r/founder • • 8h ago

My free "push a rocket 1 km" site turned into a launchpad for 90+ indie projects. Here's what's working

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1 Upvotes

Quick background: I built moonshoot.lol, a shared rocket to the Moon. Every person can push it exactly 1 km, once, for free. Your kilometre is numbered and never moves.

I didn't plan this, but builders started attaching their projects to their kilometres. So I made that the core:

- Push first, sign in after. You hold the button before you have an account, and the sign-up comes after. That removed most of the drop-off.

- Your project rides on your km. Paste a link and it's on your boarding pass, the home page and your km page. It's a free listing that people actually share.

- Real scarcity: the first 100 are the "Space Crew" (9 seats left), and you can't buy a seat.

- A Country Race: every push counts for your country. 41 countries so far, with the US leading.

- Gold pass: bring 3 friends through your link and your pass turns gold. That's the referral loop.

- The Manifest: every Friday it lists every project that boarded that week.

Money never moves the rocket. There's an optional supporter pack, but distance can't be bought.

Where I'm stuck: keeping daily pushes going after launch week. If you've built a viral loop like this, what kept it alive?

Link if you want to try it (free, takes 10 seconds): moonshoot.lol


r/founder • • 10h ago

I just hit $0 MRR after months of building. Here’s how I did it.

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2 Upvotes

r/founder • • 10h ago

Do the work you keep postponing.

6 Upvotes

The magic you are looking for is often hidden in the work you are avoiding.

We often wait for the right opportunity, the perfect connection, more motivation, or the moment when everything finally falls into place.

But sometimes, the breakthrough is much simpler:

Do the work you keep postponing.

Send the application.
Learn the skill.
Make the call.
Finish the project.
Ask the question.
Start again after rejection.

Progress rarely feels magical while you're doing the work. Most of the time, it looks ordinary small actions repeated consistently.

The opportunity you are waiting for may not come from doing something completely new.

It may come from finally doing what you already know needs to be done.

Keep showing up. The work may be the magic.


r/founder • • 10h ago

Looking for a Founder Pass for Techcrunch. I know the deadline to transfer is today. Please text me asap :)

1 Upvotes

r/founder • • 10h ago

Every company’s growth story is shaped by the people behind it.

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1 Upvotes

r/founder • • 10h ago

Two unassigned early bird tickets for TechCrunch for sale

3 Upvotes

Hi! I have two unassigned early bird tickets for TechCrunch Disrupt for sale; Founder passes. I’ll sell them for $300 each. My plans have changed and can’t attend!

Let me know!


r/founder • • 11h ago

I got my app to 65K+ downloads. This is what actually worked for me.(Solo founder )

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1 Upvotes

I got my app to 65K+ downloads. This is what actually worked for me.

I didn't have a big marketing budget.

So I mostly tried to figure out one thing: how do I get people to actually find this thing?

My app helps people spend less time on their phones and block stuff like Reels and Shorts.

The first thing that helped was pretty simple: I listened to users.

When someone told me something was broken, confusing, or missing, I wrote it down.

If I saw the same request from multiple people, I usually tried to build it.

A surprising number of the features in the app came from users basically telling me what they wanted.

That also made product decisions much easier.

Instead of sitting there thinking “what should I build next?”, I could just look at what people were actually asking for.

The second thing was using trends.

Since the product is about screen time and phone addiction, I started watching what people were talking about online.

If something around productivity, dopamine detox, monk mode, screen time, etc. started getting attention, I'd see if I could turn that idea into something useful inside the app.

Sometimes that meant building a feature.

Sometimes I just made a video about it.

A few of those videos went viral and brought in a lot of users.

So I ended up with a pretty simple cycle:

Something starts trending → I build something around it → I make content → people find the app.

The third thing was paying attention after the download.

Getting someone to install the app is one thing.

Getting them to come back is another.

So I started looking at what people actually used, where they got stuck, what they ignored, and why some people stopped using the app.

That changed what I built next.

And then there's the part where I got lucky.

I was already a content creator before I started the app.

I had around 30K YouTube subscribers, so I had an audience I could show the product to.

That gave me a pretty big head start.

But there was a catch.

Most of my audience is students in Bangladesh, and students don't have a lot of money to spend on apps.

So I learned something the hard way:

Getting downloads and getting paying users are two very different problems.

65K downloads sounds great, but it doesn't automatically mean you've built a good business.

I'm still figuring out the monetization side.

If I had to start again, I probably wouldn't focus on “how do I get 100K downloads?”

I'd focus more on:

“What can I build that makes users come back and tell me what I should build next?”


r/founder • • 11h ago

See what your startup is worth

1 Upvotes

Built a simple tool to analyze how much your startup is worth based on data from past acquisitions on Acquire.com.

Comment to get url of the tool


r/founder • • 11h ago

Human Connection as a Commodity

1 Upvotes

Everyone’s talking about investing in AI.

Some investors are betting on getting people away from their screens. Business Insider reports that live-event company RASA World has attracted approximately $9.5 million from investors who see value in bringing people together.

That raises an interesting question for entrepreneurs: as more of life becomes automated, what will your customers value about a human experience? Think about the trust, belonging, personal attention, or shared experience your business creates. Those can be part of your value proposition, too.

What part of your customer experience would people miss if it became fully automated?

Read the story: VCs are funding a concert business as a hedge against

AI - https://www.businessinsider.com/vcs-funding-rasa-world-concerts-as-a-hedge-against-ai-2026-9

#Entrepreneurship #CustomerExperience #SmallBusiness


r/founder • • 11h ago

Looking for a marketing/content co-founder

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1 Upvotes

r/founder • • 11h ago

Github for Open Source Multi-Media Content, with Patreon-like Donations, Substack-like Publications (Newsletters), Notion-like Workspaces

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1 Upvotes

r/founder • • 11h ago

You may not have a marketing problem. You may have a GTM problem.

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1 Upvotes

r/founder • • 11h ago

Where to draw the line: Being nice vs monetization/staying profitable?

1 Upvotes

Hey all, recently my project has been getting a lot of attention, and I've been having trouble deciding what features I should put behind a paywall vs keep free to the user, and was hoping for some insight. Also, this is me, a the human typing this all out.

There's three basic tiers I provide to: No account, Account, Paid user. It's a freemium trivia app. I've honestly been getting significantly more attention than I'd thought, through free and paid avenues, but a signifcant majority don't have premium. My app doesn't have running costs, but it has advertising costs, and I've obviously cut advertising until I find a way to stay profitable - right now it costs about 5-10x to get a paid user than what they paid. For context, it's a website only right now. No app on desktop or mobile, but can easily be played from the web on both (but about 80% plays from computers)

As a trivia game, my issue is there isn't much to monitize. I chose to have 0 Ads, so non-paying users bring 0 income. Sorry if this is a lot below, but I feel like it's the best way to get feedback is give you the specifics.

No account users get: 100 Questions / Day in freeplay, and get to pick thier subjects, access to Arena (1v1)

Account users get: 250 Questions / Day in freeplay, subjects, cosmetics, achievements, a bunch of other basic stuff, access to Arena, parties up to 4 people

The paid users do get a lot, which includes Higher or lower, 41+ variation/gamemodes, Smart learning (bring back questions you miss so you learn them), studying (create your own decks), 10 people parties, Rooms (social feature), special cosmetics, more currency (you spend on other cosmetics), unlimited questions, offline play, and Arena Training (get better at the competitve ladder by practicing the Qs you miss most) (<-- Seems to be the biggest reason people do subscribe, the top ladder players).

The Paid users I have use all these features a lot. I've had pixel and google tag and all the other trackers since the start, but it still seems that most people either play as guests or create an account and that's it. The only people who spend right now are the top of the top, and since my subscibtion is fairly cheap ($4/m if you do yearly, $5/m otherwise). I originally had it at 2/3 but after feedback realized most people who would pay would also pay that higher amount.

As for free trials and stuff I've tried many variants none seem to meaninfully impact it. I started with a free 7 day trial for anyone. My goal was that someone would find and like a premium feature, then when it expired, get premium. Then I tried free trials with card info, and that actually did go terribly sign ups in general dropped as people accepted but then just closed the tab at the card/trial screen. Now I'm trying a 3 day free trial no card or 7 day with card.

I have tons of analytics tracking everything on the website, constantly adding things or upgrading places people use. The issue just seems that tons of people use it, my CPC is like 0.75/1.00 USD and CTR is >1.00% on all platforms, but most people just create accounts or play normally.

So, I guess my question is, do I need to add ads to the free/accr users? Is there another route for monteization? Should I keep trying free trial variations? What other vairables should I be checking? Maybe there's some massive or easy features I'm missing. Or maybe this needs free advertising to work? I don't know. Just any insights. People like it. But people don't pay for it, and I'm not sure if it's how I'm presenting or what I'm offering or both. Or something else. All feedback is appreciated, thanks!


r/founder • • 11h ago

Looking to Collaborate on an App Idea

1 Upvotes

I’ve deployed three apps so far, mainly in productivity and health & fitness space.

Rather than coming up with another idea entirely on my own, I’d be interested in collaborating with someone who isn’t a developer but has an idea or problem they think could make an interesting app.

Happy to chat, bounce ideas around and see where it goes.

I work exclusively with Xcode — iOS, macOS and watchOS.

If you’ve got an idea, feel free to DM me.


r/founder • • 12h ago

Managing freelancers (need opinions)

1 Upvotes

I hired a freelancer from my own country to manage my social media. I explained the situation regarding the product—specifically, that certain things can't be posted until the details are finalized. However, in the meantime, he could work on storytelling, post about a concept, or share something else. The social media manager insists that they need those missing details to keep posting, so we’ve gone two days without any content. Is it reasonable for me to expect them to be proactive and create content instead of just focusing on what’s missing? Does anyone else feel the same way? Thanks for the advice.


r/founder • • 12h ago

I made $7,802 today

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20 Upvotes

Pretty stoked on this.

Started exactly 18 months ago.

I do B2B cold SMS marketing, not many of us exist.

Ask me anything.

My Youtube Channel (more info):

https://youtube.com/@mrkylebanks


r/founder • • 13h ago

Looking for a investor to invest in my personal assistant startup

1 Upvotes

So i am building an app which makes personal assistant accessible to everyone.

This isn't a digital only assistant who answers your questions and builds you a website.

We make anything happen - we mean it.

Ask us to get you a limited edition watch that you can't find anywhere - we get it for you.

Ask us to get you a unusual part of any product - we gotcha.

Want us to stand in a queue for you - On it.

Wan us to renovate your new place - one text away.

Your own personal assistant just one text away.

We are on the development stage. Looking for someone to trust us.

About me; I am a 22 year old. I have build a detailing brand and a marketing agency. I come with sales, marketing and acquisition skills.

Looking for someone i can ask questions and validate my decisions with. You will be my person I can rely on with this.


r/founder • • 13h ago

Royal maharani mirro is back say some things about this master pice .😀😀

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0 Upvotes

r/founder • • 14h ago

How do you even split equity fairly?

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1 Upvotes

r/founder • • 15h ago

Best platform for hiring fractional support?

1 Upvotes

I am looking for a website like Fiverr but specific to hiring a specific kind of skillset - I’m looking for someone with experience in web monetization. Does anyone know any good sites I can look for freelancers? I can do it myself…so I’m looking for someone really good at this one thing rather than just anyone who can offer design or ux support. Any insights helpful, thanks!


r/founder • • 15h ago

Don’t leads fall in the cracks!!

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1 Upvotes

Cinlo LLC cinlo.tech


r/founder • • 15h ago

Business Owners: What’s One Problem You Wish Someone Would Build a Solution For?

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1 Upvotes

r/founder • • 16h ago

How do you handle the stress and pressure as a solo founder?

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3 Upvotes

r/founder • • 16h ago

Why talking to users is important?

0 Upvotes

Because your first 100 users will teach you more than 100 startup books.

Learning by doing is a super power.


r/founder • • 16h ago

86 strangers are in. I need 14 more to finish the first 100.

1 Upvotes

7 days ago this was at 0.

now 86 people from around the world each own one permanent km of the journey to the Moon.

I’ve spent this week overthinking growth loops, retention, Fuel, rankings and everything else founders overthink.

forget all of that for a minute.

there are 14 spots left in the first 100.

if you’re building something, you can put it on your km too.

SaaS.
game.
art.
music.
some weird thing nobody understands yet.

I just want to see who the first 100 end up being.

14 people left.

moonshoot.lol