Killing off a SaaS Product is Harder Than You Think | Issue #26


Hi there,

Killing a product is tougher than it looks. It’s not just about pulling the plug, it’s about doing it right—for your users, your team, and yourself.

In today’s video, I share 5 major lessons from shutting down my last SaaS product, and trust me, it wasn’t all smooth sailing.

If you’ve ever had to make a tough choice between projects, or felt like your hard work wasn’t paying off, this one’s for you. I even share a mindset shift that helped me see “failure” differently—and it might just change how you look at your own projects! 🚀✨

Enjoy the video and happy coding!

Cheers,

Arjan

P.S. I’ve got a little BONUS at the end of the video! 👏

# News

116 Malware Packages Infecting Windows and Linux Systems

In the fast-paced world of open-source development, security risks can sometimes slip through the cracks. 🚨

This eye-opening article by Ravie Lakshmanan from The Hacker News reveals the discovery of 116 malicious packages on PyPI—one of the most trusted repositories for Python developers. How did these malware-laden packages make it through, and what can developers do to protect themselves?

Stay informed and learn more about this critical issue here to keep your projects safe! 🛡️

Understanding Python's GIL

I’ve covered Python’s Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) in my videos a few times recently, but if you missed it, you can catch up here. 📹

Now, if you’re looking to dive even deeper, Real Python has launched an entire course on understanding the GIL! For anyone interested in Python’s internals and how the GIL impacts performance, this is a great resource. Check it out here. 🐍✨

# Community

Curious about CQRS (Command and Query Responsibility Segregation) in Python? 💡

A great discussion is happening on the ArjanCodes Discord server! It started with a question on implementing CQRS using Flask and MongoDB, but has evolved into a deep dive into Domain-Driven Design (DDD), microservices, and managing consistency in distributed systems.

If you’re looking to understand how these concepts fit together and want to explore resources and practical examples, you won’t want to miss this conversation.


Do you enjoy my content on YouTube and would you like to dive in deeper? Check out my online courses below. They've helped thousands of developers take the next step in their careers.

🚀 The Mindset Online Course Series

The goal of this series is to help junior developers grow their skills to become senior developers faster.

💥 Other Courses

💡 If you’re part of a development team at a company, I offer special packages for companies that give your team the tools to consistently write high-quality code and dramatically increase your team's productivity.

Unsubscribe | Send by ArjanCodes

Wolvenplein 25, Utrecht, UT 3512 CK

The Friday Loop

Every Friday, you'll get a recap of the most important and exciting Python and coding news. The Friday Loop also keeps everyone posted on new ArjanCodes courses and any limited offers coming up.

Read more from The Friday Loop

Hey there, Heard of MCP? It stands for Model Context Protocol: an open standard that lets AI models like Claude or ChatGPT connect to real tools and data. In my latest video, I explain what MCP actually is, and show a working example where Claude can search YouTube videos using MCP. In the video you’ll learn: Why AI models can’t just call your API How MCP bridges that gap Two ways to structure your MCP integration Happy coding! Cheers, Arjan # News Upcoming Python Documentary CultRepo...

Hi there, We all use def to define functions in Python. But did you know there are at least 7 other ways to do it? Some of them are useful. Some are questionable. And the last one is so ridiculous, it might crash your interpreter. In this week’s video, I walk through each method, explain how it works, why you should use it (or not), and what it teaches us about how Python works under the hood. This was a really interesting topic to explore. I learned a lot from it and I hope you will too....

Hi there, Functional programming in Python can be elegant… but not always. ⚠️ In this week’s video, I walk through four common scenarios where replacing for loops with map() and filter() actually leads to worse code. Not just less readable—but also harder to debug, more error-prone, and sometimes even misleading. We’ll dive into: Exception handling that becomes a mess inside a lambda Side effects (like writing to files) that violate functional principles Nested logic that turns into...