Increasing revenue by 3x by pivoting a simple directory into a Product Hunt alternative at the right moment

Thomas Sanlis built a product directory years ago and put it on autopilot while it brought in an easy $2k/mo. But then, he saw an opportunity: Dissatisfaction with Product Hunt was growing.

So he pivoted the directory into a product launch platform. Now, Uneed is bringing in nearly $7k/mo.

Here's Thomas on how he's doing it. 👇

Starting as a directory

I've been an indie hacker for the past six years, and since early 2024, I've been doing it almost full-time. I've launched dozens of projects. Most of them failed, and I'm totally fine with that!

I've always been passionate about creating things. During my studies in 2019, I started building Uneed as a simple directory of frontend development tools. At first, it was just a way for me to learn and experiment with NuxtJS, a framework I wasn't familiar with at the time. I would add one new tool each day and developers could discover fresh resources for their projects.

As the site grew, I started receiving tool submissions through a Google Form. The volume of submissions quickly became overwhelming, which led me to implement a waiting list. So I decided to offer a paid "skip the line" option.

This was a pivotal moment, and I remember it perfectly: I realized I had a passion for building products, and I could make a living with it.

This realization shaped my entire career trajectory. While I still needed a steady income after graduation, I made a conscious decision to work as a freelance developer rather than taking a full-time job. This gave me the flexibility to continue building and experimenting with my own products, setting the foundation for my journey as an indie hacker.

Pivoting into a product launch platform

Now, Uneed takes up most of my time. It's a product launch platform that I've been building and iterating on for the past five years. Think of it as an alternative to Product Hunt, where makers can showcase their products and users can discover new ones every day.

The initial version was intentionally simple, both in concept and execution. I designed it this way because I wanted to validate the idea with minimal technical investment. The site was essentially a curated list of tools with basic submission functionality — nothing fancy, but it served its purpose perfectly!

For the first four years, my strategy was to automate as much as possible while spending minimal time on maintenance. I probably spent only about 2 hours per week on the project. This approach allowed me to keep the project running smoothly while focusing on my other projects and my freelance work, which was my primary source of income at the time.

Everything changed in January 2024, when Uneed started gaining significant traction. It coincided with the end of a freelance contract, presenting me with a crucial question: Was it time to go all-in on indie hacking?

I noticed two important things:

1. Product Hunt was losing momentum and facing increasing criticism from the indie hacker community

2. Uneed's SEO was starting to perform really well.

The project was generating around $2,000 monthly with minimal effort at the time, and the operating costs were less than $50 per month. Excellent margins.

So I decided to go all in.

Tech and automation

I transformed it from a simple directory into a full product launch platform. This transformation represented a significant technical challenge and required much more sophisticated development work than the original version. It was a big step up in complexity, but the timing and market conditions made it feel like the right move.

As far as my stack, I firmly believe that the best tech stack is the one you're most productive with. That's why my stack has remained largely unchanged since the beginning of Uneed. For the frontend, I use Nuxt with TailwindCSS and Nuxt UI. The backend is powered by Supabase, which handles authentication, database, and storage. Everything is hosted on a Hetzner VPS using Coolify — a switch I made last summer after getting a surprise $600 bill from Vercel (oops!).

The ecosystem around the core application has evolved as the project grew. I use Lemon Squeezy for payment processing, a self-hosted instance of Plausible for analytics, Bento for marketing automation (handling everything from tracking to email flows and events), and Fernand for centralizing customer support.

One aspect that has remained constant throughout Uneed's evolution is my focus on automation. I have multiple cron jobs and automated flows running independently. For instance, at midnight PST, a series of automated tasks kick in: New products are displayed, the previous day's winners receive their rewards, launch notification emails are sent to subscribers, tweets are automatically scheduled on the Uneed account, and much more.

A scary dip in revenue

When I decided to pivot from a directory to a launch platform. My revenue dropped dramatically, it fell from $1917 in January to $870 in March.

I was tempted to revert back to the old model multiple times, but something kept telling me, "This HAS to work."

I kept pushing and that persistence finally paid off in September, when both traffic and revenue reached new records. In October, revenue was $6738.

Looking back at my journey, my biggest regret is waiting four years before making the pivot to a launch platform. Why did I wait so long?  As indie hackers, our greatest strength is our ability to move quickly and adapt. When you spot an opportunity, you should seize it immediately, even if it means completely changing your product.

If I had made this transition earlier, Uneed would likely be much further ahead today. 

This experience taught me a valuable lesson: While slow and steady growth is good, you shouldn't let it prevent you from making bold moves when the market shows clear signals.

Growth channels that reinforce each other

Growth has been a gradual process, built on multiple channels that complement each other. Not easy when you’re alone!

Here's how I did it:

• Building in public has been a cornerstone of my strategy from the start. I actively share my journey, learnings, and milestones on Twitter, LinkedIn, and more recently, Bluesky. This transparency has helped build trust and create a community around Uneed.

• The weekly newsletter, which now reaches 8k subscribers, has been another powerful growth driver.

• SEO has been a major focus, particularly through programmatic SEO. We automatically generate alternative pages using our database. For example, if someone is looking for alternatives to Mailchimp, we can show them a curated list of email marketing tools from our platform.

• Partnerships have been crucial to our growth. We've built relationships with complementary platforms. For example, when someone adds a development-focused product on Uneed, we suggest they try DevHunt, a specialized launch platform for dev products. They do the same on their end. These partnerships create win-win situations where both platforms benefit.

• Reddit. Using RedReach, I track Reddit discussions about Product Hunt alternatives, allowing me to join conversations where Uneed might be relevant. Don’t underestimate Reddit: It’s growing every day.

• Product Reviews. We started to offer a very original thing on Uneed a few months ago: Product reviews. For $217, we test your product and write a blog post about it, to rank on the “[product_name] review” keyword. Creators can also send the review to their customer to convert them, or display the testimonial on their website.

• Interviews/Podcasts. I never turn down interview requests or podcast invitations. Every opportunity to share the Uneed story is an opportunity to reach new users.

• Our badge system has also become a powerful growth engine. When products win our daily, weekly, or monthly rankings, they receive a Uneed badge to display on their websites. This not only incentivizes participation, but also creates a network of quality backlinks, improving our SEO authority. Amazing compounding effects!

In my opinion, focusing on building multiple, interconnected growth channels rather than betting everything on a single approach is the best strategy. The channels reinforce each other.

It's not about finding one perfect channel. It's about building a system where each part strengthens the others.

Right place, right time

Something that helped me significantly was the remarkable surge in the number of indie hackers.

With AI advancements leading to both layoffs and democratized product creation, we're seeing more people than ever venture into independent development. Since Uneed exists specifically to help indie hackers promote their products, we're perfectly positioned to benefit from this trend.

It's a classic case of being in the right place at the right time, but it's also about recognizing and adapting to these market dynamics.

Get organized

Two things have been instrumental in my success this year, and the first one might make you laugh because it's surprisingly simple, but I genuinely believe I wouldn't be where I am today without it.

I organize my work using a Kanban board in Todoist, with three columns: bucket, todo, and doing. The first two columns are typically filled with numerous tickets that I try to regularly sort and prioritize. However, prioritizing tasks when you're working solo is incredibly challenging. I'd argue it's one of the most difficult aspects of being an indie hacker.

Around May or June, I made a drastic decision: I would only prioritize features that would directly contribute to growth. I went through my entire board and tagged all tickets with "growth" if they had the potential to increase Uneed's traffic. This meant putting aside some exciting new features and non-urgent bugs.

To give you an example, I'm responding to this interview within 24 hours of receiving the request because I immediately prioritized it as a "growth" task.

Don't do these things

Don't quit your job! I see too many people burning through their savings trying to build the next big thing. Keep a steady income stream, whether it's a full-time job or freelancing gigs.

You'll be amazed at how much clearer you can think about your product when you're not constantly stressing about paying next month's rent.

And here's a counter-intuitive piece of advice that I wish someone had given me earlier: Don't spend too much time learning to code.

Yes, technical skills are important, but learning to sell is WAY more crucial. I see brilliant developers building amazing products that nobody uses because they never learned how to market them. You can always improve your code later, but without users, you don't have a business.

Spend as much time learning marketing and sales as you do learning technical skills.

Prepare yourself for the long haul

Prepare yourself for a marathon, not a sprint.

Success in indie hacking typically takes years, not months, and there are no guarantees. I've been at this for over four years with Uneed, and it's only now really taking off.

The overnight success stories you read about are extremely rare. And you probably aren't hearing about all the failed attempts that came before.

Build sustainable habits, take care of your mental health, and settle in for the long haul. The indie hackers who succeed aren't necessarily the smartest or the most skilled. They're the ones who stick around long enough to figure things out.

What's next?

I have two main objectives in mind for the months ahead. First, I'm working on diversifying my revenue streams with a couple of new projects.

I'm working on a rather meta project called Uneed Directories - it's literally a directory of directories! And I've got another exciting project in the pipeline that I'm planning to launch before the end of the year. Stay tuned on social media for more on this.

My second goal is pretty ambitious: I want to multiply Uneed's traffic by at least 5x. I'd love to share all the details of how I plan to achieve this, but I have to be a bit cautious since competitors might be reading this!

What I can say is that I'm following my usual marketing philosophy: Try many things, measure what works, and double down on the winners. It's not the most glamorous approach, but it's proven effective time and time again.

You can reach out to me on Twitter, Bluesky, and of course, you can try out Uneed. 🤗