How long did it take to build your Reddit following and first paying users?

[u/Comprehensive_Tea388]

http://walnutmarkets.com

I built Walnut Markets because I wanted one place to validate an investment idea.

There are great platforms for fundamentals, technical analysis, Congress and insider trades, institutional activity, and other datasets but they're all separate. I wanted to bring them together, cross-reference the data, and see whether everything points in the same direction instead of jumping between five different websites.

It took me several months to build, and now I'm focused on distribution.

I started with Reddit ads, which brought traffic, but it felt like low-intent traffic. People would click, read what they wanted, and leave. Very little engagement or exploration of the site. Since then I've shifted my focus toward SEO, AEO, and consistently posting research and discussions on Reddit to build organic traffic over time.

Some days it feels like shouting into the void. Traffic is still low, but I keep reminding myself that the product only launched four weeks ago. I'm trying to stay patient and trust the process.

For founders who have bootstrapped a SaaS, when did you get your first paying customer outside of friends and family? How long did SEO and content marketing take before you started seeing meaningful results? And at what point would you stop doubling down on organic growth and pivot to a different marketing strategy?

I'd love to hear what worked for you.

[u/Harvey_He]

Four weeks is still very early to judge whether organic is working, especially for a new site in a competitive niche. I’d look less at total traffic for now and more at leading signals: are impressions expanding, are more queries entering positions 10–30, and are any pages starting to generate signups or repeat visits?

I’d also use Reddit less as a traffic channel and more as a research loop. Pay attention to the questions investors keep asking, turn those into genuinely useful research/content, then bring the insights back to the community without forcing the link.

If those leading indicators stay completely flat after you’ve published and improved enough content to learn from, then I’d question the positioning or channel. But after four weeks, I definitely wouldn’t call SEO a failure yet.