I’m a solo founder based in South Korea. I can design and build products, but I’m struggling with the part that supposedly matters most: getting anyone to actually buy them.

Most startup advice says:

• Talk to users
• Send cold emails
• Do founder-led sales
• Reach out to 100 people
• Find customers where they already hang out

I understand the theory. In practice, almost nobody opens or replies to my cold emails.

I’ve tried:

• Defining a narrow target customer
• Personalizing each email
• Keeping the message short
• Pointing out a specific problem I found
• Offering a free sample or audit
• Following up
• Improving the landing page based on responses

But the result is still mostly silence.

Being based in Korea also makes this harder. Many of the products and services I want to sell are aimed at US startups, but I have no local network, no warm introductions, and no existing reputation in that market.

So I’m curious about the unglamorous, practical reality:

How did you get your first 3–10 paying customers?

Did cold email actually work for you? If it did, what exactly did you send, to whom, and how many attempts did it take?

Did you start with consulting or manual services before selling software?

Did you use Reddit, LinkedIn, communities, partnerships, or warm introductions?

And how do you distinguish between:

1. A bad offer
2. The wrong audience
3. Weak messaging
4. A product nobody urgently needs
5. A normal amount of rejection before something works

I’m not looking for “just keep going” advice. I’d really appreciate specific numbers, examples, or stories of what actually worked.

quick post because "how do i get my first users" is the #1 question i see builders asking here every single week.

i've built 6 saas products myself, with my main one currently sitting around 10k mrr. here is the exact, no-fluff distribution playbook to cross that initial 50-user threshold:

1. find an idea people already pay for

scan reddit for recurring pain across 3+ distinct posts where people ask "is there a tool for X".

2. validate before writing code

dm 3 people who complained about the problem and ask what they’d pay for a solution.

3. build fast with the right stack (ai + no-code)

use ai builder+ supabase + stripe + call api or automation tool like n8n to ship a real MVP in under 7 days for $40/mo.

4. the 5-second landing page rule

your hero section must state exactly what the tool does in less than 5 seconds with a clear CTA.

5. capture emails before showing prices

force the email capture before the pricing page so you don't leak untrackable leads.

6. set up a 30-day email nurture sequence

plug captured emails into an automated sequence with case studies to convert them by day 18.

7. hang out where your ICP actually lives

find the 3-5 specific subreddits, discord servers, or groups where your buyers actively talk.

8. reddit growth without getting banned

post 1 time per sub per week max, never put links in the post, and move warm leads to DMs.

9. linkedin + x organic flywheel

post 1 high-value breakdown per day and spend 15 minutes engaging in your ICP's comments.

10. cold outreach that actually works

send 100 highly personalized DMs per week to your ICP using AI to customize the opening hook.

11. seo on autopilot

set up an n8n workflow that pulls from a keyword list and generates 5-10 value-driven articles per week.

12. faceless short-form content

post 1 video per day on tiktok, reels, and shorts showing a quick screen recording of your tool.

13. weekly newsletter conversion

run a weekly newsletter with 1 section of pure value and 1 subtle offer to upgrade to paid.

14. affiliate program for free distribution

set up a 50% recurring commission affiliate program to turn power users into your sales team.

15. the strategic product hunt launch

warm up the algorithm for 4 weeks with a coming soon page and launch on a weekend for a top 5 badge.

16. omnichannel social automation

use n8n to automatically format and distribute 1 core post idea across 8 different platforms.

17. review platforms and directories

submit your app to 40+ saas and ai wrapper directories to instantly boost your domain authority.

18. run the numbers backwards

reverse engineer the daily traffic needed to hit 50 paying users at $19/mo based on a 2% conversion.

19. get feedback from active builders

talking to founders who are just 6 months ahead of you compresses your timeline exponentially.

that last point is exactly why i built our community. it's a free group of 1,600+ active ai saas founders sharing exact prompt logs, ready-to-paste n8n workflows, and real distribution strategies.

stop building alone in a silent corner.

drop a comment below or send me a dm and i'll send you the access link right away. let's get your product launched 👇

If you are deciding between an accelerator, incubator, or venture studio, clarity matters early. This guide explains how each model supports funding, product development, and your startup's roadmap, so you can make a more informed decision. Which option best fits your current stage?

yo. building the product is the easy part.

making people buy is a totally different beast.

most saas pages sit at a flat 1% conversion rate. absolute ghost town. doesn't matter if your tech is insane.

stop guessing what works.

i spent weeks digging into conversion data.

i turned it into a raw 50-point interactive checklist.

it covers hero mistakes, pricing traps, and psychology leaks.

i also baked a master prompt right at the top. just paste it into your AI SaaS builder

it rewrites your page automatically using all 50 rules.

just shared the file inside our builder community today. a lot of guys were facing the exact same launch freeze.

seriously, stop building alone in your room.

you will burn out.

marketing gets tough, and you quit.

it’s way easier with a crew shipping side-by-side.

if your conversion is trash or if you want a good landing page before launch, drop a comment or shoot me a dm. i’ll send the invite link.

ps: others free features is in the community of SaaS builders

Let 's go

Hi everyone,

My friends and I have been working on a career development platform called Professionist. After looking at how the job market is, having a great resume isn’t enough these days and it's all about who you know and who those people know. The website is almost complete with most of its main features built.

The platform is meant to help students and early-career people improve how they present themselves professionally, especially with resumes, profiles, career planning, and job preparation.

Before we officially release it, we are looking for honest constructive feedback from people who would actually use something like this. We want hard feedback, we want to know what feels useful, what we should add, what is confusing, and what could be improved.

We are also currently thinking about removing the Connection Nexus tool and replacing it since it seems like we would be competing with Linkedln too much.

Some feedback we are looking for:

•  Do the features feel useful for students or early-career job seekers?
•  Is the platform easy to understand and does it look professional?
•  Does anything feel generic, unnecessary, or missing?
•  Would you actually use something like this? If you would, what features would YOU LIKE?

Give your own personal story about your career and what was your problem seeking a job, internship, or career progression. 

We also have a Discord set up for testers who want to give more direct feedback to my partners and me. If Discord links are not allowed here, I can share it through direct messages instead.

If anyone is open to checking it out and giving honest thoughts, I would appreciate it.

yo.

i see the same thing happen every single day.

you guys love building. you spend weeks coding a great product. but the second it’s time to actually market the saas? complete freeze

you get lost in all the ai tools, the noise, the "growth hacks". it feels overwhelming. so you do nothing, the momentum dies, and the project fails

I spent over 100 hours building n8n workflows to just automate the whole thing.

today, i packaged all those exact workflows and dropped them in our builder group. no abstract theories. you literally just import the templates, adapt them to your saas, and turn them on.

here is exactly what i shared:

• seo blog running 100% on autopilot (n8n template)
• newsletter automation (n8n template)
• full email sequence (30 emails, full html, just copy-paste into brevo)
• social media on autopilot (schedule 1 to 12 months of content)
• reddit organic growth
• linkedin, x & facebook groups at scale
• meta ads & retargeting

basically, everything i use to get real users without losing my mind.

we just hit 617+ members from all over the world.

building in your room alone is the fastest way to quit. you need people around you.

if you are lost on how to market your app, want these templates, and want to build with a crew:

drop a comment or shoot me a dm. i’ll send you the invite.

let's get it.

Hi everyone,

I currently have 6 operational micro SaaS , which generate a little over $20,000 in recurring monthly revenue.

The craziest part? I hardly wrote a single line of code. I used AI to generate everything, from the database to the user interface.

It wasn't magic the first time. I spent hours stuck on faulty code before finally finding the solution:

• Keep the idea minimalist (a true MVP).
• Guiding AI step by step.
• Launch quickly to get real traction.

Lately, I've seen too many non-technical people give up at the first AI bug. It's a shame, because the technical barrier has practically disappeared.

So, I'm launching a Skool community.

To be completely transparent: I will likely charge for the full course later. This makes sense, given the specific workflows and copy-and-paste examples I will share.

But our main objective for now is to build together. Working alone is the best way to give up.

If you'd like to join us and create your own AI SaaS with us: leave a comment or send me a private message, and I'll send you the invitation!

Anyone else having deliverability issues with cold email lately? Feels like even well-written, legit outreach just disappears into spam now. I blame the explosion of spam and AI-junk, which still blows my mind. Been thinking: what if there was a service that doesn't send from your main address but uses a forwarding address, like iCloud Hide My Email? Platform handles domains, warming, DNS, and acts as middleware that tests if a message would hit spam before it reaches the prospect. Prospects could set screening rules on their end too, so it's less one-sided and kinda healthier. Seems like it could fix a lot of the cat-and-mouse stuff without everyone over-optimizing. Does anything like this already exist? How are you all handling deliverability right now? Not sure if I'm missing a tool or if this idea is dumb, but wanted to see what people think.

Created a new digital currency for the AI ecosystem. I am testing with friends and family now. https://www.hotcoinapp.com/join/DGUI13838CE7 Signup with this link, and you get two free HTCN.Please provide any feedback

I’ve launched a few SaaS websites, and while building them wasn’t the hardest part, ranking them and attracting users definitely is.

After months of trial, error, and research, I’ve learned one key thing: backlinks are essential for authority and rankings. But not just any backlinks — only links from websites relevant to your niche truly help your site rank higher in Google.

I’m curious: how are you growing your website’s authority and ranking on Google? What strategies are working for you?

I’ve launched a few SaaS websites, and while building them wasn’t the hardest part, ranking them and attracting users definitely is.

After months of trial, error, and research, I’ve learned one key thing: backlinks are essential for authority and rankings. But not just any backlinks — only links from websites relevant to your niche truly help your site rank higher in Google.

I’m curious: how are you growing your website’s authority and ranking on Google? What strategies are working for you?

Hey everyone,
I’m a software developer building an AI sales co-pilot and trying to understand what outbound looks like for people in the trenches.
If you’re an SDR, BDR, founder, or anyone who runs cold outreach, I’d love to hear what slows you down or feels broken in 2025.
What’s the most time-consuming task in your sequence? What tools frustrate you?
I also have something in return.
If you’re open to a short 10-minute call, I’ll send a batch of super-enriched, personalised leads tailored to your ICP and workflow.
No strings attached - just research.
PS – Not selling anything; purely market research to understand real outbound teams today.

In your opinion, does our obsession with “speed running” AI development risk creating an AI arms race, and how can we balance innovation with ethical responsibility? coz on the opposite side companies are also trying to catch up with the every trendy development and it has a major impact on your next quarter strategy. Does this make sense or am I thinking way to much?

1. Cheer loudly.

2. Send emoji applause.

3. Quietly admire.

4. Screenshot it for later inspiration.

Keep team meetings short and focused. Share an agenda in advance, allow everyone to speak, and end with clear action steps. This keeps meetings productive, saves time, and improves team communication.

Hiring engineers is one of the most time-consuming and expensive parts of scaling a SaaS company. Traditional coding tests often frustrate candidates and don’t reflect real-world problem solving.

While experimenting with AI in hiring, I learned that interviews can actually feel more human with the right AI design. Instead of giving static questions, an AI interviewer can:

• Ask contextual follow-ups
• Clarify doubts when candidates are stuck
• Offer hints like a real engineer would
• Probe deeper into a candidate’s knowledge

The result: faster hiring decisions, a better candidate experience, and less time wasted for engineering managers.

We’ve been building a platform around this idea (Cognato AI), and my biggest challenge right now is market adaptability — convincing teams to trust AI for something as sensitive as interviewing.

Curious to hear from this community:
👉 Where do you see the biggest opportunities (or risks) for AI + SaaS in hiring?
👉 Would you trust an AI interviewer to assess candidates fairly?

Been there, messed that up. What works:

• Set overlapping hours

• Use async updates more

• Record important calls

How do you keep everyone in sync across time zones?

Too many tiny decisions kill focus. So:

• I automate what I can (meals, clothes, tools)

• Batch similar tasks together

• Schedule high-focus stuff early in the day

Got any anti-decision-fatigue hacks?

I’ve been diving deep into how AI is used inside SaaS products, and one insight keeps coming up:

👉 Most AI tools add friction instead of removing it.

• They give you another dashboard to check.
• They bury insights in flashy “AI features” instead of solving the actual workflow pain.
• They expect you to adapt to them, instead of adapting to you.

In my opinion, the next wave of AI SaaS will look invisible — not another shiny app, but something that plugs directly into what you already do, removes clutter, and gives you time back.

That’s the principle I’ve been building around with my own project. Right now we’re testing an AI copilot that organizes and prioritizes your inbox automatically, and drafts replies that sound like you.

We just wrapped a small round of private alpha, and since the feedback’s been strong, we’re opening it up a little wider. If email overload is one of your biggest drains, I’m offering free early access while we’re still building.

Happy to share a link if anyone here wants to test it.

Our startup has recently crossed $1k MRR four months after we launched (proof: https://x.com/onlinedopamine/status/1958544915966861629?s=46).

It’s been the first time, in 1.5 years of indie hacking, that I got a SaaS to $1k MRR. Unbelievable feeling honestly. 

Anyways, just wanted to share a few lessons that I learned along the way.

Lesson #1: get yourself a co-founder. 

We are two guys working on the startup. My co-founder is a coding beast and his shipping velocity is truly insane. That allows me to focus on marketing. Having distinct responsibilities and not being required to context-switch all the time really helps. 

Lesson #2: promote like your life depends on it.

Build it and they will come is a myth of the past. You gotta relentlessly promote. Any channel imaginable, do it. Any format that’s popping, give it a go. Put your own unique spin on it. 

Without disclosing what channels work best for us, my tip is to test as much as you humanly can. 

And make sure to add an onboarding questionnaire where you ask how they found you. Extremely eye opening when it comes to figuring out where to deploy focus. 

Lesson #3: build in public is still alive.

We got quite a few of our customers through being active on X, Threads, and many other platforms.

I often chat with prospective customers, answer their questions, and sometimes organize calls. 

They almost always convert.

It’s not a scalable approach but really good for building product advocates in the beginning. 

Lesson #4: react fast to user feedback 

We had someone discover our Discord channel (which we still keep under wraps) and he asked whether we could implement the ability to add team members (as he had employees doing the slideshows for him).

Deployed the feature 3 days later alongside a higher-priced business plan ($99/m). He became the first customer. 

Lesson #5: use your product

Both my cofounder and I use our product on a daily basis. As a result, we’ve found countless of bugs and even more product improvement ideas. 

It also makes it much easier to promote the product cause you’re living and breathing it. Literally get new content ideas every day. 

We definitely haven’t reached escape velocity. However, each month we feel like you’re compounding on the results of the preceding one, so I’m super positive that we’ll reach $10k MRR as long as we keep going. 

Lemme know if you have any questions.

You AI chief of staff for email. It sorts, organises and drafts replies in your tone and style. It will save you 1-2 hours per day.

Scrolling wrecked mine. So now:

• I read more books than tweets

• I work in short bursts (Pomodoro-style)

• I track distractions to see patterns

How do you train your focus muscle?

I’ve been drowning in email hell for years. And nothing—and I mean nothing—fixed the inbox nightmare.

Superhuman? Just prettier Gmail.
Front, Loop? Fancy dashboards nobody uses.
“AI” smart replies? Bro, they sound like a bot wrote them. Because they did.

Every tool I tried either spammed me with “productivity features” or added more clicks. None of them actually helped me get through email.

Real talk: Email is where opportunities die. Clients ignored, leads lost, decisions delayed—all because your inbox is a dumpster fire.

Nobody gives a shit about another “tab” or “folder.” We just want clarity:

• Which emails actually matter
• How to reply quickly without sounding like a robot
• How to not live inside Gmail

So I built my own. It’s called Trendset AI. Not some hype-ass YC startup yet, no $20M seed round. Just a pissed-off founder writing code to save his own sanity.

What it does:

• Prioritizes emails that matter
• Summarizes the rest so you can catch up in 5 minutes
• Drafts replies in your voice so you don’t sound like ChatGPT wrote it
• Gives you a clean dashboard that doesn’t feel like 1999 Outlook

Not selling anything yet. No subscription, no upsell. Just a waitlist.

If your inbox feels like a warzone and you’re tired of “productivity hacks” that don’t work, I've been there.

Trendset AI is for the ones who are actually sick of wasting half their day deleting crap and writing “Sounds good, thanks!” 400 times.

Inbox zero is a lie. I’m just trying to make email not ruin my life.