How I Built a SaaS Platform While Working Full-Time With Ruby on Rails
Developing HiEnergy Rocket Advertiser Intelligence: An AI-Driven SaaS Platform for Affiliate Program Analysis
Building a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform requires a balance of technical efficiency, scalability, and user-centric design. HiEnergy Rocket Advertiser Intelligence was conceived as an AI-powered solution to streamline the discovery and analysis of affiliate marketing programs.
This platform was built during my nights and weekends in collaboration with my co-founders at HiEnergy Agency: Dexter Dethmers, a former executive at Honey and CJ, and Jen Goodwin, an accomplished leader with an extensive background at CJ. Together, we combined our expertise to develop a platform that simplifies affiliate program discovery while maintaining a focus on usability and performance.
When Dexter approached me with his vision to build this tool from the ground up, I was immediately excited. Initially, I thought it would be a fun 40-hour side project — an opportunity to create something impactful while sharpening my skills. I had briefly worked with Dexter while he was consulting at a company where I was an engineer, and I knew firsthand his ability to think big and execute with precision. What started as a simple concept quickly evolved into a large-scale project that pushed me to grow in ways I hadn’t anticipated.
Having built multiple products from scratch, I’ve always seen projects like this as opportunities to network, refine my technical expertise, and collaborate with talented individuals. This marks the fifth product I’ve developed from the ground up, and it reflects my deep passion for engineering — leveraging technology to create innovative and scalable solutions.
I view engineering as an overpaid blue-collar profession — at its core, it’s about building, problem-solving, and refining systems to function seamlessly. There’s a deep satisfaction in seeing a product transition from concept to a tangible solution that people actively use. While the technical challenges are rewarding, the real fulfillment comes from knowing that what I build has a meaningful impact, making complex problems simpler and more accessible for users.
If you’re curious about what we built, you can try our free version today: HiEnergy Rocket.
Technology Stack
To ensure both rapid iteration and long-term maintainability, I selected a stack that optimized development efficiency and computational performance:
- Ruby on Rails: A highly productive framework for rapid prototyping and scalable deployment.
- OpenAI API: Used for normalizing marketing copy and classifying advertisers across networks.
- Gemini API: Integrated for data cleaning and standardization, ensuring uniform analysis across multiple networks.
- PostgreSQL: A scalable relational database for managing structured datasets.
- Bootstrap 5: Implemented for a responsive, minimalist UI with a mobile-first approach.
- D3.js: Utilized for dynamic data visualization, making complex metrics easier to interpret.
- Solid Queue: Employed for background processing, optimizing performance and ensuring seamless workflows.
This tech stack enabled me to build and deploy the platform independently while ensuring its long-term maintainability and performance.
Development Process
User-Centric Design & Mobile-First Approach
A foundational principle in HiEnergy Rocket’s development was the less-is-more philosophy — emphasizing intuitive interaction and eliminating unnecessary complexity. The goal was to create a mobile-first interface that required no user training or documentation, ensuring an effortless user experience.
Affiliate marketing platforms like Awin and Rakuten provide robust feature sets but often come with complex, cumbersome interfaces that make them difficult to navigate. As a lean team, we recognized a gap in the market — an opportunity to build a streamlined, user-friendly alternative that prioritizes clarity, efficiency, and automation over unnecessary complexity.
This article details our approach to building HiEnergy Rocket, an AI-driven, API-powered affiliate intelligence platform, while maintaining a focus on scalability, automation, and data reliability.
If you’re interested in exploring what we built, you can try the free version today: HiEnergy Rocket.
Embracing Test-Driven Development and AI-Assisted Programming
One of the foundational principles of our development methodology was Test-Driven Development (TDD), which helped us ensure code reliability, maintainability, and long-term scalability. By leveraging RSpec, we were able to implement rigorous test coverage, allowing the platform to evolve without accumulating technical debt.
Additionally, we incorporated AI-powered pair programming tools to enhance development speed and precision. These tools provided:
- Context-aware code suggestions, reducing cognitive load and improving efficiency
- Automated debugging insights, significantly decreasing the time required to resolve issues
- AI-driven refactoring, helping us maintain clean and optimized code
This AI-assisted approach allowed us to iterate quickly, ensure high code quality, and maintain a structured, scalable development process.
Data Acquisition & Standardization: No Web Scraping, Ever
Unlike many competing solutions, HiEnergy Rocket strictly adheres to API-based data acquisition, ensuring full compliance with affiliate network policies. Our platform is built on structured datasets sourced directly from official affiliate network APIs, avoiding unreliable web scraping techniques.
This approach guarantees:
- Data integrity and accuracy
- Real-time updates directly from networks
- Long-term compliance with affiliate marketing platforms
By prioritizing structured API integrations, we eliminated the risks associated with data inconsistency and non-compliance, ensuring that our users always receive high-quality, accurate insights.
AI-Driven Normalization & Categorization
One of the biggest challenges in the affiliate space is processing unstructured marketing copy from various networks. To address this, we developed an AI-powered content normalization system that leverages both OpenAI’s API and the Gemini API.
This system enables us to:
- Standardize and refine raw advertiser descriptions for clarity and consistency
- Categorize advertisers across networks, making search and comparison effortless
- Structure promotional content, empowering data-driven decision-making
By automating these tasks with machine learning, we have significantly reduced inconsistencies, enhanced data usability, and created a more seamless user experience. Additionally, our AI classifies advertisers based on key attributes such as industry, audience demographics, and engagement metrics. By identifying patterns and similarities, our system intelligently recommends relevant advertisers, improving discoverability and streamlining decision-making.
Optimized Frontend Development & Data Visualization
To ensure an intuitive user experience, we designed the HiEnergy Rocket UI with Bootstrap 5, providing a modern, responsive interface.
Additionally, we implemented D3.js for advanced data visualization, allowing users to gain deeper insights through interactive charts, graphs, and comparative analytics.
Rocket AI gives users the ability to identify patterns in data that would otherwise remain hidden.
Key Features
- Dynamic Search & Filtering — Real-time filtering to refine advertiser results
- Bookmarking System — Users can track and revisit preferred advertiser programs
- CSV Export — Users can download structured data for further offline analysis
This UI-first approach made HiEnergy Rocket highly accessible, even for users unfamiliar with complex affiliate network dashboards.
Expanding Capabilities: API-Powered Advertiser CMS
Beyond HiEnergy Rocket’s core platform, we also built a powerful API that serves as the backbone for advertiser CMS solutions used by several of our clients. This API enables seamless data retrieval, program management, and automated insights, allowing businesses to integrate affiliate intelligence directly into their workflows.
Key capabilities of our API include:
- Hourly Advertiser data synchronization
- Automated program tracking & performance insights
- Custom integrations for scalable affiliate management
If you’re interested in exploring how our API-powered advertiser CMS can enhance your operations, you can try it today. Contact us for more details on API access and integration options.
Deployment, Scalability & Background Processing
For deployment, we selected Heroku, leveraging its fully managed hosting environment to streamline infrastructure management. Heroku’s autoscaling capabilities allowed us to efficiently handle traffic fluctuations, ensuring optimal performance without unnecessary operational overhead.
To manage background jobs and ensure non-disruptive data processing, we integrated Solid Queue for:
- Asynchronous data ingestion from affiliate networks
- Efficient processing of API requests without blocking the user experience
- Scalability through optimized queue management
This approach ensured that HiEnergy Rocket remained highly responsive, even when handling large-scale data processing tasks in real-time.
Results & Industry Adoption
Since its launch, HiEnergy Rocket Advertiser Intelligence has grown to over 300 active users from 56 Companies, including several emerging tech startups that rely on the platform for affiliate marketing insights.
Notable companies leveraging HiEnergy Rocket include:
- PIE
- Beacons.ai
- Checkmate
- Dupe
This adoption highlights the platform’s effectiveness in streamlining affiliate program management and enabling data-driven decision-making.
Key Takeaways
✅ User-Centric Design Enhances Adoption and Engagement — A streamlined, intuitive interface improves usability and increases user retention.
✅ Ruby on Rails Enables Rapid, Scalable Development — The framework’s flexibility facilitates fast iteration while maintaining long-term scalability.
✅ AI-Driven Content Normalization and Categorization — Standardizes advertiser data for improved consistency, searchability, and analysis.
✅ API-First Data Acquisition Ensures Compliance and Accuracy — Reliance on official affiliate network APIs guarantees data integrity and real-time updates while eliminating risks associated with web scraping.
✅ Test-Driven Development (TDD) with RSpec Maintains Code Reliability — Rigorous testing practices reduce technical debt, enhance maintainability, and support a robust development lifecycle.
✅ AI-Assisted Development Optimizes Efficiency and Code Quality — AI-powered tools accelerate development, automate refactoring, and streamline debugging, enhancing overall productivity.
✅ Leveraging OpenAI and Gemini API for Intelligent Data Structuring — Automates content cleaning, categorization, and enrichment to improve data quality and usability.
✅ Optimized Background Processing with Solid Queue — Ensures seamless, non-blocking data handling, improving system responsiveness and scalability.
✅ Heroku Simplifies Deployment and Scaling — Provides a fully managed infrastructure with autoscaling capabilities, though cost optimization remains a key consideration for growth.
✅ KISS & YAGNI Design Principles Promote Maintainability — By prioritizing simplicity (KISS: “Keep It Simple, Stupid”) and avoiding unnecessary complexity (YAGNI: “You Aren’t Gonna Need It”), the system remains lean, efficient, and easy to extend.
✅ SOLID Architecture Principles Drive Scalability and Extensibility — Adhering to Single Responsibility, Open/Closed, Liskov Substitution, Interface Segregation, and Dependency Inversion principles ensures modular, maintainable, and future-proof software design.
Conclusion: Lessons for SaaS Developers
Building HiEnergy Rocket required a strategic approach to system architecture, automation, and feature prioritization. By focusing on AI-driven data processing, a minimalist UI, and automated testing methodologies, we developed a scalable, efficient, and user-friendly platform that has seen significant industry adoption.
For developers looking to build SaaS applications — whether independently or within a small team — the key is to prioritize automation, maintainability, and efficiency. By leveraging AI-powered tools, rigorous testing frameworks, and a well-curated technology stack, it’s possible to launch sophisticated, high-performing software solutions — even while working full-time.
If you’d like to explore what we’ve built, you can try our free version today: HiEnergy Rocket.
