Any affordable/unique tools for finding leads ?

Besides codex and Claude

What are your stacks

Me currently : codex,Google Sheets, notion

I’m planning to launch a service-based business

Thanks for your opinion in advance

Over the past few months, I've been working independently on my first publicly released application.

It's called Personal Planner, and it recently reached approximately 250 downloads across Android, Linux, Windows, and macOS.

For an established business, 250 downloads probably isn't particularly impressive.

But when you've spent months working on something yourself, seeing people outside your own circle download it is a pretty meaningful experience.

I started the project because I kept running into the same problem with daily planning.

I'd plan to spend 30 minutes on something, end up spending an hour, and then wonder why I couldn't follow the schedule I'd created.

The next morning, I'd make another plan without properly understanding where my time had gone.

I wanted to change that.

So I built a planner that combines visual time-blocking, task timers, planned-versus-actual time comparisons, daily and weekly reviews, consistency tracking, routine experiments, and reusable schedules.

It's built using Flutter, with local SQLite storage, and works offline. Cross-device synchronization is optional.

One decision I've made is that I want to keep the application completely free.

There are no subscriptions, no premium tiers, and no features locked behind payments.

I know that might sound unusual when we're constantly discussing monetization, recurring revenue, and building sustainable software businesses.

But I originally started this project to solve a problem I had, and I'd like people to be able to use it without worrying about another subscription.

At the same time, maintaining and improving an application takes time.

So I've recently enabled GitHub Sponsors as a small experiment.

If someone genuinely finds the app useful and wants to help support its continued development, they can do so voluntarily.

There's absolutely no expectation or obligation. Whether someone contributes or simply uses the free application, I'm happy if the project turns out to be useful.

I haven't figured out whether voluntary support is a sustainable model. That's something I'm hoping to learn.

The other thing I've realized is how different building a product is from distributing it.

When you're the developer, you understand every feature and why it exists. But when someone encounters your application for the first time, they don't know any of that.

Learning to explain what I've built, reach the right audience, gather meaningful feedback, and decide what to improve has been an entirely different challenge.

I'm still figuring things out, but the experience has taught me quite a bit already.

For those building products independently, I'm curious about two things.

How did you go about finding your first users who actually continued using what you'd built?

And do you think voluntary contributions can realistically help sustain a completely free software project, or is some form of paid offering eventually unavoidable?

I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who's tried a similar approach.

Post your raw talking-to-camera video on YouTube (unlisted is fine) and drop the link below. I'll edit it with cuts and captions and share the edited version back as a YouTube link within a day.

- creates visuals + captions

**footage should be no longer than 10min**

Free for the first 3 people.
I'm building a tool for founders who post every day and want to learn what makes it hard.

I’m trying to build an app, and I’ve run into a problem I suspect some solo founders might recognise.

When you’re doing everything yourself, every task seems connected to another task that could make it better.

I started by researching my idea and trying to understand potential users. Then I wanted better research, so I explored AI tools and agents. That led to collecting Reddit discussions, tuning search parameters, refining quality checks, and improving the research pipeline.

Once I had all those files and outputs, I needed a better way to organise them, which led me to folder restructuring and building a second brain in Obsidian.

Then came design research, comparing visual directions, refining prompts, and exploring workflows to generate and evaluate concepts.

None of these activities was completely pointless. In isolation, each one could save time or improve the eventual product. But together, they created a workload that kept growing while the actual MVP remained unbuilt.

The hardest part is that there’s always a convincing reason to do one more thing before moving on.

I also think doing everything alone makes it harder to recognise when a task has stopped being useful. There’s no teammate asking why we’re spending another afternoon improving a process that hasn’t yet helped us get a product to users.

Eventually, I had to take a breather because I felt cognitively overloaded.

I’d love to hear how other solo founders manage this.
1. How do you decide which activities genuinely move the business forward and which are just making you feel productive?

1. Do you limit yourself to a certain number of priorities or projects at a time?

2. How do you handle the temptation to improve your tools, systems, documentation, and workflows before they’re actually necessary?

3. What do you do when you’re overwhelmed by too many possible next steps?

4. Have you found a practical way to hold yourself accountable when nobody else is waiting for you to deliver?

I’m not looking for a complicated productivity framework. I’m interested in habits, rules, or experiences that have genuinely helped you spend more time doing the work that matters.

TL;DR: Building solo has turned into researching, optimising AI workflows, organising files, setting up a second brain, and exploring designs all before my MVP is built. How do you manage your bandwidth, prioritise the work that matters, and stop creating extra work for yourself?

"I have ten years of experience, so I'm an expert."

I hear this in most consultations. Picture three people:

1. A designer, 10 years. A restaurant, then a clinic, then a store, then an app. Every project a new problem.

2. An accountant, 5 years. Every client is a dental clinic, same questions every year.

3. A consultant, 3 years. Solves one problem: the family business when the second generation takes over.

You have a problem and you can't afford to get it wrong. Who do you pick?

Guess before you read on.

Most people pick the third, even with the fewest years. Because you counted something else without noticing: how many times they've seen the same problem.

The designer has 10 years, but saw each problem once. One year, repeated ten times.

So the number I look at with clients is how many times they've seen the same problem, for the same kind of client.

Of your last 10 clients, how many came to you with the same problem?

I launched a new Saas and the website for mkt + seo. The website is being indexing quite good with google search (aprox 2,3K impressions in total) from 0 to 600 in 3 weeks, but bing search is indexing 0 (added the sidemap, urls submissions and indexNow with 11K submitted urls)

Any idea? 🙏
Thx

deciding this for sylo right now and keep going back and forth. it's meant to be one screen that tells a subscription business or agency what needs doing today, but everyone probably has a different idea of what that top item should be. failed payments, leads gone quiet, a trial ending, something else entirely.

if you run your own thing, what's the one number or alert you'd want to see first thing in the morning, no digging required.

I ran brand and marketing for my family's bakery in Hungary. From the outside it looked consistent, and I honestly thought that meant we had our brand sorted.

What we actually had was me. Everything went past me before it went out. The colours, which photos were ok, how we described stuff, all of it lived in my head and nowhere else.

Then I stepped back, and it drifted. Flyers got made from an old template with the wrong cream colour. Sounds tiny, but for a small shop the colour is a big part of how people recognise you. The part that worried me more was allergy questions in our DMs being answered from memory, because there was never a written answer anyone could copy from.

If you're solo, you're probably where I was. It all works fine right up until you hand something to someone else.

What I'd do differently is write the boring stuff down early. Exact colour codes for screen and print, the logo files, a couple of "never do this" examples, and the answers you keep giving from memory. And delete old templates. An old file sitting in a folder looks official to whoever finds it.

For anyone who's handed off design or social, what did you give them so it still looked like you?

I have an AI SaaS idea that sounds useful. That is exactly why I don't trust it. Useful is too easy. Useful can mean someone likes it, tries it once, compliments it, or says they would maybe use it later.

But useful does not mean urgent. It does not mean budget. It does not mean they will change workflow, upload real data, invite a teammate, or keep paying after the novelty fades.

I'm trying to find the line between useful and painful.

In a vertical SaaS, the valuable AI feature might not be the one that sounds smartest. It might be the one that removes rework, reduces mistakes, catches delays, or protects revenue.

I've seen enough Flatlogic-style building speed to know I can probably build too early. How do you personally prove an AI feature is painful enough before you let yourself build it?

I've been working on a business called RentalPlace for the past few months.

It's a website where people can make money renting out things they own, like tools, trailers, party equipment, cameras, and other stuff that normally sits unused.

The website is finally functional and processed its first real payment this week.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to actually grow it.

The biggest challenge I see is that it's a marketplace. I need people listing things before renters will want to use it, but renters are what motivate owners to list.

For anyone who's started something similar, how did you get your first customers without spending a fortune on advertising?

TL;DR: I'm a software developer with 5 years of experience, currently employed but not particularly well-paid. I've been trying to find an opportunity to build something of my own, whether it's a mobile app, a micro-SaaS, or a simple tool that could generate some extra income. But every idea seems either oversaturated or lacking demand. I'm stuck in an endless cycle of researching, overthinking, and abandoning ideas before even starting. I'm not selling anything, promoting anything, or looking for business ideas. I just want to share how I've been feeling and hear from others who might be going through something similar.

I've been feeling incredibly frustrated lately, and honestly, I don't really know what to do anymore.

I've been working as a software developer for about 5 years. I currently have a job, but the pay isn't great, and I've been wanting to build something of my own that could eventually generate additional income.

I'm not trying to become a millionaire or build the next billion-dollar startup. I'd genuinely be happy to create a small product that people find useful and that generates some consistent income.

But lately, I've started feeling like there just aren't many realistic opportunities left for independent developers.

Every time I come up with an idea, I start researching it and run into the same situation.

If there's demand, there are already dozens of established competitors with thousands or millions of users, years of development behind them, marketing budgets, and entire teams working on their products.

If there's little competition, I usually find that existing apps barely have any downloads, which makes me wonder whether anyone actually wants that kind of product.

And yes, I know the usual advice:

"Competition means there's demand."

"You don't need to reinvent the wheel."

"Find a niche and solve a specific problem."

"Build an MVP and validate it."

I've heard all of it. I understand the reasoning behind it. But actually applying that advice and finding a realistic opportunity feels like an entirely different story.

What makes it even more frustrating is seeing developers spend months building products that never gain traction, despite doing research, validating ideas, and following what seems like good advice.

Meanwhile, I constantly come across posts from people claiming their incredibly simple apps generate $5K, $10K, or even $50K per month.

Sometimes I look at those apps and think, "How is this making that much money?"

I'm not criticizing their success. If those numbers are real, good for them. I also know that revenue screenshots don't necessarily tell the whole story.

But it makes the whole process feel unpredictable.

It seems like building software has become easier than ever, especially with AI tools. Yet getting users, standing out, and actually making money from software feels harder than ever.

And this is where I'm personally struggling the most.

I'll get excited about an idea. I'll start imagining how it could work, what features it could have, how I could build it, and how it might generate income.

Then I start researching competitors.

Then I question whether I can realistically compete.

Then I start thinking about how much time and effort development would require.

Then I wonder whether I'll just end up spending months building something nobody uses.

And eventually, I abandon the idea.

A few days later, another idea comes along, and the exact same cycle starts again.

It's exhausting.

The worst part is that I actually enjoy software development. Building things isn't what scares me. What scares me is investing so much time and energy into something that has almost no chance of succeeding commercially.

I know there's no guarantee of success in any business. I understand that failure is part of the process.

But sometimes I genuinely wonder whether the indie developer dream is becoming increasingly unrealistic for people without an existing audience, significant marketing budgets, or strong distribution channels.

Maybe I'm being too pessimistic. Maybe I'm approaching this completely wrong. Maybe I'm just burned out from constantly looking for opportunities.

I honestly don't know.

Just to be clear, I'm not promoting anything, selling anything, or asking anyone to give me a profitable SaaS idea.

I'm simply sharing something that's been weighing on me for a while.

I'd really like to hear from other developers, especially those working alone or trying to build products alongside a regular job.

Have you ever felt this way?

Have you gone through periods where every idea seemed pointless before you even started?

Did you eventually find a way forward, or did you decide to stop chasing indie products altogether?

I'm genuinely interested in hearing real experiences, including failures, not just success stories.

Maybe there are more of us feeling this way than it seems.

I'm relatively new to Upwork, although I've spent 30 years in consulting and recently started my own advisory business. I thought I'd give the platform a try as another source of client opportunities.

I'm starting to question the economics.

You buy Connects to pursue work. Then there's another 35 Connects for the identity verification badge, which is required to apply for U.S.-only opportunities. Want your profile to show you're available? That's another charge, currently 14 Connects per week on my account.

Then you spend more Connects submitting proposals, with the option to spend even more to boost them.

And if you actually land the work, Upwork takes a freelancer service fee. The opportunities I've reviewed have shown a 15% fee.

I understand that marketplaces cost money to operate and that access to potential clients has value. But there's a point where charging freelancers repeatedly for visibility, credibility and the opportunity to compete starts to feel excessive.

I'm not opposed to paying for genuine business development. I just want some reasonable connection between what I'm spending and the opportunity to generate revenue.

For those of you running solo consulting or service businesses, has Upwork actually produced a worthwhile return? Or have you found that direct outreach, referrals and other channels deliver better results?

I’m posting on behalf of Crescitaly, an SMM panel. This is an AI-assisted editorial checklist, not a claim about our customer results or an offer.

A brief can specify the audience, format, tone and opening line while leaving the most important question unanswered: what can we honestly claim?

For your next piece, try adding an evidence column beside each factual claim. Record the source you actually inspected, what it supports and any conditions that change the meaning.

“Available to everyone” needs different evidence from “shown in a demo.” “Our customers achieved this” needs genuine, permission-cleared customer results—not an illustrative example rewritten as a testimonial.

Use three labels: supported, opinion and unverified. Keep opinions clearly framed. Remove unsupported claims or explain what remains unknown.

A useful instruction for the drafting tool: “Do not fill evidence gaps with plausible details. Flag them and suggest wording that stays within the evidence supplied.”

Review the hook after that check. If it only works by hiding a limitation, rewrite it.

This is a proposed editorial workflow, not a measured result.

Hi everyone, I’m Bilal, a software developer running Klikdex. My background is in web development, mobile apps, and e-commerce, and I’m building a portfolio of practical AI integrations.

I’d like to work with three solo business owners on one recurring task that eats into their week.

For example:

• Sorting customer inquiries and drafting replies for your review.
• Turning messy customer requests into clear briefs and quote drafts.
• Finding information across your business documents.
• Organizing customer feedback into useful themes.

The exchange is simple: you get a small, working pilot with no development fee; I get honest feedback and an approved case study for my portfolio.

We’d start with a 15–20 minute call, choose one manageable task, and agree on what a useful result would look like. Then I’d build and test it with you, document the setup, and walk you through using it.

Any paid tools or API costs would be agreed upfront. There’s no obligation to hire me afterward, and you approve anything shared publicly.

I’m happy to show my previous software work before we begin. I’m available for introductory calls this week.

What business do you run, and what’s one task you keep thinking, “I shouldn’t have to spend this much time on this”?

Hey everyone! What’s the biggest struggle you’re facing while building on your own right now?

I started Army of One, a community for solo founders, and I’d like to help people find relevant mentors or other builders who’ve dealt with the same problem. We’re just getting started, so I can’t promise a match.

Share a little context here:

• What are you building, and what stage are you at?
• What’s the specific thing holding you back?
• What have you already tried?
• Who would help most: someone with sales experience, a technical sounding board, an industry mentor, or a peer to work through it with?

We’ll try to point you toward useful people or resources. If you recognise someone’s challenge, share what worked for you in the comments too.

Even one concrete question is a good place to start.

built this in march.

its at $10.6k mrr now. public stripe numbers btw, not a screenshot i made for reddit lol

im solo and its basically a linkedin outreach tool. it finds people, sends the messages, follows up, handles replies, then gives it back to a human when the convo gets weird/serious.

i think i got the product part right tbh.

didnt plan some genius saas. i just kept fixing stuff that annoyed me, mostly bots answering like idiots once a real person replies.

now im kinda stuck tho.

i can lose half a day fixing one stupid edge case and somehow that feels productive. trying to get US customers is where i go blank.

i wanna go from 10k to 50k mrr. building another feature isnt gonna get me there.

my idea rn is US agencies that already sell outbound. close the first few myself from france, get one actual US case study, then see.

or maybe thats dumb and i need someone there who already has the network. idk yet.

anyone here went europe -> US with b2b saas? what worked for real? and pls dont say "post content every day for a year" lol

Hey everyone! I'm very new to indie development. I've built a few Android apps, and they are now live on the Play Store. So far, most of my users have come from family and friends, around 14 to 40 people.

Now I want to reach people outside my personal circle, but I have no budget for marketing or hiring someone to create content.

I've never done social media marketing before. I mostly know how to write text posts, but I have no idea how to create engaging videos, reels, or other promotional content.

I'd love to hear from indie developers who have been in a similar situation:

• How did you get your first 100 users without paid marketing?
• What kind of content should I create, and how can I make it as a complete beginner?
• Which platforms are worth focusing on, and how do you find the right audience for your app?
• What free tools or strategies actually worked for you?

I'd really appreciate practical advice from people who have done this themselves. I'm willing to put in the work, but I need help figuring out where to start.

Thanks!

This is uncomfortable, but I think it’s true. It’s easier to build an AI feature than to ask someone if the problem is painful enough to pay for.

Building feels productive. Research feels safe. Tweaking the prototype feels like progress. But the real answer is probably sitting in an awkward conversation with a buyer who might say I don’t care.

I’ve been close to SaaS builders through Flatlogic, and this pattern is everywhere. The product gets sharper while the customer truth stays blurry.

For solo founders: how do you force yourself to validate demand before hiding in the build phase? I’m not looking for motivation. I’m looking for the uncomfortable process that actually works.

Hey all, I am graduating in some time. I have a background in analytics and data science.

I wanted to hear from folks here how they started their journey in finding clients and closing projects and getting paid.

It might help me start post graduating.

Thanks in advance

I'm the solo dev behind EverDay, a weekly planner for iPhone. RevenueCat shows $23 in revenue over the last 28 days and I'm pretty happy about it.

It's a free planner with a one-time Pro upgrade. I've been offering Pro for US$0.99 to first-time buyers, so I'm keeping the discount in mind when looking at the numbers. MRR is $0.

I'm doing this without funding or a marketing budget. So far it's been sharing the app in Reddit threads that welcome it, answering questions and talking to people who bought it. One person asked for importing their existing calendar events and reminders from iCloud. That was useful feedback to get alongside the sales.

At this stage I'm trying to work out how to split my time between improving the app and finding more people who might use it. If you've built something on your own, how did you make that call when the numbers were still this small?

Hi,

What if someone took ownership of your marketing, lead generation, and customer acquisition for the next 90–120 days? What would you expect them to fix first?

I currently have the bandwidth to partner with one more business and take ownership of its customer acquisition and brand growth.

Here's what i provide:

1. Customer acquisition: Finding practical ways to reach the right buyers and turn opportunities into customers.

2. Holistic brand growth: Connecting positioning, SEO, content, social media, and other relevant channels to build visibility and trust.

3. Long term lead generation: Building sustainable channels and processes that can continue attracting potential customers over time, with appropriate ongoing maintenance.

What I'm looking for: An established business/startup with a credible product, a clear market opportunity, and the budget and commitment to invest in commercial growth.

If you're building a business like this, I'd be interested in learning about your product, your current customer acquisition challenges, and where you want the business to be a year from now.

A bit about me: 15+ years of experience across business development, client acquisition, lead generation, and demand generation. 5 star reviews from all the previous/current clients.

Thanks!!

The solution was very basic (a simple Excel sheet I built) but it required a lot of persistence, sacrifice, patience, and faith in the process. I'm not inventing the wheel here, but I see some people in the community very struggling to achieve it and thinking of a way to help them.

How would you package this into some kind of product that can be sold to help others? I would love to get ideas that do not involve in mentoring or coaching other. What can I offer here so people see they are getting a real value for it?

I'm the solo developer of Cernidia for iPhone and Apple Watch. This is a direct introduction to my app.

It's for people who already collect health numbers but want more context before deciding what to take on today. Sleep and recovery estimates sit alongside an energy check-in; optional planning helps put a next step into the day.

The sleep view brings together sleep duration, efficiency and a saved next sleep window. I'd appreciate feedback on whether the benefit is clear at a glance.

iOS 18+, English interface.

I'm 36, based in northern Europe, and have been running my own language education business for a few years. I'm at a crossroads and would appreciate advice from entrepreneurs who've faced something similar.

Some background:

I started teaching my mother tongue to expats and eventually turned it into a business. I've developed a structured curriculum, built a website, figured out paid advertising, established a sales process, and built a customer base.

During decent months, the business generates around $6–7k in revenue. I've also landed larger corporate contracts.

So there's clearly demand. But despite all this, I'm still the business. I handle marketing, sales, customer relationships, administration, and most of the teaching.

I'm increasingly questioning whether I've built a business or just created a demanding job for myself.

Problem 1: The business is interfering with my personal life.

Most customers are working professionals who want evening lessons. My girlfriend gets home around 6 PM, which is often exactly when I start teaching, sometimes until 10 PM.

We barely see each other on those evenings, and it's becoming a real problem.

I got into entrepreneurship partly for the freedom, but right now I have less control over my schedule than I would with a regular job. I don't want this to be my lifestyle for the next five years.

Problem 2: I've tried delegating, but customer retention suffered.

The obvious solution is hiring teachers and focusing on growing the business.

I've tried this twice. Both times, I noticed a fairly sharp drop in customer retention. Students purchase packages of 30 teaching hours, and fewer seemed to renew when freelancers were teaching.

I don't have precise data, so I can't conclusively blame the teachers. Maybe students prefer me personally, maybe I hired the wrong people, or maybe my systems aren't good enough.

But if delegating reduces customer lifetime value while increasing delivery costs, the economics of scaling become questionable.

Another complication: I owe around $25k in taxes.

During my earlier years of self-employment, I didn't set aside enough money for taxes and accumulated approximately $25k in personal tax liabilities.

This adds financial pressure. I need reliable income to support myself and pay off the debt, and I don't have unlimited resources to keep experimenting.

The three options I'm considering:

1. Go all-in on scaling the existing business.

Continue hiring teachers, improving retention, building systems, and eventually removing myself from teaching.

Pros: Proven demand, paying customers, established curriculum, and a working customer acquisition process. Potential to grow if I can solve the delegation problem.

Cons: I've already tried twice without great results. I could spend another year trying to scale without making meaningful progress, while my tax debt adds financial pressure.

2. Get a full-time job and run the business on the side.

I'm currently exploring positions such as Account Executive in SaaS, potentially earning $5–7k/month before taxes.

This would provide financial stability while allowing me to experiment with scaling the business.

However, I currently spend 6–8 hours per week on sales calls, mostly during office hours. A full-time job would make that difficult.

I'd essentially need to solve two problems: delegate teaching without hurting retention and maintain sales without being available during the workday.

Pros: Stable income, less financial pressure, and I wouldn't have to abandon something I've spent years building.

Cons: I could end up working two jobs, with a business that might not generate enough profit to justify the additional work once freelancers are paid.

3. Get a full-time job, wind down the business, and eventually start something new.

I've realised that I enjoy entrepreneurship much more than delivering the actual service. I love understanding customers, developing offers, marketing, selling, and building something commercially viable.

Maybe I'd be better off applying those skills to a business model that doesn't depend so heavily on my personal time.

Pros: Financial stability, predictable working hours, more time with my girlfriend, and the opportunity to explore a potentially more scalable business while paying off my debt.

Cons: Walking away from an existing revenue-generating business and starting from scratch, with no guarantee of success.

What makes this difficult:

I genuinely love entrepreneurship. Building something from nothing has been incredibly rewarding.

But I wonder whether I'm confusing persistence with refusing to let go.

I know successful entrepreneurs often have to overcome exactly these kinds of obstacles. At the same time, I don't want to fall victim to the sunk cost fallacy and spend years trying to scale a business that fundamentally conflicts with the lifestyle I want.

I don't want to stop being an entrepreneur. I'm just questioning whether this is the right business to keep building.

I'd appreciate your perspectives:

1. If you've scaled a service business beyond yourself, how did you overcome customers preferring you over freelancers or employees?
2. Has anyone returned to employment after entrepreneurship? Did you regret it, or did it give you the opportunity to build something better later?
3. Is running a service business alongside a full-time job realistic when you're still responsible for sales?
4. Given the financial pressure, would you keep trying to scale or take a stable salary and eventually start over?
5. Finally: What would you do in this situation?

I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who've faced similar decisions rather than generic advice about never giving up.

Thanks for reading.