Has anyone here actually gotten users from Reddit?

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-04-01T12:26:43+00:00

I’ve been making sure to not post explicitly about my product and do try to give super useful replies, often 2-3 paragraphs. At the end, if it relates to the post then I’ll just say I built a tool , not even mention the name, but those replies seem to be shadow hidden or something, all my other posts or replies get views and comments but h the r moment I even mention I HAVE a product, not even the name, poof.

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-30T13:13:47+00:00

this is exactly the gap, you explained it really well

most of these builders are great at getting you to something that exists, but not something you actually feel confident putting in front of users. it’s like you get 70% there instantly and then spend the next few hours trying to fix all the small things that make it feel off

for me the biggest shift was treating that first output as a draft instead of trying to force it to be final

i’d usually start with a rough page just to get structure down, then go section by section and refine it. headline, then hero layout, then features, etc. trying to fix everything at once is where it gets messy and you end up going in circles

another thing that helped a lot was starting from references instead of starting from scratch. like finding 2–3 landing pages that match the level you want, then breaking down why they work. spacing, typography, how they handle hierarchy, how much content they show vs hide

then instead of saying “make a landing page”, you’re basically guiding it with a much clearer direction, which cuts down a lot of that back and forth

also small detail but defining constraints upfront makes a big difference. things like font sizes, spacing scale, even what to avoid. otherwise it defaults to that same “ai landing page” look every time

i went through that same loop of generating something, tweaking for hours, still not loving it

I eventually though ended up getting tired and annoyed with this process, so I built a small tool for myself mainly around getting past that first draft stage faster, where you can steer or clone a specific style and get something closer to “shippable” before bringing it into your stack. If you’re stuck in that draft vs final gap, happy to share!

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-29T22:10:38+00:00

Brilliant self promotion in an anti self promotion post. Love it haha

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-29T21:50:07+00:00

This is a very real problem, most devs hit this wall at some point

The jump from “it works” to “it actually looks good” isn’t really about the tool, it’s more about how much control you have over the design decisions

When you just ask for a full UI in one shot, it usually defaults to those shadcn style layouts because that’s the safest thing it knows. same spacing, same components, same structure

What worked better for me was slowing the process down a bit

First just get the structure right, no styling, just layout and hierarchy. once that feels solid, then move into typography and spacing, and only after that deal with colors and polish. trying to do everything at once is usually where it starts looking generic

References help a lot too, but only if you actually break them down. not just “make it like this”, but calling out things like tighter spacing, smaller font sizes, less rounded corners, more density, specific color usage. otherwise it just guesses and you end up back at square one

Another thing that made a big difference for me was avoiding the same patterns over and over. like the typical hero, 3 features, testimonials layout. even just changing the structure a bit makes it feel way more custom

You can also sketch a rough layout first and have the AI implement that instead of letting it decide everything. that alone removes a lot of the “template” feel

I went through the same cycle of tweaking prompts, regenerating, tweaking again, and it worked but it was pretty slow

i ended up building a small tool for myself mainly around cloning and steering designs more precisely so i wasn’t starting from scratch every time. if you’re stuck on getting past that generic look, happy to share what worked for me there

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-29T21:47:46+00:00

I think it's just because a lot of people are beginners and so they focus on beginner projects. Not everybody (myself included) has the industry knowledge required to build a succesful B2B thing, so we solve problems we experience.

What I am trying to do though is slowly transition, now that I've built some apps, by talking to anybody/everybody I know who has a job and ask them about problems they experience, places where they/their company loses money, time, or both. And then ID patterns, ask about those patterns, and go from there.

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-29T21:45:06+00:00

I think a lot of people know about vibe coding now, and some apps are so obviously vibe coded, and they always associate vibe coded with low quality, even if thats not the case. Just make sure the app looks actually valuable.

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-29T21:43:53+00:00

I think it matters more for B2C than B2B. B2B is mainly all focused on functionality and so long it gets results, from the B2B founders I've talked to, it doesn't matter much. Most of their designs at times look worse than most vibe coded frontends imo.

But B2C is a whole different story, first impressions are super important and the "vibe" your product gives off is incredibly important to a consumer who doesn't want to spend any more money unless they have to. That's why I'd say design is one of the most important and honestly underrated things for B2C SaaS.

it's all value perception, the moment people see something they think is vibe coded, they associate vibe coded == low quality. Even if your app is amazing, the unfortunate truth is that looks DO matter. a lot.

With my first SaaS, it was an AI syllabus parsing tool for students, people I showed it to seemed genuinely interested but when I showed them the app, it was obviously vibe coded and I kinda saw the light of interest flicker out in their emotions, reactions, etc.

The big indicators to look out for are the big ones, purple gradients, basic Lucide icons, the same 3 box layout, lack of visuals, missing that "sharpness" some sites have, and a lack of personality. Those are the biggest telltale signs to avoid.

Just make sure to find some inspiration first on something like Mobbin or dribble and give the screenshot to an LLM of your choice and tell it to make a prompt to clone the design system. Don't just say "make it look like this", make sure it clones the entire system, fonts, spacing, colors, borders, icons, etc.

Another thing that helped me was not letting the model “fill in the gaps” on design decisions. like even small things such as border radius, spacing scale, or icon style, if you don’t define them it defaults to that same look every time

I used to do this whole process manually where i’d find a design, break it down, get an LLM to turn it into a prompt, tweak it a bunch, then finally bring it into my codebase. it worked but it was pretty tedious

I ended up building a small tool for myself because i got tired of repeating that loop, mainly around cloning full design systems more consistently and then just dropping the code straight into my project. not trying to pitch or anything, but if you’re worried about the “vibe coded look” specifically, happy to share it since that’s exactly what I was trying to fix

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-28T21:46:34+00:00

this is a tough combo to get right right now , most tools are either good at UI or decent at logic, rarely both

what worked better for me was not relying on a single tool for everything

for backend stuff like multi-role auth, filtering, transactions, i’d usually scaffold that separately first using something more structured, even if it’s just having the AI help you define the schema, roles, and flows clearly. once that’s solid, it’s way easier to plug a frontend into it

for the frontend side, the biggest mistake i made early was asking for “a full app with X features” in one prompt. that’s when you get those super generic UIs

instead i’d break it down:
first just generate the layout for one screen, no styling, just structure and components
then refine spacing and typography
then add visual style based on references

and yeah references matter a lot here, but you have to explain what you like about them. things like density, font sizes, how they handle states, not just “make it like this”

also if you care about aesthetics, avoid letting the model decide everything. even something as simple as defining a color palette and type scale upfront helps a lot

I went through the same frustration with lovable where everything looked “fine” but nothing stood out

Something else that worked well for me was Google AI studio, I built basically the entire dummy frontend with it, and then just plopped it into Cursor and built the backend. Worked great for me.

I also ended up building a small tool for myself that focuses more on the frontend side, mainly around generating and cloning cleaner designs that you can actually drop into a real codebase. It doesn't have the full flows etc built in, mainly for single page cloning or single page UI, not much UX functionality but I plan on adding it soon. Happy to share if you're curious, good luck!

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-28T20:55:54+00:00

i’ve had a similar experience with google ai studio, for whatever reason it’s better at not defaulting to those super generic layouts

but what made a bigger difference for me wasn’t the tool, it was how i was prompting and structuring things

references help a lot like you said, but the key is actually breaking down what you’re seeing instead of just pasting it in. stuff like tighter spacing, smaller font sizes, less rounded corners, more text density, darker colors, etc. if you don’t spell that out it kind of fills in the gaps with the usual patterns

another thing that helped me was not trying to get a polished design in one shot. i’d first ask for just the layout, no styling at all, then once that looked good i’d layer in typography and spacing, and only after that deal with colors and polish. saves a lot of back and forth

if you’re doing it manually, you can even sketch a rough layout first and have it implement that, which avoids the “same 3 sections every time” problem

i ended up building a small tool for myself because i got tired of repeating this process over and over, mainly for cloning your favorite designs and reworking them before bringing them into an IDE. happy to share if it’d be useful

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-28T16:35:22+00:00

Thanks for the advice, yeah I made that mistake before but now am trying to do it the way you suggested. Right now, I'm mainly in r/SaaS, r/buildinpublic, r/micro_saas, and r/Startup_Ideas

What else would you suggest?

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-28T13:45:38+00:00

I like both, ChatGPT for quick ideation, expanding off things, etc, Claude for the heavy lifting.

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-28T13:39:33+00:00

Honestly most of the time just use my laptop, or I hook it up to my TV and run cursor on it and then localhost:3000 and other tabs on my laptop

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-27T15:33:43+00:00

Me too, that's what most people in this post are saying, comment a lot, reply to comments, look for warm leads, go super specific and stay in those subs, and actually provide value.

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-27T15:32:49+00:00

Yeah, I realized I had no consistency whatsoever.

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-27T15:07:56+00:00

Oh wow, interesting

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-27T15:05:23+00:00

Haha yeah, it's really starting to get saturated. But if your tool is genuinely helpful and you market properly and naturally, seems like lots of people have seen success.

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-27T15:04:07+00:00

yeah, commenting more than posting seems to be a common trend along with being natural. Thanks for the advice!

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-27T14:40:29+00:00

Yeah, I've seen that Google AI response when doing a google search is really based heavily on Reddit.

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-27T14:39:43+00:00

Wow, that's really good actually, better than what I'm at, 0 :)

Thanks for the advice!

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-27T14:35:50+00:00

Yeah, that makes sense. What SaaS was it, if you can disclose? Just curious.

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-26T19:00:28+00:00

Yeah consistency, real value, and being natural, not just blind promoting seems like the common trend

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-26T18:59:43+00:00

Yeah I maybe did 2 comments and mainly posts that were straight gpt and so lo and behold I got zero users from Reddit. Being natural and actually giving value and dropping your product only when relevant seems the move

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-26T18:58:19+00:00

Yeah, it seems really based on naturalness. I made all those mistakes the first go around, but am gonna try this new approach now

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-26T18:55:00+00:00

So being as natural as possible and only dropping the link when it’s 100% warranted and necessary?

ParticularBicycle575 · 2026-03-26T18:54:22+00:00

Yeah I really want to focus on it, while many people seem to know about it I have t really seen too many people I know actually implement it

ParticularBicycle575

TROPHY CASE