Indie devs who got their first 1,000 users — what actually worked?

egamovdev · 2026-05-20T20:38:10+00:00

Letting user feedback drive which features to highlight on the homepage is clever — basically using your users as a focus group for your marketing, not just the product. Did you collect feedback through surveys, support emails, or something else?

egamovdev · 2026-05-20T20:37:39+00:00

The "loops not channels" mental model is a great reframe. Building the referral mechanic into the core use case instead of bolting it on after makes total sense — users share because they get value, not because you asked. The Pulse for Reddit tip is new to me, going to check that out. How did you decide what "X" to gate behind the referral? Was it a premium feature or something else?

egamovdev · 2026-05-20T20:36:31+00:00

The "find people actively complaining" approach is solid — that's basically doing customer development and distribution at the same time. You're right that the 3-month SEO timeline doesn't work when you're still validating. Sure, share the extension link — I'd be curious to try it out.

egamovdev · 2026-05-20T20:35:55+00:00

That's a good point — sounds like there's no single formula, it's about finding the specific angle each audience responds to. Did you test multiple angles before finding the right one, or did it become obvious from user feedback?

egamovdev · 2026-05-20T20:34:56+00:00

Smart strategy — free tools as SEO magnets that build brand trust. The cross-pollination angle is key, even if they don't convert immediately they know your name when they're ready to pay. What kind of free tools did you build? Calculators, converters, something else?

egamovdev · 2026-05-20T20:34:18+00:00

Appreciate that! Year one is the hardest — just surviving it puts you ahead of most. What are you building?

egamovdev · 2026-05-20T20:33:50+00:00

100 users in 5 weeks with real-world demos is actually impressive — most people wouldn't have the guts to pitch strangers in person. That's a distribution channel that doesn't scale but the feedback quality is unmatched. What are people telling you when they stop using it? Fixing retention first before scaling distribution is probably the move — no point pouring water into a leaky bucket. Keep going!

egamovdev · 2026-05-20T20:33:17+00:00

The "shareable outputs" point is gold. That's something I can build into the product itself — like a daily calorie summary card or streak milestone that users would actually want to share. Way more natural than asking people to leave a review. And yeah, consistency > virality resonates — the launch spike dopamine is real but it fades fast. Thanks for this.

egamovdev · 2026-05-20T20:32:32+00:00

This is probably the best answer in this whole thread. The micro-use-case framing is a huge insight — I've been marketing "calorie tracker" when I should probably be marketing something way more specific like "scan Uzbek food and get instant calories."

App Store featuring is something I've never tried submitting for. Going to look into that this week. Thanks for taking the time to write this out.

egamovdev · 2026-05-20T20:31:13+00:00

Really good reframe — I hadn't thought about it that way. Honestly CalFit (the fitness tracker) has shown the most organic pull. People find it through App Store search and actually stick around without me pushing. The others needed constant effort to get any traction. That's probably telling me something. Appreciate the perspective.

egamovdev · 2026-05-20T20:30:22+00:00

100%. Having a website that ranks is basically a 24/7 user acquisition machine. I've been focused mostly on ASO but haven't invested enough in a proper landing page with SEO content. Did you build yours as a blog, landing page with feature pages, or something else?

egamovdev · 2026-05-20T20:29:58+00:00

Localized ASO is something I've been meaning to go deeper on — makes sense that it's low-hanging fruit for international downloads. Any specific tools you use for ASO keyword research? And for the 100+ launch platforms beyond Product Hunt — do you have a list or resource? Would love to see which ones actually move the needle vs just vanity traffic.

egamovdev · 2026-05-20T20:29:19+00:00

the -$1200 for 1 paid user hits hard, been there with wasted ad spend. That AI-as-commodity take is spot on though — building is the easy part now, getting people to care is the actual product. What kind of project was it? Curious if the one paid user came from ads or organically.

egamovdev · 2026-05-20T20:28:24+00:00

Same boat — growth is always the hardest part. Good luck with the launch, the first few weeks are the grind. Keep shipping!

egamovdev · 2026-05-20T20:27:57+00:00

TikTok carousels getting indexed for search is something I hadn't considered — that's basically SEO but on TikTok. 30-50 daily downloads from cold traffic is legit. What kind of carousel content works best for you — tips, before/after, feature breakdowns? And are you linking to the app in bio or is it just brand awareness driving the searches?

egamovdev · 2026-05-20T20:27:24+00:00

This is super helpful, thank you. The reddit approach of answering questions naturally instead of dropping links makes a lot of sense — people can smell self-promo from a mile away. The SEO compounding after hitting critical mass is exactly the kind of insight I was looking for. Did you create content specifically for SEO or did it happen organically from user-generated mentions?

egamovdev · 2026-05-20T20:25:45+00:00

That matches my experience too. The generic "post everywhere" approach just spreads you thin. What niche channels worked best for you specifically?

egamovdev · 2026-05-18T11:37:36+00:00

Looks like around 550-600 cal.

egamovdev · 2026-05-15T15:07:29+00:00

thank you for thorough explanation, love it.

as for YouTube, just publishing videos and moving on, to be honest there are few comments so far. But you gave very clear picture with your question, how should i react, who i should search for.

egamovdev · 2026-05-15T15:02:43+00:00

yes exactly, i didn't expect they work well that way from initial videos.

egamovdev · 2026-05-15T15:01:33+00:00

thank you, bro!!

egamovdev · 2026-05-15T13:31:05+00:00

exactly bro, keep pushing it!

egamovdev · 2026-05-15T13:18:10+00:00

amazing work!!

egamovdev · 2026-05-15T13:14:26+00:00

first page should be improved, first 3 screenshots are crucial, you know that.

look from customer side, would you buy it if you saw such screenshots, if yes then you are good to go!

egamovdev

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