One guy makes $20K/month selling an AI-powered resume writer.
Another makes $30K/month selling a workout tracker.
Another makes $0 after a year of coding.

Execution is everything.

Finally got my first paying customer after launching my product! Excited, thrilled… my hands are still shaking a bit, haha. Just wanted to share this joy here on Reddit and thank all the amazing posts and friends in this community who have helped along the way.

To everyone out there: We can all reach our milestones!

Here’s my product: Buildglare is an AI-powered website builder that lets you create websites through natural language interaction. Everyone can try it for free!

So I’m a high school developer (like literally still juggling homework and stuff) and I just made my first $10k in profits, which feels kinda wild. I wanted to share my whole process, but it’s not super fancy or anything—basically, I spent a lot of time on Reddit and G2, because why not, right?

First, I went on Reddit and just started scraping random subreddits for what people complained about. It’s amazing how many posts there are where people just talk about their problems—like “I hate this software because of X” or “Why does nobody build Y?” That’s the gold. People on Reddit are super real, and because they’re anonymous, they don’t hold back. They’ll just say “This thing sucks, I want something better.” So I collected all those pain points using a little script, because I do a lot of coding for fun anyway.

Then I checked G2 reviews. I mean, G2 is basically a giant pile of software reviews, and you can filter by negative reviews to see what people are complaining about. I grabbed all that data and tried to see if there were patterns—like do people in a certain industry keep complaining about a missing feature? Or do they hate how some software is overpriced but missing something super basic? That’s the kind of stuff I looked for.

After that, I started mixing and matching ideas from Reddit and G2. I’d see something on Reddit like “It’d be cool if there was a tool that did X,” and then on G2, I’d see a bunch of negative reviews about a software that kinda does X, but not very well. That’s when I’d start refining an idea—like “What if I made a tool that does X better than the existing software?” Then I’d go back to Reddit, look for people who might care, and ask them questions or DM them if they’re open to it. I basically repeated this over and over, each time tweaking the idea a little bit more.

The best part was using another Reddit scraper to find potential users. I’d see who’s complaining about the problem I wanted to solve, and then I’d send them a message or comment on their post: “Hey, I’m thinking of building something that might help with that problem, can I ask you a few questions?” Obviously, some people ignored me, but a surprising number of them were cool about it because, again, they’re anonymous and they’re already complaining about the problem, so a solution might interest them.

So I kept jumping back and forth—idea, user feedback, refine idea, user feedback, refine idea—until I had something people were actually saying they’d use. Eventually, I realized I could turn this whole method into actual products. One is BigIdeasDb, which basically tries to do exactly what I did: find user problems based on negative sentiment (from G2 reviews, etc.) and just gather them in one place so you can see what people really hate about current software. Then I also made Linkeddit, which is basically the process of finding people on different subreddits to talk to so you can validate your ideas quickly.

Anyway, that’s how I ended up making my first $10k. I just kept going back to Reddit because I figured, “Why not talk to real users in the wild?” And it worked out really well. People are brutally honest there, so you know pretty fast if your idea is trash or if it’s something they’d actually pay for. If you’re trying to build something or just want to see what’s bugging people, I highly recommend giving that a try. It’s not super complicated—just read what people are saying, keep refining, and talk to them again. Rinse and repeat until you have something that actually solves a problem. It’s a bit tedious sometimes, but it totally paid off for me.

So yeah, that’s my (somewhat messy) story. If anyone has questions or wants more details, feel free to ask. I’m still learning a ton myself—like I said, high school kid here—but it’s been a fun ride so far. Hope this helps someone out there!

Hey Indie Hackers,

I’m one of you – launched Excalidoc back in January with the idea of creating a collaboration tool for rich text documents, inspired by Excalidraw. I didn’t expect much, but something amazing happened as soon as I shared it with the world: real user feedback. That’s when the real journey began.

At first, users wanted their documents to sync across devices – a feature I hadn’t planned for, but it made perfect sense. So, I added workspaces, allowing users to access their documents from any browser. Then came private notes for public workspaces, which seemed like a simple but crucial addition.

The next request? Document templates for workspaces. It clicked instantly – a way to easily create new docs from predefined formats. So I made that happen.

And the requests kept rolling in: people wanted to turn their documents into standalone public sites. Sure enough, it felt like a natural next step, so I added it.

Around this time, I started exploring AI and how it could elevate the app. I began thinking about the concept of a "Second Brain" – a way for users to offload thoughts and quickly retrieve everything they need on a topic at a moment’s notice. The potential was huge. I've added this starting with free tier as I am still assessing token usage and the cost to run it all. Give it a try!

Through it all, PostHog was my guiding light. It helped me track user pain points, guiding my improvements and decisions. I spent all the time fine-tuning the app, and this morning I checked – 200 active users. It felt incredible to see it all come together, especially since I didn’t have a concrete vision when I started.

The one thing that made this all possible? Analytics. If there’s one thing I’d recommend to any indie hacker, it’s setting up analytics from day one. It’s the best way to ensure you’re building what users actually need, not just what you think they want.

I’d love to hear what’s worked for you. How did you evolve your app based on user feedback?

Edit: Growing your app in a world full of noise can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re a solo founder handling everything from development to marketing. It often seems like you're shouting into a void, trying to get noticed amidst the constant chatter. But the truth is, small, focused efforts can lead to big, meaningful results.

hello fellow hackers!

what are y’all hacking on this weekend? would love to hear about it.

i’m currently working on a fun project called superwrite. it’s an ai writing assistant that feels like you’re writing with ai, not just having ai write for you. still early but excited to see where it goes.

what’s on your build list this weekend?

Hey makers,

I have created a list of 9 PH alternatives where you can list your saas and get more users.

Uneed - (Monthly Traffic: 91K Visitors, DA: 59)

Peerlist - (Monthly Traffic: 199K Visitors, DA: 64)

Dev hunt - (Monthly Traffic: 62K Visitors, DA: 57)

Micro launch - (Monthly Traffic: 79K Visitors, DA: 44)

Fazier - (Monthly Traffic: 17K Visitors, DA: 58)

SaaS hub - (Monthly Traffic: 358K Visitors, DA: 72)

Ctrl alt cc - (Monthly Traffic: 16K Visitors, DA: 37)

Twelve Tools - (Monthly Traffic: 500 Visitors, DA: 16)

PItchwall - (Monthly Traffic: 16K Visitors, DA: 65)

I build Notion templates to make your marketing easy— download now!!

Your small support helps me write and build new things.

Thanks for your time!!

Like many of you, I love listening to startup related podcasts like MFM, Startup Ideas Podcast, How I Built This and many more.

I don’t have the time to keep up with them these days, but still want to be inspired by these amazing shows. Would people be interested in a site that summarizes all the new episodes, tracks all the business ideas and other golden nuggets into a searchable knowledge base? I am thinking it would be a fun project to build.

Have you ever built a product, launched it, and then realized nobody actually wanted it? Because same. 😅

We spent months developing Ostamax, convinced people needed it. We had some early interest, we got great feedback, and we assumed that meant sales would follow. But when we finally launched? Crickets. Even the people who said they wanted it never actually bought it.

I’m done making that mistake. But here’s the thing… I also hate prelaunching.

• Wrestling with ad platforms
• Building landing pages from scratch
• Spending weeks just to test one idea at a time

I don’t want to spend more time validating than actually building. So I decided to fix it.

I’m launching StartSmart—a tool that lets you test multiple startup ideas at once, automatically. Instead of spending weeks setting up a prelaunch, StartSmart will build your landing page, socials, and ad campaign for you—so you get real engagement data before committing to an idea.

🚀 For the first 10 people, I’m offering a manual validation service. I’ll personally build your landing page, set up your ads, and see if there’s demand for your idea. This isn’t just surveys or gut feelings—this is about showing your idea to real people and tracking if they actually care.

👉 Have you ever built something before validating it? What’s the most frustrating part of launching before building? Let’s talk—drop a comment or DM me. Let’s make prelaunching effortless. 🔥

If you start a business, there will be a bit of a struggle. Probably multiple years of struggle. Here is how that looked for me:

I'm 29/yo now and started dabbling into startups five years ago when me and my best friends decided we wanted to build a startup. Our idea: To connect students (cause we were students) with companies for internships. No experience. No market validation. No product. No nothing.

We struggled but at least we started. There was no way back. We got ourselves on the founder track. The year was 2020.

Here is what followed in the next five years:

2020: Launched internship website in October 2019. Went fulltime in 2020. Got a little grant (30K) to get us going. Covid hit. No one was hiring interns. Got our first 10 customers after 6 months. Lived off $1500/mo.

2021: Struggled. Few months without salary. Luckily was still living at home. One co-founder left in August. Decided to give it one more shot for six months.

2022: Reached 100 customers. Moved to Amsterdam. Increased salaries to $2000/mo. Got stuck again. Business was taking a toll on me. Started meeting other founders for support and vibes.

2023: Decided to move on from the business. Met Adriaan from Simple Analytics. He liked what I did in my previous business. Asked to partner up. I became late co-founder in Simple Analytics.

2024: We got an office. Invited other interesting people to the office. Met Dries. He was working on UniFi hosting. Adriaan and I showed him what we did for Simple Analytics. He asked to partner up. I became co-founder of UniHosted.

2025: I now run two profitable and growing SaaS businesses. Simple Analytics is doing 37K MRR and UniHosted is doing 7K MRR.

This is a very very short recap of the last years. There is more to it, but I wanted to point out that I now run two profitable SaaS businesses because I got started.

So yes you'll probably struggle, but you'll get there. Just make sure you start!

I wrote some thoughts about how to get started in this article. Don't know if I can link, but we'll see how it goes: https://1millionarr.substack.com/p/just-fucking-start

I’d love to share my current stack and hear what others are using.

1. Development & Analytics:

• Fastify (Node.js) and Rails backend + Next.js frontend + PostgreSQL and Redis database
• AI: Claude and GitHub Copilot.
• Analytics & Feature Flags: Posthog.
• Email SMTP: Amazon SNS.
• Data visualization: Metabase.

2. Infrastructure:

• Cloud/VPS for backend and database (mostly VPS with Coolify).
• Vercel or Netlify for frontend.
• Cloudflare for CDN and domain management.

3. Media & Storage:

• Imgix or Bunny.net for images.
• Bunny Storage for objects.

4. Product Management:

• Feedback/bugs: Custom form + FeatureBase + social channels.
• Testimonials: ProductHunt and review sites.
• Custom waitlist functionality.

5. Marketing & Communication:

• Social scheduling: Postiz.
• Forms: Google Forms, tally.so, or Typeform.
• Team chat: Slack.
• Newsletter: beehiiv.
• Roadmap: X and email (when building in public).

6. Content & Management:

• Blog: Ghost CMS.
• Documents/notes: Notion or Apple Notes.
• Tasks: Jira.
• Payments: PayPal and PayU.

7. Networking:

• X/LinkedIn/ProductHunt.
• Wellfound or LinkedIn for recruitment.

This covers most of my cases. What’s your go-to stack?

I’m particularly interested in:

1. Which services actually deliver value and don’t just add complexity.
2. Any alternatives you’d recommend for any of these.
3. What tools you wish existed but don’t.

Let me know what works for you! 👇

Hey! Ex-marketer turned web developer running a one-person agency here!

When I look at this sub, I see a lot of people lacking basic marketing skills, and they seem genuinely surprised when no one buys their product. So, I’d like to share a few ideas on how to fix that.

Today’s tip: Create for people, not for algorithms

Social networks run on algorithms, and standalone blogs rely heavily on search engines. For some entrepreneurs, it’s tempting to create content just to please the algorithms and get a boost rather than focusing on real people. Don’t be like that.

I’m sure you’ve seen it — you search for something online, click the first result, and end up on a poorly written article stuffed with keywords but offering no real value.

It’s a shame the author chose this approach. Don’t fall into this trap.

Don’t obsess over optimizing your content for keywords. Instead, focus on quality and consistency. That’s what truly matters — not just for your followers, but for search engines and algorithms too.

Create for real people, not for algorithms.

After months of work, I finally launched my first app —moviematch.app

Lately, my wife and I have been spending 10-15 minutes arguing about what to watch. Sometimes, we end up dropping the idea of watching a movie altogether.

So I had this idea to create an app that helps us find a good movie for both of us. I did a little research and found some existing apps, but none were as good as I wanted.

That’s why I decided to create MovieMatch, where you can swipe through movies together for 60 seconds and then get a list of matched movies.

It sounds like a simple idea, but the challenge was finding time since I work 9 to 5.

Today, I’m launching the beta waitlist (you can join, btw), and I’m super excited about it!

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to share a personal milestone with you all. After college, I made the decision to learn web development from scratch with the goal of building my own stock analysis platform—a project I’d always dreamed of but never had the time to pursue. After 2 years of grinding on it publicly and open-sourcing the project, I’m happy to say I’ve reached $1800 in monthly recurring revenue, completely bootstrapped with no marketing spend whatsoever.

The key to this achievement has been simple: I’ve focused on listening to my users, continuously implementing their feedback, showing them the new features, and repeating that process. This feedback loop—combined with dedicating 12-hour workdays—has helped me create something truly valuable for my users.

https://preview.redd.it/pahig90rchke1.png?width=1731&format=png&auto=webp&s=ed59f1324e987dc1d14f21e5e34f9c146ccc4d1e

I hope my experience can inspire or help other solo entrepreneurs out there. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out!

Website: https://stocknear.com/

Repo: https://github.com/stocknear

Whenever I have a good idea and would love to get feedback from the subreddit community... I'm ALWAYS scared if someone steals my idea and profits from it without thinking about my feelings or they just don't care at all in the world. I'm really desperate to showcase my ideas; but my fears take the best of me. How can I overcome this?

Hey everyone,

I launched my first product, Imagine AI, about a month ago. I’ve got around 100 users and 1 paid user so far, but I’m struggling to get more people on board.

I’ve been posting on X and Reddit, and while it worked a little at first, the excitement seems to have faded. I’m on a tight budget, so I need some creative ways to market without spending money.

I’m really new to this whole marketing thing, and I’d love to hear what’s worked for you in growing your product or audience. Any tips or advice you can share would mean a lot!

Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone, I'm curious about how people got their first customer, wether it's freelancing, SaaS, Startup, Blogging, selling a product, or something unexpected. I would love to hear your wonderful story!

• What did you do?
• How long did it take?
• Did you stumble upon any obstacles?
• What advice do you have?
• How is it going so far?

I would love to hear your story and unveil your journey so all of us can learn together and take note of stuff!