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Some SaaS stories start with deep market research, long timelines, and careful planning. Tiago Alves’ didn’t.
He only built what he needed to rescue his sister’s bakery, never expecting anyone outside that kitchen to use it. But in the baking community, news spreads the way good recipes do. Soon other bakers were testing it, giving feedback, and asking when they could use it too.
With support from the people around him (and later from Freemius), Bake That Batter grew from a one-person solution into a product that now serves an entire community of bakers.
Software in Crisis: When a Core Ingredient Disappears
Tiago’s sister runs a small home bakery in Portugal.
At the time, she relied on a software tool to manage orders, track customers, and keep her bakery running smoothly.
Then came the blow: the company behind it announced a full shutdown, giving users just two weeks to figure out what to do next.
There was no transition plan or guidance towards an alternative. When the deadline hit, users would be left with a raw Excel spreadsheet and an operational void that could potentially threaten livelihoods.
It was a harsh reminder of how fragile things can be when the tools you depend on suddenly disappear.
Across baking groups and community chats, people were scrambling to salvage what they could before the shutdown.
So while others searched for a plan, Tiago — a 27-year-old developer with a full-time job — answered his sister’s call and got to work the only way he knew how:
He fired up his laptop and started cooking 🔥
Serving Up a Fix from the Console
With the deadline looming, Tiago began mapping a replacement for the soon-to-be-shut-down bakery tool over a single weekend.
His sister was in the same house, so he bounced ideas off her in real time.
“I wasn’t trying to start a business. I was just trying to help my sister. She became my first tester and would literally knock on my door and say, ‘Hey, this part’s broken again!’ So building and testing was always met with instant feedback.’”
Once a rough prototype was in place, the two began reaching out to other bakers who were also racing against the clock.
The First Thread of Community — Bringing the Bakers Together
Before anything was released to the public, Tiago and his sister created a Facebook group.
It started small. A few posts, some questions, and a handful of worried users comparing notes and trying to make sense of what came next.
Then something unexpected happened: the company behind the original software allowed Tiago to share the group inside their own Facebook community, bringing in a big wave of bakers who needed a new solution.
That gesture changed everything. Dozens turned into hundreds, and suddenly, Tiago had access to a significantly larger pool of feedback and input. Most early adopters came from the US (~40%) and UK (~30%), which shaped initial feature priorities and examples.
He recalls: “The community was growing as fast as I was building, and I didn’t want to waste time by guessing what they needed. So I just asked them:
- How do you track orders now?
- What part of your workflow breaks without this tool?
- What do you need to keep your schedule from falling apart?”
He listened carefully, took detailed notes, and built only what the community said they actually needed to keep things running smoothly.
For Tiago, it was literally “tell me what you need, and I’ll build it!”
Perfecting the Product With a Real-Time Feedback Loop
This was the very opposite of theory-based product design.
It was real, day-to-day bakery operations shaping a feature set; a baker’s “beta” helping three things take shape at once:
- A product that fit naturally into their workflow
- A sense of trust, not just in the tool, but in the person building it
- A shared belief in the outcome, because they were part of creating it
And when trust, belief, and utility align, it doesn’t stay secret for long…
Great Taste Travels Fast
Bakers talk to each other.
They share tools, swap techniques, and ask for help in the same Facebook groups, Instagram circles, workshops, and local meetups, just like software makers do in the Freemius community.
So when early users found a product that worked — one many of them helped build — they naturally started recommending it.
Tiago didn’t push for promotion at first. Growth came naturally from the community itself, generated by the kind of trust that’s impossible to manufacture with marketing, ads, or launch campaigns.
It also got Tiago thinking about how he might give a little something back to the bakers bringing new people in. Freemius slid into place naturally, helping him share the loaf by taking care of the affiliate tracking and payouts for him.
And like any good recipe, the early version was just a starting point.
With every new baker and suggestion, the product improved until it was ready for more than just early adopters.
From Half-Baked to Fully Rolled Out
After months of real-world use and steady iteration, core workflows were reliable, early edge cases smoothed out, and the tool was no longer just “something to get by with.”
It was now a system that bakers depended on daily… a system that, up until that point, had been totally free.
Initially, Tiago thought it only fair to give before asking anything in return. The product was still forming, and the small group using it were shaping it with their feedback.
But as the idea was now a full-fledged product being used every day, he felt the weight of keeping it running, so the equation shifted.
A Natural Next Step: Turning Trust Into Revenue
When it came time to transition to paid plans, Tiago approached it the same way he built the product: carefully, respectfully, transparently. He explained that continuing to support and develop the product required time, infrastructure, and ongoing work.
There was almost no pushback.
The community had seen and contributed to the effort firsthand, making the shift to paid plans less of a monetization event, and more like securing the future of a tool their businesses were starting to depend on.
Finding and Integrating Freemius? Piece of Cake
With the community on board and his full-time role keeping him challenged and growing, Tiago didn’t have the time — or desire — to get bogged down in billing, taxes, or payment infrastructure.
After watching an entire community lose their previous tool overnight, he realized he’d need a steadier foundation than anything he could piece together himself.
While browsing build-in-public threads on X, Tiago came across Freemius, a merchant of record solution that offered everything he needed to start charging without the usual headaches:
- Built-in payment processing
- Automatic tax and compliance handling
- Cart recovery to help convert abandoned checkouts
- A ready-to-use affiliate platform that fit the baking community’s word-of-mouth nature
He integrated everything in under a week.
Around 150 bakers were actively using the tool. When subscriptions went live, 125 of them subscribed right away, which is an exceptional conversion rate for a community-built tool.
Backed by a supportive user base and a sustainable setup, Tiago was able to keep listening, learning, and improving what he’d started (at his own pace).
And the number of active subscriptions has continued to grow steadily ever since:
Recipe for the Future: Still Mixing, Measuring, and Listening
Today, Bake That Batter is stable and growing. The focus has shifted to supporting new users, especially older bakers who aren’t especially tech-savvy.
With input from Freemius CEO Vova Feldman, Tiago is now refining the onboarding process to include:
- Clear, step-by-step setup flows: So users can get started without second-guessing themselves.
- Short, task-focused walkthrough videos: Potentially even including a lightweight YouTube course to guide new users visually.
- Simple support guides: Designed to address common pain points without overwhelming people.
- Dedicated helpdesk: Upgraded from a shared inbox to ensure support doesn’t fall through the cracks.
Looking further ahead, there’s a clear path to reach more bakers by showing up where they already learn the business side of their craft:
- Educators/influencer channels that help turn first-time buyers into regulars
- Local workshops where small bakery owners share tools and methods
- Supplier networks and small-business starter programs that support people opening or expanding their kitchens
Right now, Tiago is balancing the product with his full-time job, taking a steady, user-first approach. And while he’s just beginning to explore marketing and affiliate partnerships, it’s still a one-chef effort, now backed by a setup that lightens the operational load.
No Menu, No Staff — Just One Maker Cooking Up What a Community Needs
What makes Tiago’s SaaS story stand out isn’t luck, virality, or a bold “founder vision.” It’s something more personal and grounded:
Solving a real problem to save the livelihood of someone he cares for.
And when he opened the (kitchen) door to others in the same situation, the product grew alongside the close-knit community that depended on it.
That’s why this worked.
Because instead of building for scale or some other business term, Tiago solved for real human needs, shaping the product one request at a time, and letting it spread like a family recipe.
And when the kitchen got busier, he leaned on Freemius to help keep everything steady behind the swinging doors.
