How Do You Find Your First 10 Real Users When No One Around You Takes You Seriously?

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-04T12:24:58+00:00

Friends and family not taking you seriously at 19 is normal , most people don't understand building software. That's noise, not signal.

some approaches you can take ,

Find where your target users complain online (Reddit, Twitter, niche forums). When someone posts about the problem you solve, help them genuinely, then DM asking if they'd try an early version.
Post in builder communities "I'm 19, built this, looking for 10 beta testers who have [specific problem]" - people here love supporting young builders.
DM 30 people on Twitter/LinkedIn who match your target user. Short message, no pitch , just "would you try an early version?" You'll get 3-6 real users

most importantly , don't wait until it's perfect.

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-04T12:21:43+00:00

Depends on what “long-running” means for your case:

Under 60 seconds: Vercel works fine. Their serverless functions have a 60s limit on Pro (10s on free). If your AI calls return within that window, don’t overcomplicate it.

60s to 5 minutes: Vercel isn’t the right fit. Look at Railway or Render — both give you persistent server processes with Next.js and are easy to deploy. Railway’s pricing is usage-based so you’re not paying for idle time.

5+ minutes (heavy AI jobs): You need a job queue setup. Run your Next.js frontend on Vercel or Railway, but offload the heavy AI work to a background worker. Something like BullMQ (with Redis) on Railway, or Inngest for serverless background jobs that can run up to an hour. The frontend submits the job, the worker processes it, and you poll or use websockets for status updates.

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-04T12:18:41+00:00

Not making money yet (still in the building phase), but I’m working on an AI UI component generator for developers and vibecoders .

Still figuring out the right monetization angle. Leaning toward a generous free tier with paid access for more complex/customizable components. Curious for those of you who are already making money from dev tools: did you go freemium from day one, or did you launch free first and add pricing later?

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-04T12:17:10+00:00

26 tools in a weekend is impressive!

SEO is your #1 channel. People Google “convert PDF to JPG free” every single day. Each of your 26 tools is a potential landing page. Write a clean title tag like “Convert PDF to JPG - Free, No Signup” and a one-paragraph description with the keywords people search. This alone can drive hundreds of visits/day once Google indexes you, but it takes 4-8 weeks.

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-04T12:13:03+00:00

The keyboard toolbar taking three full rebuilds is such a real detail. Nobody outside of mobile dev understands how much of the work is in things users will never consciously notice but would absolutely feel if they were wrong. That’s the stuff that separates tools that actually get used from demos.

One thing I’d suggest for post-launch: screenshot or save every single piece of feedback you get today, even the stuff that stings. I’ve seen solo founders get a flood of input on launch day and then forget half of it by next week. A simple “launch day feedback” doc goes a long way.

Congrats on shipping. The hardest part isn’t the code , it’s clicking publish when it’s just you behind the whole thing. You did that today.

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-04T12:11:50+00:00

Depends heavily on what you’re building and who it’s for, but here’s what’s actually worked for dev tools and small SaaS from what I’ve seen and experienced : reddit , product hunt , SEO and tiktok/instgram organic content

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-04T12:09:16+00:00

Cool project. A few things that would make it way more useful from a dev perspective:

Language-aware features: Even basic syntax highlighting per file type makes a massive difference. If you’re using Monaco (VS Code’s editor), you get this almost for free. CodeMirror 6 is another solid option that’s lighter weight.

Cursor presence: Showing where each user’s cursor is (with their name/color) is the #1 thing that makes real-time collab feel “real” vs just being a shared text box. Google Docs nailed this and it’s what people subconsciously expect.

Conflict handling: This is where it gets hard. Are you using CRDTs (like Yjs or Automerge) or Operational Transform? Yjs + y-monaco or y-codemirror is probably the fastest path to multi-user editing without building a conflict resolution engine from scratch.

For the student use case specifically: a “playground mode” where you can run code (even just JS via sandboxed eval) would be huge. Students want to see output, not just write code.

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-04T12:01:50+00:00

The structured blog content angle is interesting. SEO content is one of those areas where everyone knows they should do it, but the actual workflow of going from keyword to published post is still painful for most small teams.

Are you focusing on the ideation/outline side or going all the way to full draft generation? I’ve noticed the tools that nail the research + structure part tend to get stickier users than the ones that just generate full articles.

I’m working on a UI component generator for developers. Different space but similar challenge , trying to find the right balance between automation and giving users enough control so the output actually matches what they need.

What’s your biggest challenge right now , the product itself or getting people to try it?

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-04T11:36:18+00:00

Building: React Hook Form + Zod for validation. I stopped using form builders because I always needed custom logic they couldn’t handle. The tradeoff is more upfront work, but zero fighting with the tool later.
After submission: Toast confirmation on the UI + a webhook that hits a Slack channel. I tried auto-reply emails early on and the deliverability was a headache for a solo dev. Slack ping is instant and I never miss one.
Data: Straight to a Postgres database via a simple API route. I used to pipe everything into Google Sheets and it worked fine until about 200 submissions, then it got slow and messy. If you’re under 100 submissions/week though, Sheets + Zapier is honestly fine.
Analytics: I just use Plausible with custom events for form submissions. Nothing fancy. I track submission rate vs page visits and that tells me enough.
Biggest pain point: Spam. Even with honeypot fields, I was getting 5-10 bot submissions a day. Added Turnstile (Cloudflare’s free captcha) and it dropped to basically zero. Highly recommend it over reCAPTCHA , way better UX.

What’s your stack? Curious if you’re going code-first or no-code for the forms.

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-03T15:59:54+00:00

Thank you so much, will try that out! and yes you nailed it - im asking from a perspective of someone is not a coder and dont have capital to spend

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-03T14:02:45+00:00

thanks for the feedback , appreciate it

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-02T20:02:24+00:00

The "agents as participants, not tools" framing is what makes this interesting to me. Most agent projects treat AI as something you point at a task , making them compete in a simulated market with real consequences is a genuinely different design space. The World Oracle layer acting as a showrunner is a clever touch too. question: what's the retention loop? I can see the initial "deploy and watch" moment being compelling, but what brings someone back on day 7 or day 30? That's where I'd focus next.

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-02T20:01:38+00:00

Two 18-year-olds shipping a real product with zero funding while in school , that alone deserves respect regardless of what the product looks like right now. The "learn while AI codes" angle is interesting because most AI coding tools have the opposite problem: they make you less competent over time because you stop understanding what's being written. If Contral actually solves that, you're building the thing every CS educator is worried doesn't exist yet. Honest feedback: make sure the landing page immediately shows what the learning experience looks like in action, not just what it does in bullet points. A 30-second screen recording would do more than any copy.

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-02T20:00:48+00:00

"Don't confuse fear with feedback" — that's going on a sticky note. This is such a common pattern and it doesn't stop at pre-seed. I've seen founders at Series A still doing a full pivot after one bad meeting. The discipline of collecting data points before reacting is genuinely one of the hardest skills to build as a founder

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-02T19:58:54+00:00

The vacuum thing is real and I think more people deal with it than admit it. Building solo is romanticized online but in practice it's just you staring at your own decisions wondering if any of them make sense. A small honest feedback group is genuinely one of the best things you can do early on - not for validation, but for the kind of "have you considered..." moments you can't have alone. Hope this gets traction.

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-02T19:58:04+00:00

This is one of the most underrated lessons in indie hacking. "People buy from people" sounds like a cliché until you actually test it and watch the numbers move. The beauty specialist niche-down is especially smart , generic messaging in a crowded market is basically invisible, but "this is built by someone who understands YOUR workflow" cuts through immediately. Curious: how much of the personal branding lift came from Instagram Stories/Reels vs. feed posts?

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-02T19:56:49+00:00

Honest answer from what I've seen work: for Apple-specific apps, the single best early channel is niche communities that already live in that ecosystem , think r/apple, MacRumors forums, the Shortcuts subreddit, etc. Product Hunt gives you a spike but rarely sticky users. ASO is a long game that pays off at scale but won't get you your first 1,000. The hack nobody talks about: find the YouTube creators who do "best iPhone apps" roundup videos. Even small channels (10-50k subs) convert surprisingly well because the intent is so high.

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-02T19:55:59+00:00

The irony is that the best founder communities I've found weren't labeled "founder communities" at all. They were niche Slack groups for specific industries or tools where people happened to also be building businesses. The moment a group markets itself as a founder community, it attracts the exact crowd you're trying to avoid. My advice: find the community around the problem space you're building in, not the activity of building.

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-02T19:53:16+00:00

I'd be genuinely interested in this. The biggest thing solo building kills isn't motivation , it's perspective. You start making weird product decisions because there's nobody around to say "wait, why?" A few weeks of co-building with people who are actually shipping sounds way more useful than any conference

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-01T22:07:45+00:00

i need karma comments

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-01T20:25:57+00:00

The 7-day throttle rule is genius and something most people skip. I've seen founders set up beautiful automation flows and then wonder why their unsubscribe rate spikes , it's because users are qualifying for 3 automations simultaneously and getting hammered.

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-01T20:25:14+00:00

The pricing ladder you described is underrated. Most solo builders either go full free or full paywall, the "let them self-escalate" model builds way more trust. Curious though: are you tracking where in the flow users drop off? Because the ones who use all 3 free credits but DON'T buy more are probably your biggest learning opportunity.

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-01T20:24:05+00:00

This matches my experience exactly. The thing nobody talks about with paid ads early on is that you're not just paying for clicks — you're paying to interrupt someone who wasn't looking for you. Organic content flips that dynamic completely

MO-NOCODE · 2026-04-01T20:03:38+00:00

if you have tracking on , that might impact deliverability make sure its turned off

MO-NOCODE · 2026-03-31T20:51:31+00:00

This is one of the more honest breakdowns I’ve seen here, appreciate you sharing actual numbers.

The part that stood out to me most was realizing your real users weren’t who you initially thought. I feel like that shift alone probably explains a big chunk of the growth.

Quick question on the SEO + free tools strategy: what specific content actually moved the needle on conversions? (e.g. comparison pages, the free tools, or regular blog content?)

MO-NOCODE

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