From Construction Site to SaaS: Building Real Products Without a CS Degree

This morning, I woke up at 6am, put on my work boots, and headed to a construction site in West London. By 9pm, I was back at my desk, deploying a new feature for one of my SaaS products. Four years ago, I was just a construction worker with an idea. Today, I run FixFlex LTD — a software company that builds tools I once thought were out of reach.

Here’s how I got here.

The Beginning: A Classifieds Platform and a Lot of Mistakes

Four years ago, I had an idea for a classifieds platform. Zero coding knowledge, zero budget, and zero clue where to start.

I bought a pre-made script online, hired freelancers, and paid good money for half-working solutions. Every time I thought we were close to launching, some new problem popped up. Bots attacked my servers. Databases degraded. Cloudflare didn’t catch everything. One “expert” after another promised to fix things, but none of them understood what I actually needed.

After a year of fighting windmills, I hit a breaking point. Either I cut costs to the bone and figured this out myself, or the project would never launch.

So, I started from scratch.

Learning Linux, Caddy, and SSH the Hard Way

I didn’t have the luxury of setting up a local development environment. I didn’t even know what Git was. Instead, I worked directly on a live server — breaking things, fixing them, and breaking them again.

I learned PowerShell, SSH, and Webmin by trial and error. I pasted code into chat windows and tested it immediately because I didn’t have the patience or knowledge to do it “properly.” Instead of Git, I relied on server snapshots.

I tested Nginx, Apache, LiteSpeed, Varnish, H2O — and eventually landed on Caddy. It wasn’t the most popular choice, but it worked for me.

Along the way, I completely abandoned Laravel and PHP. I rewrote my classifieds platform, 24ad.info, from scratch using modern tools: React 19, TypeScript, tRPC, and Node.js. It was faster, cleaner, and easier to maintain.

Finding Windsurf and Claude: Everything Changed

Then, I found Windsurf. And later, Claude. These tools changed everything.

Suddenly, I had a development team that didn’t sleep, didn’t complain, and didn’t charge by the hour. I could imagine a feature, describe it in plain English, and watch as AI coded it for me. If something broke, I’d verify the issue, describe it again, and get a fix.

It wasn’t perfect. AI fixed one thing and broke another. But it allowed me to iterate quickly and learn along the way.

Building Sentinel: My Server Guardian

Before adding AI features to my app, I knew I had to fix the bots and security issues first. That’s how Sentinel was born — a server monitoring and protection tool that first guarded my own projects and later became a product I could sell to others.

To date, Sentinel has blocked over 277,000 attacks on my servers. It’s not just a tool; it’s my first line of defense.

The FixFlex Philosophy: Imagine, Describe, Verify

Here’s the truth: I don’t know programming languages at an expert level. I don’t need to.

My process is simple:

1. Imagine the feature or solution.
2. Describe it in plain English to AI.
3. Verify the output and make sure it works.

Sometimes, I tweak the description and try again. Other times, I ask AI to explain the code so I can understand what’s happening.

The result? Real, working SaaS products built by a construction worker with no formal CS degree.

What We Build at FixFlex

Today, FixFlex LTD specializes in full-stack development, cloud infrastructure, AI integration, and database optimization. Here are some of the products we’ve built:

• Sentinel: Server monitoring and protection.
• 24ad.info: A classifieds platform rebuilt from scratch on a modern stack.
• SpamSlap: A tool to combat spam in real-time.
• PostPilot: Automated content generation for blogs.
• ArticlePilot: AI-powered article writing and optimization.

Our expertise spans:

• Web Development: React, Next.js, Vue, Python, Flask.
• Mobile Development: React Native, Flutter, iOS, Android.
• Cloud Infrastructure: AWS, DigitalOcean, Docker, Kubernetes.
• AI Integration: OpenAI, Claude, custom models.
• Database Optimization: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis.
• Security: Fail2Ban, CrowdSec, UFW.

Still Building, Still Learning

I still wake up at 6am for construction work. I still code at night.

The journey from construction site to SaaS founder hasn’t been easy, but it’s been rewarding. I’ve learned that you don’t need a CS degree to build real products. You just need persistence, curiosity, and the right tools.

AI hasn’t replaced developers. Instead, it’s empowered people like me to bridge the gap between ideas and execution.

So, if you’re sitting on an idea but don’t know where to start, here’s my advice:

1. Start small.
2. Learn by doing.
3. Use AI as your development team.

Who knows? In four years, you might be running your own SaaS company too.

If you want to know more about FixFlex LTD or our products, visit fixflex.co.uk. Or drop me an email — I’m always happy to chat about construction, coding, or anything in between.

Until then, I’ll be at the construction site or behind the keyboard, imagining, describing, and verifying.

Because that’s how we build.

Still boots on the ground, still code in the cloud.