Built my first product… now learning the hard part: getting users
A while back, I was still working at a company as an engineer.
During an ordinary catch-up with the sales team, someone complained:
“Most proposals just disappear into silence.
We send the PDF → nothing.
Then we have to call the customer blindly and hope they actually opened it.”
Everyone laughed, but there was helplessness in it.
I didn’t think much at the time.
But somehow that moment stuck with me.
Fast forward one year.
I quit my job.
Instead of looking for another one, I wanted to finally build something on my own —
something driven by a real problem I had seen up close.
And this painful little issue from that sales conversation was the first thing that came back to mind.
So I started building.
Design → code → research → repeat.
Along the way I discovered lots of competing tools already exist.
But that actually made me feel more confident:
If there are multiple solutions, then the problem is real.
And maybe I could approach it differently.
I kept going.
I launched my product at the end of last month.
Then… reality arrived.
I had spent so much time building that I forgot:
products don’t magically find users.
SEO is slow.
Marketing is hard.
And “free channels” still cost time — which I massively underestimated.
In the past month:
• < 50 total visitors
• 1 paying user (and yes, I celebrated it 🎉)
I used to think release day was the finish line.
Now I know it’s the starting point.
So here I am — an engineer learning distribution from scratch.
Trying to make the shift from “I built something” → to “someone finds value in it.”
If you’re in a similar stage — confused, testing ideas, adjusting expectations —
I’d love to hear how you’re pushing forward.
Feels less lonely when we share the messy parts.
Thanks for reading 🙌
Great post, however, it's kind of concerning how many people use ChatGPT just to write a comment. It's okay people, you don't have to write a perfect comment, you're unique in your own way. Using an AI to write a simple comment takes that personality and uniqueness away.
You don't have one problem, you may really have two:
The fact that you don't have customers doesn't necessarily mean they aren't out there, but failing to hit a real user pain point is one plausible explanation.
It's a truism in startup thinking, but it is worth repeating again: First find some potential users with a problem, then go deep enough to really understand their pain, THEN figure out what product would actually help them. That's product-market fit.
Fortunately, there are good ways to leverage your initial product effort in customer discovery. It still starts with finding at least one person with a problem (maybe your one initial customer!) and starting the conversation about their current work flow or activity pattern. It is NOT about demoing your product. Once you think you know something about the problem, ask them for introductions to other people they know with the same problem. After you have some more input, adapt your current platform to specifically address those pain points. Say "I've taken an experiment I did earlier for another user, but I've adapted it stimulate discussion about your needs." And then you use the discussion at this next level of detail to get a new level of insights, and perhaps some more introductions.
At some point in this process, a user may say, "I know these are just discussion prototypes, but could you actually make this a product?" That's the goal! And by that point you may have enough understanding, from conversations, interviews and web research, to be able to identify other users who potentially have the same problem. If you can make the description of the target user and use-case narrow and precise, your approach can start to elicit responses like, "That's an awfully good description of exactly what I face every day. How did you know?"
At that point you've progressed from product-customer fit to product-market fit.
This is such a thoughtful and generous reply, really appreciate the depth you went into.
You’re absolutely right that I’m probably facing both issues you mentioned. On one hand, I built something that came from a very real pain point - DocBeacon(https://docbeacon.io) actually started after a conversation with my former sales team. They mentioned how frustrating it was to send out proposals and then have no idea whether clients ever opened or read them. That moment stuck with me and eventually became the seed for this product.
During development, I found plenty of similar tools and spent weeks studying them. That gave me confidence the market exists - people do care about this problem - but it also showed how crowded the space is. Now the real question is how to position DocBeacon in a narrow enough niche to stand out, especially against much bigger players.
The part about starting from conversations instead of demos really resonated with me. I haven’t done that yet, but it’s exactly where I need to go next. Your framework makes a lot of sense - finding a few users, understanding their workflows, and building from their pain outward instead of inward from the product. That’s the part I’ve been missing.
It’s the kind of response that makes Indie Hackers special - thoughtful, practical, and grounded in real experience.
I get this, I've focused a lot more on a product's development and growth rather then the growth of a user base and visitors.
It's something like finding the balance between emotional and logical intelligence within a business that becomes the measure for success!
That’s such a great way to put it — building really is an emotional–logical balance.
I’ve also been guilty of staying in the “product zone” too long before switching focus to the people using it. Still learning that rhythm.
I have fallen into the same predicament.
I tried using Google Trends to explore popular search demands and built a few small websites. My envisioned path was to reduce my customer acquisition costs through trending demands combined with SEO strategies, but the results were very poor.
I'm about to give up on this approach. Now, I want to try exploring social media to identify demands and pain points. Perhaps this way, I can more directly find my target users.
SEO can feel like shouting into the void sometimes
I’ve also started trying social media (mainly Twitter) recently, but I’m still at the very early stage — most of my posts barely get 50 views 😅 It’s slow, but I’m learning as I go.
Looking back, I realize marketing should’ve started much earlier. As an engineer, I focused so much on building that I only began promoting after launch — and lost a lot of valuable pre-launch momentum. Definitely one of the biggest lessons so far.
I am skilled in promotion and user acquisition. Recently, I’ve started working on developing my first product. Your words resonated deeply with me and reminded me of what I’ve done in the past. Here are the methods we previously used to attract users:
I believe both approaches are worth trying for you.
Appreciate you sharing your experience — it really helps to hear from someone who’s done both marketing and building.
I’m still pretty new to promotion myself. I only started trying to build some presence on Twitter over the past month or so, but the growth there has been slow too. I haven’t quite figured out how to attract the right audience yet, so any advice is welcome.
Totally agree that SEO and content-driven reach are worth sticking with — both take time, but they compound if done right.
Man, this feels so familiar. The “post-launch silence” is brutal — but it’s also where real builders are born.
You’ve already done 90% of what others never start: solving a real problem.
Now it’s about visibility — showing your story, not just your software.
Would love to hear what you’ve tried so far in terms of messaging or outreach. Sometimes just a few tweaks in how you describe it can start bringing the right users in.
Thanks so much — that means a lot. The “post-launch silence” really hits hard, but I’m starting to see it as the real proving ground for builders.
Right now, I’m mostly learning as I go — focusing on SEO and refining my messaging bit by bit. I haven’t cracked any fast-growth channels yet, but I’m treating this stage as practice for clarity and consistency.
Totally agree that storytelling matters more than just listing features. Still trying to find the balance between being clear and not sounding like a pitch, one iteration at a time.
I'm with you, Howard — same pain. I built riskdiscover to help insurance underwriters assess and score company risks in seconds using AI, instead of days. I know this is a passive market, it's not on their blood the will to look for new tools or new ways of doing, so I've been trying to meet with insurance companies to show them and get more feedback. I'm sure there’s still a lot to improve, but my main doubt is what to do next when there are no users to complain or ask for new features. Should I keep pushing or move on? It’s really hard to know whether it’s a product without market fit or just an unknown product that hasn’t reached its market yet.
The good news is, we’re on a higher plateau of knowledge than before we built it — so keep pushing or move on are both wins. If we're really solving a problem luck will find us ;)
Really appreciate you sharing that — I can totally relate to the “no feedback yet” stage. It’s such a weird spot where silence could mean “no interest”… or “not discovered yet.”
I like how you framed it though — both pushing and moving on are wins because we’ve already learned so much more than before building. That mindset keeps me going too...
Hey Howard, i can completely understand this haha.
I lauched whereflight.com 3 months ago to track flights. SEO is so slow for real. I reached 3.9 DR as of today. For some reason bing crawler has stopped indexing and i lost of impressions. Maybe some random issue with content scrutiny idk. Google is much better in terms of moderation. But yea, i get 15 users(via google search )daily but haven't started to monetise yet.
Thanks for sharing that — it’s reassuring to know I’m not the only one on the slow SEO grind 😅
Crazy how each search engine behaves differently… I’ve also noticed that anything outside Google feels unpredictable at times. 15 organic users a day after 3 months actually sounds like solid progress, especially without monetization pressure yet.
I’ll keep pushing forward step by step. Let’s both stay in the game and compare milestones again in a few months.
Sure. Also this is mail id: [email protected]
Ping me if you want to brainstorm sometime
Thanks, really appreciate it! Always great connecting with fellow founders 🙌
Nice! Congrats on getting your first product out there — that’s huge. 🎉
Now comes the real game: getting users. It’s kinda like volleyball — building is the serve, but getting people to actually play the rally with you (use it, give feedback, stick around) is the tough part.
Thanks so much! 🎉
I’m definitely feeling that volleyball analogy already — the serve was fun, but now I’m the one sprinting around the court trying to keep the rally alive 😂
Learning to get users, collect feedback, and keep them engaged feels like a whole new sport for me. One step at a time — and trying to enjoy the game along the way!
Hey, I completely relate to your journey — especially the “release day is not the finish line” part. I had a very similar experience.
A few weeks ago, I launched Formserve, a lightweight form backend for static sites. It’s something I built out of my own frustration as a freelancer — I kept hitting the same wall every time I had to set up a “coming soon” or landing page. All I wanted was a simple HTML form that just worked without a backend or paying $19/month for bloated tools.
Like you, I thought once I shipped it, people would just find it. Nope. 😅
What’s working so far:
I am focusing most of my energy on Reddit. Searching for threads where devs were asking for form handling solutions (e.g., r/webdev, r/htmx, r/sveltejs) PLUS I am also advertising on Reddit
I’ve had 20 users sign up in 4 days and couple of them took the effort to provide valuable feedback as well.
Lessons I’m learning:
Distribution is a skill, just like coding. And it feels awkward at first, but the feedback loop is amazing.
If people are already searching for your solution in forums, that's a goldmine. You just need to show up there with value.
Also realizing early users care more about the problem you solve than how polished your UI is.
Still super early, but it feels good to know the idea resonates with somebody out there. And like you, I’m figuring out the marketing engine one small experiment at a time.
Thanks for sharing your story — reading posts like this makes the lonely builder phase feel less… lonely.
Thanks for sharing this — I really relate to what you said about the “lonely builder phase.” Your journey with Formserve feels very familiar to what I’m going through with DocBeacon.
I also assumed “if you build it, they’ll come,” but quickly learned distribution is its own craft. I’ve tried Reddit too, but progress has been tough — my Karma’s still too low to post in many subreddits, so I had to pause for a bit. Still, I know Reddit is an important channel, and reading your approach makes me want to give it another real try soon.
Totally agree that early users care more about the problem being solved than how polished everything looks. It’s encouraging to see your experiments already gaining traction.
Appreciate you sharing the details — conversations like this make the indie hacker journey feel a little less solitary.
great take
Appreciate it! Glad it resonated
Joined IndieHackers for the same reason. I’ve found what works for me. Dedicate a set amount of time, for example, 1h a day to the activity and don’t skip it. With this approach the mind relaxes, there’s no sense of rush, and creativity begins to flow.
That’s such a good reminder — consistency really is the unlock. I’ve noticed the same thing: when I stop rushing and just give the process its own time, ideas come more easily.
Love this take on predictive analytics—spotting turnover risks early could save so much hassle! The steps are gold, especially training HR folks. Shared this tool with a friend last week who's swamped with hour tracking, and it's already a lifesaver for her. Thanks for the read!
Hey, I think this might’ve landed on the wrong thread 🙂 — but thanks anyway!
Glad you said something - I was getting confused 😅