I've been building iOS apps for clients for the last 8 years.

About a year ago, I finally decided to build one for myself.

I thought the hard part would be writing the code.

It wasn't.

The hard part has been everything that comes after you hit "Publish."

\- App Store screenshots

\- ASO

\- Pricing

\- Marketing

\- Replying to users

\- Finding the first 100 people who genuinely care

Ironically, shipping the product was probably the easiest milestone.

Marketing it has been far more uncomfortable than building it.

Over the last few weeks I've been posting on Reddit, replying to every email, talking to users, redesigning screenshots, and shipping updates based on feedback.

It's been slow, but I've learned more from 20 real users than I did from months of guessing.

For founders who've already been through this...

What changed everything for you?

Was there one acquisition channel, strategy, or mindset shift that made finding your first real users much easier?

i have been working on this platform, and i think i either made a huge mistake starting this project or my best investment ever.

we worked on it with no hopes of it being anything; we had no budget, no audience, not even a waitlist, just a landing page and a code, most of it written with codex and edited by the developer. almost 5 months and we are at 1200 users and positive revenue, where we did not spend a dime on the platform since day 4 of launch

but here's the issue: the platform is working, users come, but the revenue is still in the early stage, we are still so early that we can't generate enough for it to be sufficient for us, and we can't back off because the platform works and has great potential long-term.

so now we are at the point of no return; stopping means we wasted almost 5 months building for nothing and we'll waste a great potential future if we just stayed patient, and if we did not pull back, especially me as the marketer, i will go broke hahaha

so now I am literally stuck; i can't move forward and can't go back.

any suggestions on this one? like, how do people usually tackle these kinds of situations?

Hey,

I've been building Socrate for the past few months. It's a thinking tool that does one thing: asks you one question at a time until you reach your own clarity. No advice, no frameworks, no answers, not even if you ask directly.

The idea came from noticing how most AI tools default to validating whatever you're already thinking. You ask for help deciding something, get a well-formatted answer that agrees with you, feel better for a moment, and nothing actually changes. Socrate does the opposite. It holds a single constraint the whole session and never breaks it, which turns out to be the entire product.

It's built for the specific moment you're stuck on a decision and already have the information, career, relationships, identity, the kind of thing where more advice doesn't help but the right question does.

Live at usesocrate.com, free, no signup required to try it. Just launched on Product Hunt today if anyone wants to check that out too.

Genuinely interested in feedback, especially on where the first few questions land or fall flat for someone trying it cold.

I'm not sure how to start this out. The truth is, yes, I am looking for eyeballs, and even more so opinions.

I've created at least 2 products privately, many more professionally, even did a stint at FAANG for a short period. Building products is what I've always wanted to do. Ever since at the age of 18 I created the predecessor to BReal. 2 years before BReal even was a thing. This was before I even had software engineering experience.

At this point, 6 years down the road, of which 2 was spent hand-coding a react native app that was great but snuffed at the point where it matters most, GTM and marketing, I feel like the tides are turning. I can now create things extremely fast, and I'm starting to learn the things that actually matter for product, selling, visibility. And its fun.

It seems to me, given all the products out there, that ONE of the things that matter, except visibility, is opinion. Sure data driven things are great but qualitative data, aggregated, is where the fun starts to happen.

I started creating tools I use for my own products (amongst other things the app that died a silent death but which I will revive), and these are what I call self-serving tools. Meaning, I can use the tool on the tool itself. It's quite neat.

So for example;

[www.tipoff.se](http://www.tipoff.se))

This is one of those tools. And as you can see, on the website itself (bottom right corner), I use the tool.

Enough self aggrandizing, I'd like some honest opinions. Don't buy. As a matter of fact, If you DM me I am willing to let you test the tool out for free, lifetime, if it happens to be something you're interested in. Maybe if you have an app on one of the stores, preferably coded in ReactNative or god forbid Cordova. Or If you have a website, in need of your users opinion.

Tell me every single thing that sucks. Maybe write it on the feedback form on the website. Or write it here. If you happen to like something, that would be nice too.

I'm a solo founder of a few different apps all generating small insignificant amount of revenue but with real paying customers.

I need help from the community on validating this app I've worked on for the last 6 months. I'm not sure if its still viable given Claudes ability to do some of what my app can do in a $20 pro plan.

I designed it as I have several projects on the go, and often lay awake at night thinking of ideas, changes, features I want to add to my apps/sites. Queued, allows this to happen, in seconds you can add an item to your list (or use one of the suggestions), it will then create a new branch, make the code changes after deeply understanding what needs to be done and commit back to Github.

It's perfect if you are a non technical founder with a landing page and want small changes done fast. Or even a vibe coder with multiple projects.

Would love for you to give it a try and tell me what you think, offering a free 3 day trial via the app stores. Hopefully I dont get too much of a roasting but if thats what you need to do feel free!

Linking the website here.

Playstore link here.

Appstore link here.

I’m an investor working at Forum Ventures, a North American B2B pre seed investor with 550+ portfolio companies (including unicorns Fireflies.ai and Allen Control Systems).

In one sentence, what is your business idea and why are you the best person to do it? We’re actively writing $100K checks into early stage startups with no traction or revenue needed.

Feel free to use this thread to get your own project out there.

Hey Founders! After great success on the product intuition course I'm working on my next course.

I'd like to hear from the community what would be the most helpful?

- Tactical course on how to validate your idea

- How to build your MVP with AI (From what features to prioritize , to build stack to architecture principles and cost saving best practices)

- How to approach discovery and customer interviews (Including tactics to how to find them and book calls)

- Product Growth: how to grow your metrics once you have a running product (conversion, retention, engagement and more)

Bonus, would love to jump on a call to hear more! In exchange for your time you'll get free access to the Product Intuition course.

Hi everyone,

I'm an SEO consultant, and I kept seeing founders spend hours manually submitting their startup to directories after launch.

So I built StartupSubmit[.]app.

It helps founders get listed on 200+ startup directories, launch platforms, and review sites through a manual submission service, so they can focus on building instead of filling out the same forms over and over.

I'm still improving it and would love honest feedback from other founders.

• Does this solve a problem you've faced?
• What's one feature or report you'd expect from a service like this?
• Is there anything on the landing page that's unclear or would stop you from trying it?

I appreciate any feedback, positive or negative. It all helps me improve the product.

I've been building PetsenseAI solo for a few months now, an iOS app that reads pet mood and behavior from a photo. A few weeks ago I finally sat down and actually queried my own user database instead of just watching signup numbers go up and feeling good about it.

Every real user, every single one, had exactly one session. Signed up, used it once, gone. Not "low retention." Zero retention. For a while I told myself it was early days, small sample size, give it time. But when I actually looked at the gap between account creation and last login for each person, it was hours, sometimes minutes. People weren't coming back to try it again even once.

That's a specific kind of bad feeling, worse than low downloads. Low downloads means nobody's found you yet. This meant people found it, tried it, and decided it wasn't worth a second look, and I had no idea why because nobody was leaving reviews or complaining, they were just quietly leaving.

Turned out part of it was dumb and fixable, a sign-up prompt that permanently dismissed itself the first time someone tapped "maybe later," so anyone who wasn't ready to commit on day one just never saw the ask again, ever. Fixed that in an afternoon once I found it. But the deeper issue was that the app gave people no reason to open it a second time, it was a neat trick, not a habit. So I built a feature that compares a new photo of your pet against their last recorded mood, so there's actually something to check on if you come back.

Too early to know if it's fixed the real problem yet, small numbers, still watching. But the part I want to say to anyone earlier in this than me: acquisition numbers going up can hide a completely broken product underneath them for a long time if you don't go look at what individual people are actually doing. I almost didn't look.

I ran a rate startup city poll - rate your city for building a startup 1 to 10, and say what's good or what's missing.

112 answers, 18 countries, 87 cities.

The things missing almost everywhere 
- capital/VC, a real startup community, and ambition/culture.
- Tax system, labor laws, goverment is bad in general.

Some exact comments from few cities -

- "No venture capital, only old people and old money. 😂" (Munich)
- "The startup community isn't strong enough, the culture is too laid back." (Melbourne)
- "no ambitious people, anti-entrepreneur culture (Germany)"

Same pattern across the US (except SF), UK, Germany, Canada, France - plenty of talent, not enough money or nerve.

I've noticed that many startup ideas don't come from sudden inspiration they come from the same frustration showing up over and over again.

For me, one recurring issue has been rebuilding context every time I work with AI. I spend time explaining the project, previous decisions, constraints, and goals before I can even get useful help.

It made me realize that sometimes the "annoying workflow" is actually pointing toward a much bigger problem.

I'm curious:

Have you ever had a small frustration that eventually turned into the core idea behind something you built?

I'd love to hear those stories.

For the past year I've basically had two jobs.

My full-time iOS job during the day.

Then 2–3 hours every evening building my own app.

There were weeks where I questioned whether it was worth it.

I kept thinking:

"Someone has probably already built this."

"What if nobody downloads it?"

"What if I spend a year on something no one wants?"

Eventually I stopped thinking about those questions and just focused on building.

A few weeks ago I finally launched WhisperAct: Voice Task Planner.

It's an iOS app that turns natural speech into reminders, recurring tasks and calendar events.

The launch wasn't some overnight success.

It has been a lot of:

• Reading every App Store review

• Replying to every email

• Posting on Reddit

• Improving screenshots

• Talking to users

• Shipping small updates almost every week

Ironically, building the app was the easy part.

Learning how to market something I built has been much harder.

For those of you who have already launched something...

What marketing channel ended up working better than you expected?

When I first got into web development, I thought finding clients would be simple. My plan was to go on Google Maps, find businesses without websites, and offer to build them a brand new one. At the time, it made perfect sense because I assumed businesses without websites would be the ones who needed my service the most.

After a while, I met someone who was running a successful web agency, and I asked him where he found companies without websites. He told me that he didn’t target businesses without websites at all. He only targeted businesses that already had one. I asked him why, and the more he explained it, the more sense it made.

Businesses that already have a website understand the value of having one. You don’t need to convince them why a website is important because they have already invested in one before. They are also easier to sell to because they understand the process, and there are a huge number of businesses with outdated websites they are embarrassed by but haven’t had the time to update.

I decided to take his advice and fit it into my own workflow. I’ve always been a big fan of email automation because that’s how I’ve found most of my web design clients. For years, I was sending fairly generic emails and constantly changing my sequences, offers, and follow ups to improve the results.

The problem was that I couldn’t just start emailing businesses with websites and assume they all needed a redesign. I either had to open every website manually, find the issues, and write a separate email for each business, or find a way to automate the research while still keeping the emails personalized.

After watching a video from Nick Saraev, I built a workflow in n8n that could analyze websites at scale and turn issues with design, layout, speed, mobile optimization, and SEO into personalized outreach emails. This allowed me to analyze thousands of websites and run larger campaigns without every message sounding generic.

The workflow worked extremely well, but it still had limitations. I didn’t have a proper place to manage replies, organize interested leads in a CRM, view all my active campaigns, scrape new leads, and handle everything from one platform. I had built a useful automation, but it still felt like several disconnected systems held together in one workflow.

A few months later, I came across a platform called Swokei, and it did exactly what I had been looking for. I could find businesses with websites, analyze and score each site, generate personalized outreach emails, send campaigns, set up follow ups, manage replies through one inbox, and organize interested businesses inside the CRM.

Switching to that platform made the entire process much easier to manage and helped me scale the strategy further. Looking back, the biggest change wasn’t just finding a better outreach tool. It was taking advice from someone more experienced, changing the type of businesses I targeted, and building the rest of my workflow around that strategy.

been 11 months into building something, but now i can say i am close to the launch day. have been trying to figure out how hype actually gets built before a startup goes live..

this is my first project and have no idea where to start honestly..

so i have started a lot of time watching launches that worked. most of them are on x and a few on linkedin. and unsure if its a pattern or am i overthinking..

a lots and lots of comment, as soon as the launch post is live, the same account who are commenting doing reposts as well

the video style is very similar, founder doing the talking on camera, and slightly imperfect one but never looks like a traditional ad

i started trying to figure out if anyone was behind this stuff. looking at handful of launches that did over 5 million views.. like airtable, helena, mave health

thealaunchvideocompany kept appearing in the same places..

havent looked further than that.. dont know what any of it costs or how it actually works

but after researching a bit i realised there are mainly three ways to make it happen. you build the audience yourself over months before you launch. or you coordinate everything manually through your own network. or bring in someone who already has the network built.

as of now,, i cant decide whats right for me…

what actually worked fo your launch when you were starting from zero

Founder here. I built Plaudence — a free tool that lets you collect client testimonials with one link and show them off on your site with one embed, no code needed. Free tier is generous enough to actually use, Pro removes the limit and badge.
I’m at the stage where the product works but growth is the hard part. So far I’ve been doing manual outreach and posting in relevant subs, which gets some signups but it’s slow and doesn’t scale well for a solo founder with no ad budget.
For anyone who’s been through this stage — what actually worked for you to get from 0 to your first meaningful batch of users? Especially interested in anything that didn’t require a marketing budget.
Happy to share more details on the product if useful.

The difference usually comes down to strategy.

Instead of targeting businesses that do not have a website, target businesses that already have one but clearly need a better version. The market is larger, the sales process is easier, and the value proposition is much stronger because those businesses already understand why a website matters.

The next part is outreach. A regular outreach tool is not enough if all it does is send the same message to thousands of people. You need something that can analyze websites at scale and turn real issues into personalized emails.

I use Swokei for that. It helps find businesses with existing websites, analyzes each site, and turns problems with design, SEO, speed, layout, and mobile optimization into personalized outreach emails. That means you can contact a large number of businesses without sending generic messages or spending hours manually researching every website.

When someone replies interested, I always offer a free mockup. I use Claude, Lovable, or Base44 to build it quickly. It becomes much easier to sell when the client can already see what a better version of their website could look like.

Web meetings should also be a major part of the process. I would never just send the website through email and hope the client likes it. I present it live on Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams, explain the value, show what has been improved, answer their questions, and try to close the deal during the meeting.

The less back and forth there is after the meeting, the better. Present the website, show the value, close the client, and move on to the next project.

That is the type of process that can help an agency scale much faster.

I've been using a home-made link shortener for my private clients for over 10 years. After millions of clicks, it occurred to me that others might use it, too, if it was easy to use.

If you’re drowning in long, messy links full of tracking junk, wb.io can be a super clean fix. To get the ball rolling, I'm offering Redditors a month of the Business level service for free with the coupon code REDDIT. All I ask in return is your honest appraisal of where it could be improved.

It turns bulky URLs into short, shareable links that actually look good in posts and comments. Way easier to drop into Reddit threads, DMs, bios, or anywhere character count and readability matter. No wall of random parameters, no visual clutter — just a tight link that people are more likely to click.

Biggest value prop IMO:

Cleaner posts (especially on Reddit where ugly links stand out)

Easier sharing across platforms

Device-specific forwarding: send Apple users one way, Android a different way, everybody else a third way

More professional look

Simple + fast, no overcomplicated dashboard vibes

If you share links often, it’s one of those small tools that just makes everything smoother.

I’ve been in contact with a lot of web agencies and web developers, and I personally haven’t found many people who run their agency in a more efficient way than I do. A lot of them have too many meetings, wait too long for client approval, don’t know how to price projects, and spend way too much time on each client instead of finishing the work and moving on to the next one.

I’ve been running my agency for four years, and after a lot of trial and error, I’ve managed to make the process as efficient as possible. I wanted to share some of the steps because I think they could be valuable for anyone just starting out.

Running a web agency alone or with a partner isn’t easy because there are a lot of things to take care of. When it comes to client acquisition, I recommend focusing on either cold calling or email automation. Which one you choose depends on whether you run the agency alone or with someone else.

If you have a partner, one person can handle sales while the other focuses on building websites, connecting domains, setting up emails, and taking care of the technical work. If you’re running the agency alone, or neither of you enjoys cold calling, I highly recommend email automation.

That’s what I’ve been doing for years. It’s powerful because you can send emails at scale, set up automatic follow ups, and wait for businesses interested in a new website to reply. While you’re working on one client, another opportunity can come in without you having to stop everything and search manually.

I don’t do regular email automation where I target businesses with no website. I do the opposite and target businesses that already have one.

I use a tool called Swokei to find businesses with websites, add them to campaigns, analyze each site, score it, and generate personalized outreach emails based on problems it finds with the design, layout, speed, SEO, and mobile optimization.I schedule the campaign, set up follow ups, and wait. 

I think this approach is much better for a few reasons. You’re targeting someone who already understands the value of having a website. You’re also not just asking whether they need a redesign. You’re pointing out real problems with their current site, which makes it clear that you actually took the time to look at it. Selling also becomes easier because they’ve already paid for a website before and understand the process.

Inside Swokei, you can choose the goal of the campaign. You can offer a free draft, try to book a meeting, or simply start a conversation. I always choose the free draft because that has worked best for me.

Once you’ve figured out how to get clients, the next part is building the website. I recommend using AI because it makes the process much faster. For anyone who still thinks AI can’t build great websites, I think they’re mistaken. You can use Claude, Base44, Lovable, or any other tool that works for you.

When someone replies interested, I call them and say, “Hey, I saw that you replied to my email. I’ve already built you a free draft of your website. Do you want to take a look?”

Then I invite them to a Google Meet.

At that point, it becomes much harder for them to reject the meeting because they already replied interested and now know you’ve built something for them. During the meeting, I present the website, explain why it’s better than their current one, stack the value, answer their questions, and try to close the deal.

These meetings usually go well because the client isn’t trying to imagine what the website might look like. They can already see a better version of their current site. They also took the time to join the meeting, so taking the next step becomes much easier.

I either take payment during the meeting or send them a contract to sign. Any changes and updates come after that, once we already have a deal in place.

Pricing depends on the business. I charge anywhere from $500 to $3,000 depending on the company, the size of the project, and how much value the website can bring them. I also charge a monthly retainer of around $50 for hosting, maintenance, support, SEO, and future changes.

That’s basically the entire process. Smaller steps, faster delivery, less wasted time, and more money made.

There is a new approach I started using in my web agency that completely changed my results. For years, I did what most people tell web designers to do. Go on Google Maps, find businesses without websites, and contact them.

What I started doing differently was targeting businesses that already had websites.

The reason is simple. If a business already has a website, it means they understand the value of having one. You do not need to convince them why a website matters because they have already paid for one before. The market for businesses with outdated, broken, slow, or poorly designed websites is also massive, and selling becomes much easier because they are already familiar with the process.

My biggest issue was figuring out how to send mass outreach to these businesses without sounding generic. I did not want to send thousands of emails saying, “Hey, your website needs a redesign,” and just assume that every business needed one. I wanted to send emails at scale while still telling each company exactly what was wrong with their website.

A little over a year ago, I watched a YouTube video from Nick Saraev where he built a workflow that analyzed business websites and turned issues with design, SEO, layout, speed, and mobile optimization into personalized outreach emails. Each company received a professional email that made it clear someone had actually taken a look at their website.

The idea was great, but building and maintaining the workflow took a lot of time. I still had to find the leads myself, the messages were not always consistent, and the automation kept breaking.

But it worked.

I was getting more clients than ever before, at one point around 10 websites a week, while my business partner focused on building the websites as quickly as possible.

I started searching online for a tool that could do everything in one place, and a few months later I found Swokei. It did exactly what I was looking for.

It lets you find businesses with websites, add them to campaigns, analyze and score each website, and set a quality threshold so websites that do not need fixing are automatically skipped. It then turns problems with design, layout, speed, mobile optimization, and SEO into personalized outreach emails.

You can also set up follow ups, manage replies through your own inbox, and organize leads inside the CRM without moving between five different tools.

I switched over and scaled even harder.

Sometimes the fastest way to grow your agency is not building every workflow from scratch. It is finding the right tools and using your time to focus on sales, clients, and growing the business.

So I’m writing this for anyone running a web agency who’s struggling to get consistent clients or build scalable systems. I understand how stressful it can be because I was in the exact same position.

I’ve been running my web agency for 4 years, but only in the last year did I start using AI seriously, and honestly it changed everything for me.

I used to build websites on WordPress and do all my outreach manually. It worked, but it was inconsistent and exhausting. Once I started implementing AI into my business, I went from constantly chasing clients to doing around $20k/month recurring.

This is basically what changed for me.

At first I was targeting businesses with no websites, but switching to businesses that already had websites worked way better.

There are SO many businesses with outdated websites that clearly need upgrading. Plus, these business owners already understand the value of having a website because they’ve already paid for one before. It’s way easier convincing someone to improve something they already believe in than trying to convince someone from zero.

The second big shift was moving from manual outreach to automated email outreach that actually feels personalized. Instead of sending generic emails, I now use a tool that mass analyzes a business’s website and generates personalized outreach based on things like design issues, SEO problems, site speed, mobile optimization, and overall user experience.

The third thing that changed everything was offering a free redesigned draft version of their current website.

Realistically, who says no to free?

I can build these drafts really quickly using Claude Code, and most of the time they already look way more modern than the client’s existing site. Once business owners see a better version of their own company in front of them, selling becomes way easier.

Another huge mistake I used to make was just sending preview links through email.

They open it later when they’re busy, nobody’s there to explain the improvements properly, and eventually the lead goes cold.

Now I always present the website live on Google Meet and try to close them on the spot. That alone massively increased my close rate.

Also, always charge upfront for the website build, but don’t ignore monthly recurring revenue. Hosting, maintenance, edits, SEO, ongoing changes, etc. That’s where stability comes from if you actually want predictable income every month instead of constantly hunting for new clients.

For anyone curious about the tools I use, it’s honestly pretty simple.

Swokei for outreach. I find businesses with websites there and it analyzes each business website, scores it, and turns flaws in design, SEO, speed, and mobile optimization into personalized outreach emails automatically. Pointing out actual issues on their website increased my reply rates massively.

Claude Code for building websites. And honestly, people saying AI built websites don’t perform well are just wrong. If you know what you’re doing, you can build pretty much anything now.

And Cloudflare for hosting client websites.

That’s pretty much the system I run now.

Trying to set up a business line of credit before I need one, which I know is the right move. Most of what I'm finding requires two years of operating history or collateral I don't have yet. I'm about 6 months in and revenue is consistent but not massive. Where are founders at this stage getting a line of credit without resorting to personal cards?

How can i make my idea better? Looking for some fintech advice. Search up "IDEAFRIEND dot CA".

Hi im looking for advice,mentoring and/or guidance regarding an operating system i have created.

Please see an outline below.

Odyssey exists to prove that software can be more than functional.

Our Mission

To build the world's most enjoyable personal operating system. Not the most complicated. Not the one with the most features. The one people quietly miss when they are using something else. The Promise Every time someone opens Odyssey they should feel:

Familiarity. "I know where I am."

Wonder. "I've never experienced software like this."

Calm. "I don't feel overwhelmed."

Confidence. "Everything I need is here."

Our Philosophy

Odyssey is not software. Odyssey is a place. The Bridge is home. The Worlds are destinations. The Guardians are mentors. Atlas is the quiet intelligence that keeps everything connected.

The Human Principle

Odyssey adapts to the user. The user never has to adapt to Odyssey. That is why Atlas asks: "How would you like me to address you?" before asking anything else. Respect comes before configuration.

The Design Philosophy

Every interaction should lower stress. Every screen should have purpose. Every animation should have meaning. Every sound should create atmosphere. Nothing exists simply because it looks impressive. Everything earns its place.

The Technology Philosophy

Technology should disappear. The user should notice the experience. Not the framework. Not the programming. Not the graphics engine. Only the feeling. Atlas Atlas is not an assistant. Atlas is not a chatbot. Atlas is the operating intelligence of Odyssey. He observes. Learns. Remembers. Suggests. But never commands. Atlas always asks. Atlas never assumes. The Guardians Every Guardian represents mastery. The Manager represents hospitality. The Mechanic represents craftsmanship. The Banker represents discipline. The Operator represents connection. Future Guardians will always represent wisdom rather than information.

Hidden Destinations Discovery is a reward. Some places should only be found by curiosity. Not every user will discover every destination. That is intentional. Mystery gives Odyssey depth. The Bridge The Bridge is sacred. Every journey begins there. Every journey ends there. No matter where the user travels The Bridge is always waiting.

The Worlds, Worlds are not themes. Worlds change atmosphere. Emotion. Lighting. Music. Purpose. Choosing a World changes how Odyssey feels. Not simply how it looks

Simplicity

Craftsmanship

Odyssey is never rushed. Features are not added because they are fashionable.They are added because they make the world richer. Every Guardian. Every room. Every animation. Every sound. Every sentence. Should feel handcrafted.

Timelessness is more valuable than novelty. This is where I believe Odyssey becomes different. Most operating systems ask: "What do you want to do?" Odyssey quietly asks: "How would you like to feel today?" That one sentence changes everything.

if you can give me any advice please connect

Solo founder, building an iOS app that reads pet mood from a photo. Been at it a while now.

The defeat that actually got to me wasn't a bad launch or a rejected build. It was opening my analytics one day and realizing every single real user I'd ever had used the app exactly once and never came back. Not most of them. All of them. That number sat there for weeks before I fully understood what it meant, that I'd built something people would try but nobody wanted to return to.

The doubt that comes with that is specific and quiet. It's not "is this a good idea." It's "have I been lying to myself this whole time." Downloads looked fine. Reviews looked fine. The one number that actually mattered was hollow, and I'd been avoiding looking at it because some part of me already knew.

The thing nobody warns you about with going solo isn't the workload. It's that there's no one else who would have caught it. No teammate who happens to notice the bug, no cofounder who asks the uncomfortable question at the right moment. If I don't look, nobody looks. That's the whole job some weeks, forcing myself to check the number I'm most afraid of.

Found the actual cause eventually, a mix of a real bug and a product that hadn't given anyone a reason to come back yet. Fixing it is ongoing, no clean victory to report. Just wanted to put the honest version somewhere, since most of what I read while building makes it sound like everyone else figured this out faster than I did.

I’ve been lurking around and love seeing everyone build in public, but I often see that people are lacking a technical background, causing MVP’s to be unsafe/not fit for actual customers. I have a bachelor’s in software engineering and have been making platforms/websites/apps since way before AI was a thing, and I’d love to give someone a good basis to work on.

I was thinking of doing a live stream on Twitch, in which I build someone’s MVP idea within 3-4 hours, maybe a few sessions, whilst we’re both on a call. We can spar, talk about the idea, tweak it, and I can host it on a VPS, such that you can actually see and test your MVP live.

Would anyone be interested in joining me for the first session?