.

It acted as a tireless pair programmer. When I was stuck on a complex backend error at 2 AM, it was there. When a UI component had grown into an unmaintainable monolith, it helped me refactor it. When I needed to implement tricky polling logic to handle asynchronous video processing on LinkedIn, it helped write the code.

It was like having a Socratic partner for debugging. It wouldn’t just give me the answer, but help me ask the right questions to find it myself. This collaboration was essential for overcoming major roadblocks that could have stalled the project for days.

The Result: A Tool With a Soul

Today, PostPulsar is live at www.post-pulsar.com. It’s the result of months of focused work, an authentic philosophy, and a fascinating man-machine collaboration.

It does exactly what I set out to build: it transforms long-form content into optimized social media posts, saving creators hours of manual work. There’s still a long road ahead, but the feeling of seeing an idea born from personal frustration become a real, functional tool is incredible.

Building in a vacuum was challenging, but it ensured that PostPulsar has its own soul. It’s not a copy of anything else; it’s simply one developer’s answer to a very annoying problem.

I’d love for you to try it and hear your thoughts. What part of your workflow do you wish you could automate?