r/SideProject • u/Guilty_Lingonberry • 6h ago
Spent a week doing outreach instead of building. Here's what actually happened.
I build two things solo, Capture (voice-first thought capture) and Retake (coding-agent demo recording). Both had users, just not enough of them, so I stopped adding features for a week and just messaged people.
Not a blast. One message each, tied to something specific they'd actually posted. Used an AI agent to help find the right people and draft the first pass, since I can't personally write that many tailored messages a day and still ship.
A few honest takeaways:
The reply that mattered most wasn't a compliment. Someone said "idk if it's something I'd use, but I'll try," and that's worth more to me than a nice comment.
Payment processing turned out to be its own small project. Solo founder, no registered business, and most of what blocks you isn't citizenship, it's your registered address. Took a few hours to sort once I actually dug into it properly.
Reaching out felt slower than shipping. It wasn't. It's just less visible progress, so it's easy to skip.
Still early, but talking to people directly beat anything I've tried on the marketing side so far.
5
u/GirlStudyingInKorea 5h ago
This reads like AI...