The Hardest Part of Building a SaaS Isn't the Code

April 4, 2026 | 9 min read Every SaaS founder we have talked to says the same thing: the code was the easy part. Not because the code is simple -- building software is genuinely difficult. But compared to the maze of legal, financial, and administrative work required to turn a side project into a real business, writing code feels like the one thing you actually know how to do. We are Obsidian Clad Labs, a small group of friends from Tennessee. We build SaaS products. When we decided to go from "a few projects on GitHub" to "an actual LLC that accepts real money from real people," we had no idea how much non-code work was ahead of us. Here is an honest timeline of what it took, so you know what to expect. Forming the LLC (Week 1) Filing an LLC is the easy part. You pick a state, fill out Articles of Organization, pay a filing fee (usually $50 to $200 depending on the state), and wait a few days for approval. We filed in New Mexico because the annual fees are low and the process is strai