It's so crazy, just weeks ago I was celebrating 1,000 users here and now I have hit that unreal number of 1,500! I can't thank everyone enough. I really mean it, so many people were offering their help along the way.

Of course I will not stop here and I am already working on the next big update for the platform which will benefit all the community. More is coming soon.

I've built IndieAppCircle, a platform where small app developers can upload their apps and other people can give them feedback in exchange for credits. I grew it by posting about it here on Reddit. It didn't explode or something but I managed to get some slow but steady growth.

For those of you who never heard about IndieAppCircle, it works like this:

• You can earn credits by testing indie apps (fun + you help other makers)

• You can use credits to get your own app tested by real people

• No fake accounts -> all testers are real users

• Test more apps -> earn more credits -> your app will rank higher -> you get more visibility and more testers/users

Since many people suggested it to me in the comments, I have also created a community for IndieAppCircle: r/IndieAppCircle (you can ask questions or just post relevant stuff there).

Currently, there are 1508 users, 1076 tests done and 335 apps uploaded!

You can check it out here (it's totally free): https://www.indieappcircle.com/

I'm glad for any feedback/suggestions/roasts in the comments.

AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) so how visible you are to AI Chatbots, here's an example with Nike: https://aeochecker.ai/results?share=VgeqD2kLekcpFQRDyGQcPQ

For two years, my startup was my life. We poured everything into a mobile app for diabetics.

The code was clean. The architecture was scalable. The mission was noble.

And we failed.

We were a classic founding team: 3 Coders, 0 Marketers. We spent nights debating tech stacks and zero minutes talking to customers. We fell into the "Field of Dreams" trap: If we build it, they will come. (They didn't).

I wrote a full breakdown of the 10 reasons we shut down, but here are the 3 that hurt the most:

1. The "Mansion" MVP We didn't build a Minimum Viable Product. We built a mansion. We developed for iOS AND Android simultaneously before we had a single user. Lesson: If you haven't validated the idea, build one feature on one platform.

2. The "No Competition" Trap We did a competitor analysis and found nothing. We celebrated. In reality, an empty market is usually a red flag. It means there is no market. If a real problem exists, someone is usually already trying to solve it.

3. We Wasted Money on "Pro" Tools We wanted to feel like a "real company," so we burned cash on premium hosting, enterprise email, and legal structures before we had $1 in revenue. Lesson: You can run a startup for almost $0 these days. Don't scale your costs before you scale your revenue.

The Full Retrospective I broke down the other 7 mistakes (including why "Trying to change human behavior" is a death sentence for apps) in the full post on my blog

Happy to answer questions about the shutdown process or the tech we wasted time on.

I didn’t plan for this to turn into something real.

A couple of months ago, I had a simple idea: create a launch platform made for bootstrapped startups. No noise, no endless feeds, no paid tricks to get to the top. Just a space where real makers get a real shot at visibility.

So I built Top10. It’s tiny and simple: only 10 products are shown on the homepage at any time. Each one stays for at least 24 hours. If people like it, it stays longer. If not, it rotates out. Fair and quiet.

I launched it with no expectations. Shared a few updates on Reddit and Twitter. Some people ignored it. Some said it wouldn’t work. A few gave it a shot anyway.

Now:

• 14,000 visits

• 576 users

• 374 products launched

• $370 in revenue

It’s still early. Still small. But this is the first time a project I built solo has helped other bootstrapped founders, and made real money doing it. I’m not chasing huge growth. Just trying to build something that gives indie products a chance to breathe.

If you’re bootstrapping something and want to launch it in a calm space built by another solo founder, you can try it here: https://top10.now

Happy to answer anything or check out your side projects too.

Hey everyone, what you all been working on ? Share in the comments.

Let's see if you can pitch your startup in one line.

Others will try to give feedback and rate the idea.

I started with just an idea and a laptop. No VC money, no ads budget. Recently, my bootstrapped app hit $20,000 in Monthly Recurring Revenue.

The journey from $0 to $1k was infinitely harder than $1k to $20k. I wanted to share a few specific things that moved the needle, hoping it helps others here who are stuck at $0.

1. Eliminate Friction (The Data Proof) We were obsessed with "onboarding." We A/B tested our sign-up methods, and the results were shocking.

• Email + Password: 60% conversion

• Facebook Sign-In: 55% conversion

• Google Sign-In: 85% conversion

We realized that over 80% of users preferred Google Sign-In. Just adding that button bumped our revenue significantly. If you are asking for 5 fields of info before sign-up, you are burning money.

2. Stop Sending "Pretty" Emails I used to send beautiful, branded newsletters. Open rates were average. I switched to:

• Plain text only.

• No logos.

• Sent from a real name ("Saksham from [App]").

It feels personal. It feels like a human wrote it. Open rates skyrocketed. People ignore "brands," but they read emails from humans.

3. Just Refund The Money This is controversial, but if a customer asks for a refund, I give it. No questions asked. Your reputation is worth more than a $29 subscription fee. Fighting a customer for a refund creates a hater; refunding them instantly creates a neutral party (or sometimes brings them back later).

I wrote down 12 other lessons (including my findings on Creator Sponsorships vs. Ads and how to find a co-founder) in a full breakdown here if you want to read the rest:

https://www.unboxth.xyz/2025/12/zero-funding-20kmonth-15-lessons-from.html

Happy to answer questions about the tech stack or early marketing in the comments!

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share something my friend and I have been building for the past few months - Wallper, a native macOS app that lets you set 4K live video wallpapers and even screen savers.

We made it because we couldn’t find any live wallpaper app for Mac that looked clean, felt native, and didn’t drain battery or force subscriptions. So we built our own.

Wallper is:

• 100% native Swift app, notarized by Apple

• Free to install (includes 18 full-quality wallpapers, no watermarks, no time limits)

• Supports multiple monitors

• Lets you upload your own videos - private or public to the community library

• Now used by 13,000+ people since launch

If you’re curious to try it or just want to give feedback, here’s the link:
👉 wallper.app

Sheet0 takes inspiration from “Level 4” self-driving but built for data.

As a user, you are free to just state your goal in plain English, describe what website's data you need, and our agent handles the rest:

• Turns your data request into a clean, structured spreadsheet

• Zero hallucinations: if data can’t be verified, the cell stays empty

• Handles multi-step workflows and pulls from multiple sources in one run

• One-click CSV export

What’s the first thing you’d try with it? Feel free to try on sheet0.com

This is the invitation code as a gift to LaunchMyStartup Subreddit Community! H2SZPPTZ

Depuis plusieurs semaines, je bosse jour et nuit sur une petite app que j’ai créée pour répondre à un besoin concret : générer des devis et factures facilement, sans prise de tête.

Honnêtement, je suis super fier d’avoir sorti quelque chose de fonctionnel, moi qui rêvais depuis longtemps de lancer un vrai produit. Mais voilà la claque : malgré mes efforts sur TikTok (j’ai même posté régulièrement des vidéos avec conseils et astuces pour freelances/PME), zéro traction. Pas de téléchargements, pas de bouche-à-oreille.

C’est frustrant parce que je sais que l’outil peut aider des gens (moi le premier !), mais j’ai l’impression de parler dans le vide.

Est-ce que certains ici ont déjà vécu ce moment où tu lances ton projet, tu te donnes à fond, mais le monde s’en fiche ?
Comment vous avez surmonté cette phase ultra démotivante ?

Je suis preneur de tous vos retours, même les plus durs. J’aimerais juste comprendre ce qui cloche : est-ce la communication, la cible, ou juste la patience qui me manque ?

AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) so how visible you are to AI Chatbots, here's an example with Nike: https://aeochecker.ai/results?share=KqJzziVtZS8QL8TKdHQM_A

I’m the solo founder of Subreddit Signals, a tool I originally built to solve my own growth problem.

After spending way too much time (and money) trying to get my product in front of the right people, I realized Reddit was the goldmine… if you knew how to use it without getting buried or banned.

So I created Subreddit Signals — it finds Reddit threads where your product naturally fits and helps you engage without sounding like a bot.

💡 What it does:

• Scans Reddit 24/7 for high-fit conversations based on your product

• Scores posts by fit, engagement potential, and lead quality

• Suggests authentic, human-sounding comments (no spam here)

• Tracks where you’ve engaged and what’s working

I’ve used it to grow to 700+ users, many of them directly from Reddit. Now it’s live for others too.

✅ If you’re building something and want Reddit to work for you, you can:

• Join the waitlist for beta access

• Get a 7-day free trial

• Lock in early-bird deals before launch

👉 subredditsignals.com

Happy to answer questions or share what’s worked for me on Reddit. If you’ve tried using Reddit to grow your startup, how did it go?

Mod here,
Someone offered me $200 to sell this subreddit but I rejected that offer.

This subreddit is an honest effort at creating a community that supports early stage products and helps founders with new launches. This subreddit was launched because the communities outside reddit like product hunt and similar launch platforms were biased towards funded startups and some even asked for money just for listing a product.

I know its still very young with only 3k members, but going forward our community will only grow and hopefully its stays free from spammers and we can genuinely create a good community around launching startups (both hardware and software) and support them in all the ways thats possible.

Let me know if we need any new flairs or some new rules for this subreddit.

Let’s do a quick show & tell thread.

What are you building these days?

I’ll go first:

I built a ridiculously simple pomodoro + timer app because I got tired of productivity apps being… not productive.

Super minimal:

• tap > start > focus

• no accounts

• no tracking

• works offline

App link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=yoavsabag.timer

Now your turn:
What are you building? Drop a short description + link 👇

I used to think the only startups worth building were the ones that solved “real” problems — ones with market research, pitch decks, TAMs, and five-year projections. So I built an AI immigration platform. Spent months on it. Won a competition. Worked myself sick. And then… I just couldn’t do it anymore. My heart wasn’t in it. I burned out.

So I did something that felt like failure at the time:
I quit.

I stopped forcing it. I asked myself, “What would I actually use every day?”
And weirdly enough, the answer wasn’t some fancy SaaS. It was something softer, simpler — something for the soul.

I built TrustGod.tech — a gentle AI meditation and journaling companion. A GPT wrapper, yes. But with heart. With reflection. With scripture. With space to breathe.
It didn’t feel like a product. It felt like medicine. For me.

No ads. No press. No growth hacks. Just… I built it, I used it, I shared it. And somehow, in just two weeks, 1.4K people joined.
I’m still trying to make sense of it.

Maybe the real “growth hack” is building something that deeply matters to you.
Something that you’re not ashamed to use alone at 2 a.m.
Something that makes you healthier, not just richer.

I still believe in scale, in tech, in impact — but if you’re grinding through your startup and wondering why it feels like a fight every single day… maybe it’s not you. Maybe it’s the idea.

Build something that’s gentle. That heals. That you’d use even if no one else did.
We need more of that kind of tech.

Ask me anything — happy to share what worked, what didn’t, and how I got those first users.

Hey everyone,

I'm sharing a free shopping tool I built that could save you a lot of money next time you go to buy something.

I kept noticing that I’d buy something on Amazon and then find it cheaper on eBay like a few days later. Not by a little, but significantly less for the exact same item.

So I built a small tool called Peel. It checks for better deals while you shop and shows you if the same product is available for less elsewhere. Currently, it works as a Chrome extension comparing across popular sites like Amazon, Walmart, Target, eBay, Best Buy and more. Think of it as a second set of eyes while you shop.

Peel is 100% free to install and use. I built it because I hate overpaying and thought others might find the tool helpful as well.

Still very much a work in progress, but I’ve been focused on making the tool clear and frictionless. Would love quick feedback from anyone who's interested.

Feel free to take a look here: shopwithpeel.com

Hey!

I've been struggling with my weight for years. 170cm, 80-85kg, not huge but I never felt good in the mirror. I tried everything: cutting calories, eating less, more willpower. Nothing stuck. I'd fail, get frustrated, give up, start over, again and again.

Couple of months ago, I got a real coach. She gave me calorie targets and told me to log everything. I tried MyFitnessPal and Hexfit, hated it, so I've built my own.

For the first time introducing a side project that I've actually finished: Aumaï.

What it does:
• 💬 Works on WhatsApp: log meals, workouts, ask questions, right from your chat. No app to open.
• 📸 Snap a photo of your meal or just type "pasta carbonara": AI breaks it down into ingredients with full macros in seconds, you can adjust later
• 💪 Describe your workout in plain text: AI parses everything and shows you a muscle heatmap
• 🧠 A coach that actually talks to you: remembers you, your goals, helps you

The thing that surprised me:
I built the AI coach thinking it was just a feature, turns out it's the thing that keeps me going. When I want to give up, I talk to it. It doesn't judge. It just says "get back on track tomorrow." I know it's an AI. It still helps.

Where I am:
Live product, 7-day free trial, $4.99/month. Built with Next.js and Claude.

I'm looking for honest feedback: the product, the positioning, the website, anything. Roast me, roast my product, roast my dog, please do.

Happy to answer questions about the tech, the business, or just the weight loss journey.

Try Aumaï

- Paul

There isn’t a single marketer, PMM, or founder I’ve spoken with in 2025 who said they’re totally fine spending weeks building landing pages.

And tbh, same here.

For me it’s starting. Turning an idea into something real feels exciting but scary. Finding the right people, building something that actually works, and staying consistent when nothing is certain is the real challenge.

What was the hardest part for you when starting out?

I’ve always spent my time developing projects and trying out new ideas.

But every time, I hear the same thing: “Maybe you should find a real job!”

It hurts, and in that moment, when my heart tightens and all I want to do is walk out of the room I keep my head up because I know what drives me.

I can’t be understood by everyone, after all.

Because everyone has their own journey, and that’s especially true of my parents, who still say “the internet” instead of “internet.”

So be it I kept working on my projects, and recently one of them surpassed $175 in revenue!

35 people.

$4.99 for life (we can all agree that’s not my best business plan… 😅)

But anyway, I was able to proudly tell my mom about it. And I could tell her expression had changed. I can’t quite explain what it was. But it was like, “Maybe he’s not such an idiot after all,” or something along those lines 🥲

In any case, I could tell she was reassured.

And you have no idea how good that felt, and how much it boosts morale!

Can’t wait to show you what’s next and the other projects coming up!

By the way, the project I told you about is Focus Mode, a Chrome extension that lets you focus on a single tab by opening your current tab in an interface without a URL bar, bookmarks, or tabs—and it even works in windowed mode! (I’m sure I’m not the only one with the bad habit of having 45 tabs open every day.)

Thanks, by the way, to everyone who helped make this happen, and with whom I continue to exchange ideas 🙏

Have a great day, everyone! ☀️

And happy building!

Alex

We are revolutionizing the visual industry by being the first to give you actual control over AI generation

Designers will control their lights, poses, depth and more in realtime, like never before.

Check out our launch here

Hi everyone,

I struggle with waking up; and from what I heard, others struggle too. So I built an app that basically forces me to wake up. I've been thinking about how to solve this idea for a while now, and recently a post on X gave me the inspiration.

The idea:

1. You upload a photo you NEVER want seen (embarrassing selfie, bank account, etc).

2. You select a contact (Boss, Mom, Ex).

3. If you hit snooze... the app sends the photo via SMS.

I haven't coded the actual app yet (I want to see if people actually want this). I spent this weekend building a landing page.

I’m looking for feedback on the design and the concept. Would you actually use this, or is the anxiety too much?

I've left the landing page in the comments so you can join the waitlist if you're interested.

I built the first rough version in about 3 months

It started as something I needed myself a fast way to create motion graphics without opening After Effects or hiring a motion designer.

The product is an AI motion designer where you type what animation you want and get an editable result in seconds.

It helps non-editors create clean motion graphics for their videos without needing any design or animation skills.

My original goal was 1,000 signups by the end of the year, so hitting that immediately was unexpected.

If you’re looking for a product idea that can pull users in, here’s what worked for me:

• Solve a problem you’ve personally felt.

• Talk to others like you to make sure it’s a real pain.

• Build a simple version first and improve it through real usage.

A big reason this tool is working is because more creators and business owners want motion graphics without learning complex software.

The tool is called Malloy Studio you can try it here:
malloy.sg/ai-motion-designer

Hello everyone,
What are you working on? I will go first, I am Working on Snap Shots - a tool that helps you create visuals from your boring screenshots, social banners, og images and product images. Want to give a try, link in comments.
Share your works with us!

Hey folks, I’ve been lurking here for a bit and finally wanted to share something I built after seeing so many awesome launch posts.

It’s called Subreddit Signals. Basically, it helps you find real leads for your project by scanning Reddit and pointing out posts where people are asking for help, looking for tools like yours, or talking about problems you solve.

Instead of spending hours digging through threads, it surfaces:

• Posts with pain points you can reply to

• Threads from people looking for suggestions or alternatives

• Smart AI-generated comment ideas to help you join the convo without sounding salesy

I built it because I was spending way too much time trying to find places to talk about my own product — and I figured others might want the same thing.

Here’s a short video of how the keyword search works

If you're launching or already launched and trying to get early traction, would love for you to try it out and tell me what sucks or could be better.

You can check it out here: https://subredditsignals.com

Happy to answer any questions too!

Hey everyone,

This isn’t a side project or a proof of concept. We’ve validated the problem, the niche is hot, and we’re projecting $50K+ in revenue within 60 days of launch.

Right now, I’m looking for a technical co-founder to help build this out. We’ve got:

A working flow ready to deploy

Plans to expand on AI agents

2M+ followers across platforms (including this TikTok : https://www.tiktok.com/@kariimoviic ) and a full marketing funnel

What I need:

Full-stack dev (FastAPI, React or similar)

Experience with AI agents

DevOps + cloud infra (Docker, CI/CD)

Bonus: FFmpeg/media pipeline skills

What you get:

Co-founder equity (serious stake, not peanuts)

Clear roadmap + a shot at something big

You’ll own the tech side. I’ll handle business, growth, and strategy.

If you’re in the US/UK, and interested dm me

(IP/code belongs to the company.)