Finance

4 months after launch, 0 customers. What would you have done differently for marketing? Hey, Two years ago, 3 friends and I started a project in engineering school. It was a rental investment simulator for the French market. You put in a property and it tells you if it's actually profitable, which tax regime to pick, what the neighborhood looks like, and gives you a report for your bank. We really believed in it. We built a lot. And we never got a single customer. For marketing we tried cold calling, meetings with potential partners and investors, LinkedIn posts and a bit of Instagram. Nothing worked. People hung up, meetings went nowhere, posts got no traction. We never tried YouTube or ads. We stopped working on it about 4 months ago. The site is still up but the project is basically dead. I'm not trying to promote anything here. I just want to understand what we got wrong, because I'm working on other projects now and I don't want to make the same mistakes. None of us had any marketing background and honestly I still don't really know where we should have started. If you've been through something similar, or if you just look at it and see something obvious, I'd really like to hear it. Even if it's harsh. https://buyandrent.fr/en

How they grewCold calling, partner and investor meetings, LinkedIn posts, Instagram

Why I ditched auth and recurring subscriptions for a local-first utility (and what 10k views showed about paywalls) (Disclosure: I'm the solo developer behind Subtrack, sharing this as a build/metrics retrospective) When planning a simple utility SaaS, the common playbook is almost automated: spin up an auth provider (Supabase/Firebase), set up cloud database tables, block access behind a login screen, and charge $5/month. I originally went down that route, but the product fundamentals felt contradictory: people looking to audit and reduce recurring subscriptions are usually exhausted by the idea of adding yet another monthly bill. On top of that, forcing an account creation before delivering immediate utility creates a massive drop-off for simple tools. I decided to rebuild the project as a zero-login, local-first web app (localStorage only) backed by a flat lifetime unlock ($14.99) instead of monthly billing. After tracking roughly 10,000 views across recent posts and analyzing initial event data, here are the main technical and business takeaways: Removing mandatory logins completely transformed initial interaction. Over 80% of new visitors jumped straight into testing the pre-populated demo dashboard. However, zero-friction created a different product problem: users treated the demo as a static sandbox and did not naturally realize they could reset it to input their real data. I had to build an explicit "clear demo & start fresh" onboarding banner to bridge the gap between passive testing and actual active usage. - Zero server maintenance vs. Data risk: Storing user records client-side eliminated server maintenance, database scaling costs, and sensitive financial compliance concerns entirely. The trade-off is user retention: if a user clears their browser cache without exporting their CSV backup, their records are gone. The next logical step will be optional local file imports rather than centralizing data on an external server. - One-time fee resistance vs. Churn management: For micro-utilities, charging a one-time unlock ($14.99 after 5 free entries) eliminated the recurring churn problem completely. While it limits MRR predictability, initial conversion intent signals were noticeably higher than asking for an ongoing subscription. The project is live here for context on how the local flow works: https://getsubtrack.lovable.app For solo founders building utilities, how are you balancing local-first privacy architectures with long-term user retention? Do you see a sustainable resurgence in flat-fee utility pricing over recurring SaaS?

How they grewRecent posts

Edem Devlet

@EdemDevletEN

Hi peeps, I'm Edem! I've been living in Berlin for 4 years 🇩🇪, originally from Crimea. I have a 9-5 job, but for the past 2 years, I've been trying to build my own products for most of that time, I built in silence. But last month, I started sharing my projects more actively: money-bee(.)app - a budget tracker for iOS, $18 MRR gptransport(.)app - real-time 🇩🇪 public transport departures iOS app, $8 MRR trustscope(.)app - a website/browser extension that shows how trustworthy a venue's Google Maps rating. It's free Let's connect and grow together!

How they grewsharing projects more actively

Roman

@RomanWalcott

Want to meet other Founders/ PM owners. $2k MRR/mo across 8 clients. Automate invoice processing: 5+ min → <30s. Attending NARPM Vegas Oct. Acel Cortex founded by 2 PM owners who spent Fridays billing; built this to reclaim time. No time to edit so I’m just posting!

Cryptowaroom

@OLolo13781

Hello everyone, I’ve decided to do things differently. After 12 years in the markets, I’ve decided to finally doxx myself and put my name and reputation behind what I’m building because I’m here for the long term. I started my journey in Forex, moved into equities, and eventually transitioned into crypto. Over the years, I’ve spent thousands of hours trading, studying market cycles, developing strategies, and learning what actually works across different market conditions. Along the way, I built my Instagram to 10,000+ followers, where I share my experience, market analysis, and trading knowledge with a growing community. IG : instagram.com/oualidjaoudati… LinkedIn : ma.linkedin.com/in/oualid-jaou… Today, I’m taking that experience one step further with WARROOM. WARROOM is already being used by 40+ monthly active users, including experienced and professional traders. I don’t want WARROOM to be another token with no purpose behind it. The goal is to build a real product, grow the community, improve the platform, and create something that can actually stand on its own long term. The fee structure is simple: • 50% of fees → Buybacks & Burns • 50% of fees → Funding WARROOM development, growth, and marketing I’m putting my identity behind this because I believe in what I’m building and intend to be here for the long run. This is only the beginning. CA:9zZ1KGa1dSMmw7QQxT4WZKGVMpJHo6Cf9dBvZUNcpump PS: Supply is locked for 1 year.

Pengwu

@afkpengu

Just hit 100 followers 🎉 I’m a penguin with a day job. Just got into big tech. Building gexpense.app after hours. If my apps hit $12k MRR, I quit. Current score: - startups: $0 MRR - salary: still winning - layoffs: on my mind Come checkout my receipt throwing mini game in the boring old footer (because why not 🤷‍♂️). Any other 9–5 builders here? Drop what you’re building and lets connect👇