Six days later: three posts, two followers, essentially zero visitors. The best thing I have ever posted got four likes. 1 like was from me lol...
The part I wasn't ready for is that nobody rejected it. I'd braced for "this is bad" or "this already exists." Instead there's just silence. Every community I tried was either gated to new accounts or moving fast enough that a stranger's post sinks inside an hour.
So I have a working product, months of work, and zero information. Not "no demand" — no exposure. I can't tell you whether the thing is any good, because nobody has looked at it.
For those who have been here: what actually got you your first hundred real users? Not "post more." What actually worked?
I love this weird world we live in now lol
But if you built this to sell to others, you skipped the most important step: Researching the market to know what people want. Your first users come from your research - you call the people who you talked to and say: "I built it."
If you skipped that step, you are just throwing spaghetti against the wall and hoping it sticks. Fun for builders, not reliable for actual success.
-Chris
- How to get your 100 users. Sam Altman. Oct 3, 2024. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da7z-RcS6dM
- 50 Founders Share How They Got Their First Customers. YCombinator. Aug 9, 2023. www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZp5j5hvn9I
- How to Get Your First 10 Customers. YCombinator. Jun 22, 2026. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FBivfgOvuE&list=WL
Super useful!
-Chris
I'm going through the same thing with my product launched last week. I'm going through the sequence of posting on reddit, HN, PH, etc. to build that first base to develop organically but it's a struggle.
If you share the link below, i would be happy to take a look and give you feed back.
-Chris
I've been posting here and there for about a week, but the actual user traffic was so low I could count it on my fingers!
I hope you don't get discouraged and keep looking for a solution. Stay strong!
I'll follow your comment and review your project. Us new guys on the block need to take care of each other lol.
-Chris
So it's a bit chicken-and-egg — need karma to post, need to post to get karma. Guessing the honest answer is to go comment like a normal person for a while first.
-Chris
-Chris
First rule: if you're building the product solo, is it something you're the target user of? I've always felt like the biggest "cheat code" for building successful products is just making them for people like you. I know that goes against a lot of lean startup methodology (talk to users, etc.), but it has always worked in my experience. Use your unique domain knowledge to make something meaningfully better, cheaper, more accessible/simple than the competition.
Second rule: marketing is important. Almost all the things I've built are developer services, so to get user feedback and early traction, I'd submit to go speak at the local meetup groups in my area, talk about the tech stuff I worked on as part of the product, then give people a free shirt if they'd give me some in-person feedback after the event. I made some good friends that way (hello, SoCal Pythonistas!), and also made meaningful product growth. Don't be a shill, just genuinely nerd out about the things you're doing in an authentic way. People like that.
Third rule: write well. Don't use LLMs to spam blog content that's low quality about your product. Write about it yourself. Show examples, highlight features. Don't use marketing words, use simple descriptions.
I truly believe that the product will be better if the author is the first targeted user.
> AI coding tools moved the ceiling.
I'd say AI coding tools raised the floor, not the ceiling. Building a product with great UX is still difficult and demands constant attention to detail.
Thank you! This gave me a lot to chew on moving forward.
-Chris
-Chris
Most humans do the easy part first. It's the most fun. Lots of people can play a guitar. Only a tiny fraction market enough to make any money.
If you want success (in anything) learn (and do) the hard part first. Every product idea starts with 3 basic questions;
A) who is this for?
B) how do I reach them. Prove it by getting 10 names, email addresses, and nominal deposits.
C) can my target market afford this? Poor people need private jet transport, but that market cannot afford that product.
Writing the code is the last thing you do, not the first.
Assuming of course your goal is to make money. I make ceramics for fun, not to sell. I get the joy of making and using my own pots. It's a hobby, not my day job. I'm not interested in marketing or selling them. And that's perfectly OK.
-Chris
I would be grateful for any feedback, even if they are drive by jabs at the project. I have nothing to hide, and respect this community.
-Chris