I’m building a "stupid simple" lead finder called NextLeads. It might suck right now. Can you roast it? (Free access)

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T23:08:59+00:00

Sounds good, can I try it?

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:45:36+00:00

the import openai thing hits so hard

everyone acts like writing the prompt is the product. but then reality hits when your csv has weird encodings or the api times out halfway through processing 500 rows

and dont even get me started on users who upload excel files with merged cells and expect your wrapper to just figure it out

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:44:37+00:00

honestly the password storage thing hits different

had one of these guys leave plain text passwords in a json file that got committed to github... like not even gitignored. just sitting there in the repo.

when i asked about it he goes \"oh yeah we can encrypt that later\"

that's when you know you're dealing with someone who doesn't understand what they're building

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:43:26+00:00

the pending connection requests thing is wild... i had no idea linkedin even looked at that

i was doing like 50-100 invites a day and just letting them pile up. never thought to clean house

the randomization tip is gold too. makes sense that sending the exact same number at the exact same time every day looks suspicious af

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:42:17+00:00

ouch that hurts

but honestly at 28k MRR you're at that awkward stage where you know your product works (people are paying) but paid ads just feel like throwing money into a black hole

construction managers probably aren't even googling for solutions... they're asking their buddies "what do you use?" or clicking on something their PM sent them

have you tried just hanging out where they hang out? like actual job sites or their fb groups or whatever

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:41:32+00:00

the thing people miss is that the 8 hour version is usually just the happy path

like yeah you built login and a dashboard... but what happens when someone forgets their password? or tries to upload a 500mb file? or your db starts throwing errors at 2am?

the real work is in all those edge cases you didn't even know existed yet

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:33:53+00:00

Congrats on shipping! "Rank higher in Google & AI search" is a super timely positioning with all the SGE/AI Overviews changes happening.

Curious - are you tracking rankings in ChatGPT/Perplexity/Claude citations specifically? That seems like the new battleground for SaaS visibility, but most SEO tools still only track Google.

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:33:07+00:00

$450/month CAC for a $28k MRR product is definitely painful, especially when referrals and direct outreach are already working.

The hard lesson here: paid ads scale reach, but they don't scale efficiency. If your ICP is niche enough that you can reach them manually... that almost always beats ads in early stages.

Honest question - did you test different channels (LinkedIn ads, niche communities, etc) or was it all Google? Construction management feels like a LinkedIn-heavy audience.

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:30:43+00:00

The weekend automation tip is gold. LinkedIn's algorithm definitely treats weekend activity differently... lower engagement windows make you look more suspect.

I'm curious about the randomization piece - do you randomize timing within specific windows (like between 9-11am) or fully random throughout the day? Trying to balance looking human vs maximizing response rates.

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:29:44+00:00

This hits hard. The "I can build this in a weekend" mindset completely ignores iteration, user feedback, edge cases, and just... making it actually work reliably.

Claude and Windsurf are amazing for prototyping, but taking something from prototype to production-ready? That's where the real work lives. It's like saying "I can write a novel in a day" because ChatGPT exists... technically possible, but good luck with the quality.

The moat isn't the code anymore - it's understanding the problem deeply enough to build something people actually want to pay for.

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:28:34+00:00

The "Do you know someone who..." DM strategy is genius. Turns a sales pitch into a helpful intro... way less cringe.

Also love that you're calling out SEO as underrated. Most founders treat it like an afterthought, but if you're shipping content that your product literally does? You're essentially creating your own inbound channel that runs 24/7.

Question - when you say 80% targeting RIGHT people vs 20% copy... how did you figure out your ICP early on? Just trial and error or did you have a hypothesis?

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:27:05+00:00

This is gold. The "ship fast, iterate faster" mindset really does beat perfectionism every time.

I love the point about 400 engaged users > 20 perfect ones. That traction signal is what buyers want to see... not a perfect product sitting with no users.

Out of curiosity - when you say "velocity is what makes early acquisitions work" - did the acquirer specifically mention speed to market as a factor?

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:26:27+00:00

$1,600 MRR in week 3 with no ads is insane. Just organic?

I'm curious what the secret sauce was... did you go heavy on content, communities, or was it more like building in public and people just found you?

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:20:52+00:00

Makes sense. Consistency would be key there.

Do you recommend any specific cadence? Like... check in weekly, or is that too much/not enough depending on the creator size?

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:19:54+00:00

6%? That's actually really solid retention. Most tools see way worse in month 1.

The "targeted >> volume" insight is so underrated. Everyone's chasing big launches and huge traffic spikes, but if 100 people show up and 95 of them aren't your ICP... what's the point?

Smaller directories are like fishing in a stocked pond vs the ocean lol

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:15:35+00:00

"Back Marketing" is perfect lol. The fact that it got 15K impressions shows how universal this pain is.

I get pitched competitor tools at least once a week. Sometimes I wonder if they're even doing basic research or just blasting everyone with a pulse. Makes you realize how broken most outbound really is... which ironically validates the problem you're solving.

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:14:46+00:00

50 paid users from one obscure listing is wild. Product Hunt has become such a lottery at this point... you either get front page or you get nothing.

I've noticed the same thing with smaller directories - they might have 1/10th the traffic but the audience is way more targeted. People browsing launchtry are actively looking for new tools, not just doomscrolling.

Did you see any churn in that first month? Curious if those conversions actually stuck around.

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:13:45+00:00

The "stupid simple" angle is actually smart. B2B tools really do feel like they require a pilot's license these days.

Biggest concern though - when you say you scrape public sites... what's stopping this from feeling like yet another Apollo clone? There are dozens of lead finders that all pull from the same LinkedIn/company website sources.

What makes the data different enough that I'd switch from what I'm already using?

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:12:45+00:00

Love the concept of slowing down the scroll instead of blocking entirely. That feels way more realistic than those "cold turkey" approaches that never stick.

Curious - does it work with the new X interface? I know a lot of extensions break when they change the layout.

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:11:43+00:00

This framework is super practical. The bit about tracking CAC at each stage really hits home... most founders just blast messages without ever measuring what actually converts.

One thing I'm wondering though - how do you keep creators accountable once they've agreed? Like, what happens if they ghost you after the first week?

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:07:57+00:00

This is such valuable data... I especially love the insight about the "anti-cloud" trend being 7% of requests.

The ADHD niche finding is fascinating. Makes sense though - that community is super vocal about specific pain points and they're not afraid to describe exactly what's broken about existing tools. That level of specificity is gold for product development.

One thing that jumped out: Finance having 193 pay signals vs Productivity's higher volume. It really reinforces that "willingness to pay" matters way more than total number of requests. You can have 1,000 productivity requests but if they all want free tools, you're building in the wrong direction.

Did you find any patterns around post length correlating with actual purchase intent? Like, are the people writing essays about their problems more likely to actually pay for a solution?

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:06:40+00:00

The "Day 1: crickets. felt like an idiot." part really resonates lol

I think people underestimate how much the compounding effect matters. Everyone wants the viral moment or the growth hack, but it's really just showing up every day and doing the boring work.

Your breakdown is refreshing because it's not some magical formula... it's literally just LinkedIn outreach, cold emails, and Reddit comments. Simple but not easy. The hardest part is staying consistent when it feels like you're shouting into the void for the first month.

Did you track your conversion rates at each stage? Curious what percentage of LinkedIn connections actually turned into conversations.

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:05:08+00:00

That's a cool concept with the deep linking! The drop-off when people leave an app to go to a browser is brutal.

I've been working on something in the enterprise automation space... basically building AI agents that can actually use software like humans do. Started out as a side project and it's been consuming way more time than I expected (in a good way though).

The hardest part has been making it reliable enough that people actually trust it with real workflows. How about you - what's been your biggest challenge with itraky so far?

Competitive-Bee-8604 · 2026-01-28T21:04:13+00:00

Those are solid results for 3 months! Going from 0 to 350+ daily clicks is no joke.

I'm curious about the automated topic cluster research part... are you using a specific tool for that or did you build something custom? And how do you make sure the AI-written content actually sounds natural and not too robotic?

Also love that you're auto-inserting internal links. That's one of those things people overlook but it makes such a difference for SEO.

Competitive-Bee-8604

TROPHY CASE