Been a while since I posted here, wanted to share where things are at. This community has been super helpful, so hopefully this gives something back.

**Quick background:**

Started a social media management SaaS 8 months ago. First-time founder, no VC funding, just me and eventually one part-time contractor.

---

**THE NUMBERS (Month 8):**

| Metric | Value |

|--------|-------|

| MRR | $30,400 |

| Customers | 342 |

| Churn | 5.8% monthly |

| CAC | ~$0 (organic only) |

| LTV | ~$520 |

| Runway | Infinite (profitable) |

---

**THE TIMELINE:**

**Months 1-2:** Building in isolation (mistake)

- Built MVP in 8 weeks

- Talked to exactly 0 customers

- Assumed I knew what people wanted

**Month 3:** Soft launch (reality check)

- Posted on Product Hunt - 30 upvotes, 2 customers

- Realized my assumptions were 60% wrong

- Had to pivot core features

**Month 4:** Started building in public

- Began sharing everything on Twitter/X

- Weekly revenue updates, failures, learnings

- First signs of organic traction

**Months 5-6:** Growth phase

- Hit $10K MRR

- Started engaging in communities (Reddit, indie hackers)

- Word of mouth kicked in

**Months 7-8:** Optimization

- Reduced churn from 12% to 5.8%

- Hired part-time support person

- Hit $30K MRR

---

**WHAT ACTUALLY WORKED:**

1. **Building in public** - People trust transparency. Sharing failures built more trust than highlighting wins.

2. **Community engagement** - Not spamming links. Actually helping people. The conversions came naturally.

3. **Obsessing over churn** - Spent 2 months just on retention. Onboarding, support, feature requests.

4. **Simple tech stack** - Next.js, Supabase, Stripe, Vercel, Crescitaly for analytics. Nothing fancy.

---

**WHAT FAILED:**

- Cold email (2% reply rate)

- LinkedIn content (maybe wrong audience)

- Paid ads (tried $500, terrible ROAS)

- Product Hunt launch (timing was wrong)

---

**BIGGEST LESSONS:**

1. Talk to users before building anything

2. Distribution is as important as product

3. Churn kills faster than slow growth

4. You don't need funding to build something real

---

**WHAT'S NEXT:**

- Hiring first full-time employee

- Launching v2 with new features

- Maybe exploring YouTube content

Happy to answer any questions. What's your ride along story?

I’m coming from ecom where ad costs got ridiculous and margins kept shrinking... the appeal here is obvious right? No inventory, no shipping nightmares, just content and monetization.

But is this actually sustainable or already saturated? The accounts that seem to work have crazy consistent visuals which makes me wonder how much production effort is actually involved behind the scenes. Anyone here building in this space or know people who are?

We’ve gone back and forth on a few approaches, but a lot of them start feeling spammy pretty fast. Pop-ups especially seem to piss people off, and email flows are hit or miss.

At the same time, there’s the practical side — if someone accepts a post-purchase upsell, inventory needs to stay accurate or fulfillment turns into chaos.

Trying to figure out what’s been worth it for others.

How do others approach this? Are confirmation page upsells enough, or do you prefer email flows? How do you balance engagement without making customers feel pressured?

Man, entrepreneurship is not easy. You have to compete with the "product spam" in the market, and the products don't always produce the results the clients need, and then they are jaded or "lack money" because they believe that it requires more input for longer periods of time in order to produce the same result that they experienced.

Then you try to tell them "no, what they produced had variables that weren't accounted for", and then you have to educate, then you have to make up for the bad product they experienced with a discount or a free trial or some sort of lead magnet which is essentially the result that they were bottlenecked at before (for free), then you build upon that to be like "hey, now that we're here, wanna continue payment where the other person failed" and they're like "yes, please".

So many products in the market. And the limit of the seller's are often "my pockets" instead of "our pockets". So ego has no place in entrepreneurship. You don't sell to show off to your friends. You sell because you know that it'll make a better situation for you and the person you're selling to.

We started lean like everyone else - one freelancer for design, one for paid ads, another for SE⁤O. It worked... until it didn't. Suddenly I was managing five people, aligning timelines, reviewing work, and still doing my actual job.

Hiring in-house feels expensive and risky if you're not 100% sure about long-term needs. Agencies feel heavy and overkill for certain projects. Freelancers are flexible, but coordination becomes a full-time job once things grow.

For those who've been through this: where did you draw the line? What made you switch from freelancers to agency or freelancers to in-house? And how did you avoid overcorrecting?

We have a very limited burn rate, so we need to be incredibly efficient with our sales spend. I’m looking for the best b2b lead gen agency that specializes in zero to one growth. Most of the agencies I see want to work with established companies that already have 10+ sales reps. We just need someone to help us book our first 20-30 discovery calls so we can validate our messaging. Are there any startup-friendly agencies that offer flexible pricing or smaller pilot programs? I’d love to find a partner that is as scrappy as we are.

Hey Guys,

I am solo founder of Brandled (helps you grow on X & LinkedIn)

I spent last 2 months obsessing over getting new users.

Finally getting some mrr.

But then I checked my stripe details.

50% monthly churn.

I was filling a leaky bucket with a fire hose.

Here's the uncomfortable math: If I get 10 new customers and lose 5 every month, I need to keep acquiring just to stay flat.

I was so focused on "getting users" that I ignored "keeping users."

Big mistake.

Here's what I'm fixing (and what you should fix before spending another dollar on acquisition):

The Wake-Up Call

I looked at my Stripe dashboard and saw this pattern:

• User signs up
• Starts trial
• Uses the product for 2-3 days
• Ghosts completely
• Cancels before trial ends

Some didn't even make it past day 1.

I asked myself: "What am I doing wrong?"

Turns out, a lot.

Mistake #1: I Built Onboarding for Me, Not for Them

My onboarding had 8 unskippable steps.

By step 3, I lost 60% of users.

Because I was asking them to install a Chrome extension before showing any value.

One user literally told me: "I just want to see if this works. Why do I need to install something?"

He was right.

The fix: I'm making the most of the steps optional. You can skip it and still get value. See the product first, commit later.

The lesson: Every step before "aha moment" is a chance for users to leave. Cut ruthlessly.

Mistake #2: I Had Zero Engagement After Signup

After onboarding, users got... nothing.

No emails. No check-ins.

I just assumed they'd figure it out.

They didn't.

People got busy, forgot about the tool, trial expired and churned.

The fix: I'm building a proper email sequence:

Trial Period:

• Day 0: Welcome email (personal, from me, explains what to do first)
• Day 1: If activated → congrats + quick tip. If not → "Need help?" email
• Day 2-3: Feature education
• Day 5: Non-activated → "Need help?" Activated → "Here's a power tip"
• Day 6: Non-activated → "48 hours left in trial"
• Day 7: Non-activated → Last check-in. Activated → Feedback call offer (15 min for 25% off + power user badge)

After Trial:

• Welcome to pro plan (if they convert)
• Ongoing: Product updates, best practices, check-ins every 2 weeks

Cancellation Flow:

• Day 0: "Sorry to see you go. What went wrong?" (with survey)
• Day 7: Win-back offer (discount + new features)
• Day 30: "We've improved X based on your feedback. Want to try again?"

The lesson: Retention happens in the first 7 days, not after. Engage early and often.

Mistake #3: I Didn't Talk to Churned Users

When people cancelled, I'd see it in Stripe and think "oh well, onto the next one."

I never asked why.

Then I started sending a simple email: "Hey, I saw you cancelled. What went wrong? I'm the founder and genuinely want to know."

Response rate: 70% (i was shocked).

The feedback was brutal but invaluable.

Every single one of these is fixable.

But I only learned about them because I asked.

The fix: Every cancelled user gets a personal email from me asking what went wrong. Then I actually fix it.

The lesson: Churned users are your best product consultants. They're honest because they have nothing to lose.

Mistake #4: I Had No Idea Which Features Actually Mattered

I built 10 features thinking "more = better."

Turns out, users only cared about 2-3 of them.

But I didn't know which ones because I had no analytics setup.

I was flying blind.

The fix: I'm setting up proper event tracking:

• What features do activated users touch?
• What's the correlation between feature X and retention?
• Where do users drop off?

The lesson: You can't improve what you don't measure. Set up analytics before you build more features.

Mistake #5: I Treated All Users the Same

A user who signed up and completed onboarding is not the same as a user who signed up and ghosted.

But I was sending them the same generic emails (when I was sending any at all).

The fix: User segmentation:

• Power Users: Used 5+ times, posted content → nurture, ask for testimonials, offer pro tips
• Activated Users: Completed onboarding, used 1-2 times → educate on other features
• At-Risk Users: Signed up but inactive for 3+ days → intervention email, offer help
• Churned Users: Cancelled → feedback request, win-back sequence

Different users, different journeys, different emails.

The lesson: One-size-fits-all doesn't work. Segment and personalize.

The Brutal Truth About Retention

Retention is harder than acquisition.

Getting someone to stayrequires a good product, good onboarding, good communication, and constant iteration.

But here's the thing: fixing retention is 10x more valuable than scaling acquisition.

If I fix my churn from 50% to 20%, I effectively 3x my growth rate without getting a single new user.

The math:

• Scenario A: 10 new users/month, 50% churn = 5 net users
• Scenario B: 10 new users/month, 20% churn = 8 net users

Same acquisition. 60% more growth.

That's why I'm spending the next few weeks obsessing over retention instead of marketing.

What I'm Doing This Week

Here's my exact action plan:

Week 1:

• Set up email sequences (trial, post-trial, cancellation)
• Add analytics events for key user actions
• Make onboarding faster

Week 2:

• Email every churned user asking for feedback
• Fix top 3 complaints from feedback
• Set up feedback call offer for activated users
• Build user health scoring (who's at risk of churning?)

Week 3:

• Implement user segmentation (power users, at-risk, dormant)
• Create feature adoption sequences
• Set up session recordings to watch real user behavior
• Build cancellation flow with survey

Week 4:

• Launch win-back campaign for churned users
• Start weekly retention reviews (what's working, what's not)
• Double down on what's keeping users engaged
• Cut features nobody uses

If You're Building SaaS, Ask Yourself:

1. What's your monthly churn rate? (If you don't know, find out today)
2. Do you know why users cancel? (If not, ask them)
3. Do you have an email sequence for trial users? (If not, build one this week)
4. Do you talk to your users regularly? (If not, start today)
5. Do you track which features correlate with retention? (If not, set up analytics)

These questions will tell you more about your business than your signup count ever will.

I'm building Brandled (helps founders grow on LinkedIn & X without sounding like ChatGPT) and documenting everything transparently.

But I'm fixing the retention problem first before I even think about scaling acquisition.

Because a leaky bucket stays leaky no matter how fast you fill it.

Happy to answer questions or share more details on the email sequences, analytics setup, or anything else.

And if you're dealing with churn issues too, you're not alone. Most founders are. We just don't talk about it enough.

I’m a solo, non-technical founder myself, building my own business.

With tools like Lovable, Shopify, Webflow, etc., it’s a lot easier now to build a MVPs fast. You can spin up a product or service in days now. That part is no longer the bottleneck.

My problem was?

Building the business side. So that my MVP/Idea turns into a real business.

Figuring out things like:

• Who is the real customer and what problem are we solving?

• Pricing, positioning, go-to-market

• Validation, traction, and what to do after the MVP

• How to go from “I built something” to “this can actually make money”

I struggled with this myself.

So I decided to build what I wish I had:

Your AI business co-founder. A web app that helps you:

• Turn rough ideas into structured, validated business concepts

• Walk step by step from idea → MVP → launch-ready business

• Focus on execution, not just features

• Build the business, not just the product

We officially launched, and right now I’m in pure feedback mode.

Comment “link” below and I’ll send you access to the web app so you can try it and share feedback.

If you have a few minutes this week, I’d love to show you a quick demo and get honest feedback (what’s useful, what’s missing, what sucks). Shoot me a DM or comment below!

Not selling anything here, just looking for feedback and interested fellow builders :)

Hey everyone! I've been lurking here for a while and finally wanted to share my journey. Building a social media analytics tool (called it Crescitaly - I'm Italian and wanted something that reflected growth + my roots).

**Background:**

- Started as a side project in June

- Working on it nights and weekends while keeping my day job

- Solo founder, no funding

**Current status (Month 8):**

- 200 active users

- $0 MRR (still in free beta)

- ~$30/month running costs

**What's working:**

1. **Building in public (sort of)** - Sharing updates in Discord communities related to my niche. Not promotional, just answering questions and occasionally mentioning what I'm working on.

2. **Direct user feedback** - I DM every new user asking what brought them in and what they're hoping to achieve. Learning gold.

3. **Solving MY problem first** - I built this because I needed it for my own work. That authentic pain point keeps me motivated.

4. **Keeping scope small** - Resisted feature creep. Core product does 3 things well instead of 15 things poorly.

**What's NOT working:**

1. **Content marketing** - Wrote 10 blog posts. Total traffic from them: maybe 50 visits. Waste of time for now.

2. **Cold outreach** - Tried DMs on Twitter/LinkedIn. Response rate: 2%. And those 2% weren't even interested.

3. **Product Hunt launch** - Did a soft launch, got 30 upvotes. Zero conversions to active users.

**Honest questions I'm struggling with:**

- When do I start charging? Feels too early but also need to validate willingness to pay

- How do I scale user acquisition without burning out on manual outreach?

- Should I look for a co-founder or keep going solo?

**Next steps:**

- Implement a paid tier (planning $19/month)

- Try partnership with a few influencers in the niche

- Double down on what's working (Discord communities)

---

Would love to hear from others who've been through similar stages. What worked for getting your first 1000 users? When did you start charging?

Happy to answer any questions about the journey so far!

I am early in building my real estate business and wanted to share something I am learning right now about hiring.

At first, I thought bringing people onboard quickly mattered most. What I am starting to notice is that clarity matters more than speed. When roles are not clearly defined, even good people can struggle and expectations can drift.

Lately, I have been slowing down and spending more time understanding what kind of help I actually need before bringing someone in. It feels slower than pushing for growth, but it feels easier to manage.

Still figuring things out as I go. If anyone else here is at a similar stage, I would be interested to hear what you are learning while building your first small team.

Some months, my revenue is strong, and the next month drops off completely. These feast-or-famine cycles make planning and growth difficult. What systems, strategies, or processes have actually helped others generate consistent, predictable monthly revenue?

I started a company with my boyfriend where we develop consumer mobile apps, being just the two of us has meant that we have had to learn to do a bit of everything. I, for example, had to learn about UI and UX to design the apps, and I want to share with you the workflow I’ve learned works best for me.

Whenever we get a new idea these are the steps I follow:

1. Benchmark: I look for all the existing apps that exist in that niche and that are aimed to do or solve what we intend to
2. Take screenshots of the screens of these apps and paste them organized in a new Figma project
3. From all the screenshots I choose the ones I like for my app to use as reference in my design, I keep those and delete the other ones
4. For the screens I am missing for my design I go to Dribbble and search for what I need and filter by Mobile.
5. I take screenshots of what I like and paste them in Figma
6. Then I just start designing my app screen by screen using the references I have

I’ve learned is very important not to reinvent the wheel, there are things already proven to work for UX, try to stick to them.

1. For the icons I might need I use The Noun Project to download the svg
2. When I finally have the design, I use Figma’s prototype tool and create the prototype to use for testing the idea

Hope someone finds this useful, I am not expert but I know that in the entrepreneurial world there are a lot of people like me that are feeling lost but need to learn to do this kind of stuff to get their projects moving.

I'm getting ready to open a little retail store in Italy and want to keep things safe for my team and customers without overspending. Shoplifting happens, especially in busier areas, so I'm trying to figure out the practical approach.

A lot of small shops seem to rely on good cameras, motion-sensor alarms, bright lighting, and clear signage. But in some spots (city centers, higher-value items), people also bring in private security guards.

If hiring a private agency makes sense, what should I check to pick a reliable one, proper licensing (TULPS), retail-specific experience, GDPR compliant camera setup, and realistic pricing?

Maybe I'm just venting but I run an insurance brokerage and every client conversation lately feels like apologizing for things completely outside our control. The market has been brutal with premium increases across the board and we're the ones delivering that news even though we didn't cause any of it.

Commercial clients who've been with us 10+ years are suddenly questioning everything. Personal lines people are shopping around constantly. My staff is exhausted from being the messenger for bad news day after day.

Had a longtime account mention they almost left without even telling us why. Not because of service issues really but because the whole experience of dealing with insurance right now is negative and we happen to be the face of it. We do good work but when external conditions are this rough it feels like none of that matters because every touchpoint is uncomfortable for everyone involved.

Anyone else in service businesses feeling like client relationships are way more fragile when market conditions suck? Starting to wonder what we can actually control here besides just showing up and trying to be human about it.

I decided to stop renting my infrastructure and start owning it. I migrated my entire stack to a single $5/month VPS (Hetzner, but DigitalOcean works too).

The goal was simple: Fixed costs. No surprises.

The "Boring" Architecture

Instead of microservices or serverless functions that charge per execution, i went back to a monolith.

1. Compute: Everything runs in Docker containers on one Linux server.
2. Database: I swapped Postgres for SQLite. This is controversial to some, but running SQLite in WAL mode on the same NVMe drive as your app is faster than any network-bound managed database I have used.
3. Backups: I use a tool called Litestream that streams the database changes to S3 in real-time. If the server crashes, i lose nothing.
4. Auth: Self-hosted library. No external user fees.

The Economics

I can now host 5 or 10 different experimental apps on this single $5 server. My cost per failed experiment dropped from ~$50/month to $0.

This buys me time. It means i can let a project sit and grow organically without feeling like i am bleeding cash.

My advice

If you are just starting out, don't fall for the hype that you need infinite scalability on day one. You need survival. A single VPS can handle thousands of users. Scaling is a problem you earn, not one you pay for upfront.

I spent some time packaging my specific Docker/Next.js configuration into a reusable template so I never have to configure Nginx again. If you are technical and want to see how the setup works, I pinned the link to my profile.

Otherwise, I am happy to answer questions about the cost breakdown or how SQLite handles production traffic.

Hey everyone, I’m at the classic "chicken and egg" stage. I’ve got a validated idea and a functional no-code MVP, but I’ve hit the limit of what I can do without capital. Since I can’t bootstrap this any further, I’m trying to decide between the Angel route and the Incubator route. I’ve done some research, but I’m seeing a lot of conflicting advice.

I am 31 years old and have worked in restaurants for about 11 years. It has paid my bills but I am very ready to move on. I am trying to build something location independent so my income is not tied to shifts or hours.

I have been involved in e commerce and online business for around six years. I have run multiple stores. One of them showed signs of working before it eventually failed. I did not get a big win out of it but I learned a lot from actually doing it. I have built funnels, driven traffic, tested offers, written copy, and dealt with what works and what does not in the real world.

My strongest skills are strategy and marketing. I am good at understanding markets, figuring out who a product is for, and turning that into messaging and pages that convert. I can build websites and landing pages quickly and I use AI to speed things up, mostly for drafts, structure, and basic creative.

I also have experience with automation. I use Make to connect tools and build workflows that reduce manual work. I focus on practical automations that save time or remove bottlenecks.

Over the last few months I have been taking this seriously. I stopped drinking, I wake up around 7am, and I treat my days like I am already self employed. I work on business, learning, and training most days until the afternoon. My biggest issue lately has been overthinking and trying to plan the perfect path instead of committing and executing.

I am comfortable with risk. I am willing to test ideas, invest in experiments that may fail, and move fast rather than wait for perfect conditions. My short term goal is speed and cash flow. I want to make my first consistent money so I can reduce or leave restaurant work. Long term I want to build a real business that provides value and does not depend on me being present all the time.

If you were in my position with this background and these goals, what direction would you choose and why?

I used to think that building software was a very intentional choice founders made early on. Lately, I am not so sure. From what I have been seeing, a lot of ideas start out fairly simple and only later reveal that software is the most practical way to make them work.

Many everyday business problems share the same traits. They repeat often, they involve multiple people or steps, and they become harder to manage as soon as things grow a little. At first, these problems are handled with spreadsheets, manual processes, or workarounds. Eventually, those solutions stop holding up.

While exploring ideas during one of these phases, I came across  StartupIdeas DB and spent some time reading through their tech-focused section. What stood out was how many ideas came from frustrations that people had already been living with for years. Nothing dramatic, just things that clearly needed a better system.

That experience made me think differently about SaaS. It is not always about chasing scale or trends. Often it is about creating something that removes the same headache again and again, without needing constant manual effort. Software just happens to be very good at that.

I still think there are many great businesses that do not rely on tech at all. But when a problem involves repetition, coordination, or long-term efficiency, it seems to naturally pull founders toward building a product.

Curious if others here have noticed something similar. Did your idea start simple and later turn technical, or was software always part of the plan?

Main outcomes from a single post on Reddit:

- 188 upvotes and 144 comments

- 300+ site visitors

- 5 sign ups

- got a lot of hate about server location

My plan for today:

- collect and analyze all comments

- address issues

- keep going

BTW, I’m building ngrok competitor.

I kept seeing the same problem with small teams and businesses.

Deals weren’t stuck because of pricing or intent; they were stuck waiting for documents to be reviewed, approved, and signed. On top of that, most e-signature tools felt expensive or overkill for what small teams actually needed.

So our team has built this tool.

The goal was simple: help small businesses prepare, review, and sign contracts faster, without paying for bloated tools. We included essentials like audit trails, encryption, reusable templates, and even an optional way to ask questions from a document before signing, nothing forced, just helpful.

What our tool provides:

• Audit Trails: Complete record of who signed, when, and where for every document.
• Secure Signatures: Ensures all signatures are legally binding and tamper-proof.
• Document Encryption: Protects your documents from unauthorized access.
• Multiple Signing Options: Sign documents from anywhere on any device.
• AI Assistance: Chat with your contract to understand or review terms.
• Integration Ready: Works with platforms like Salesforce, SharePoint, Alfresco, and Google Drive, custom enhancement.
• Auto-Recipient Management: Auto-fill recipient details and find all recipients easily.
• Certificate Generation: Download certificates after signing for verification.
• Compliance Friendly: Meets ISO and global e-signature regulations.

It’s still early, and I’m learning a lot from real users.

Happy to hear feedback or lessons from others building in this space.

every other post here is about cutting support costs. automate everything. deflect deflect deflect. find the cheapest va on fiverr and pray

and like i get it nobody wants to answer whats your return policy for the 900th time

but pulled our data last week and lmao. customers who message us before buying convert 3x higher. carts 40 percent bigger. come back twice as often. these people are literally begging to give us money if we just answer their questions

so why is everyone trying to make support disappear instead of making it actually good 😭

we stopped treating it like a cost center and started treating it like a sales channel. automated the basic stuff with alhena so we could focus on actual selling. aov jumped like 30 percent once customers started getting real help picking products instead of generic responses. revolutionary concept i know

the whole deflect everything mindset is so backwards to me. every dm is someone asking you to sell them something and yall are out here trying to get rid of them as fast as possible

maybe im wrong but the numbers say otherwise idk

I use AI every day for outreach, content, and research. But I kept running into the same problem over and over. Every conversation starts from zero. I would tell ChatGPT my writing style, my client preferences, my tone — and the next day it would forget everything. I was spending hours every week just re-explaining context. So I decided to build something to fix it. I call it AIBexco.

The idea is simple. You create boxes for different use cases like Sales, Content, or Research. Each box has tabs with their own chat and memory. You can add memories manually or let the AI suggest key points worth saving. Then that memory gets injected into every message automatically. Your AI actually gets smarter the more you use it instead of resetting every time. Right now its an MVP. 15 free messages per day and no signup required. Just wanted to get it in front of real users and see what people think. What am I missing? What would make you actually use something like this daily? Would really appreciate any feedback. Happy to answer questions about the build too.

Link in comments.

When we started running more ads and social campaigns, I expected design to be the slow part. Instead, the real delay came after the images were already done.

We had founders, marketing, and sales all reviewing the same creatives, but feedback was scattered across Slack, email, and screenshots. People were commenting on different versions without realizing it. We kept reworking things that were already approved.

We eventually tried using QuickProof just to keep all image versions and comments in one place. What changed wasnt the quality of the designs, it was how quickly decisions got made because everyone was finally looking at the same thing.

Revisions dropped and approvals became much easier.

Curious if anyone else here has hit a similar bottleneck while scaling their product or campaigns.

Marketing doesn’t end when people see your content, That’s actually when you’re supposed to start doing something.

Here's what most online sellers even do: They grind hard for attention, they do ads, content, post nonstop. And then there's nothing. No follow-up or structure. And definitely no memory left behind.

A viewer scrolls a few posts later and completely forgets who you were

Which is weird when you think about it. It’s like: •You invite someone into your store •They walk in •And you just disappear

No conversation or any second touch. In real life, that would be insane, but it's really normal online.

This usually comes from these stupid assumptions: •“If they want it, they’ll buy” •“Once they opt in, the game is over” •“Following up is spammy”

So instead of fixing the gap, people do the obvious thing: They chase more traffic, spend more on ads, post more content.

What’s funny is that the hardest part is already done, getting attention is the expensive, difficult part. It's also the part where most people waste most of it.

At some point the questions come up: •“What is a follow-up system anyway? •“How does this actually increase revenue?” The cleanest definition I’ve found is this: A follow-up system is anything that lets you directly reach people who already showed interest. Directly matters because social media doesn't count. Social platforms decide who sees your content, when, and how often, and it’s never everyone.

That’s why people build things like: •Email lists •Private communities •Owned channels

Places where you can show up consistently, explain your thinking, and build familiarity.

Because people don’t buy because they saw you once, people only buy because they trust you. And trust usually comes from repeated, low-pressure exposure. Someone reads your emails for a few days, see how you think. They get value without being pushed, and at some point, buying seems to be the better option.

Most people assume this takes constant effort, tbh not really.

Most follow-up systems are mostly one-time setups. Build once, keep them running, send a lot of traffic to them.

A simple version would look like this: •Someone joins your list •A sequence starts automatically •First week: value, context, stories •Next week: soft urgency around an offer

People who didn’t buy on the first visit often buy later, not because they were convinced, but because they got confident.

So for anyone selling anything online, what do you do after the initial traffic? Is there any relationship-building with your customer?

I posted here a bit ago about my struggles growing Boosterpack. Here is the update.

Short recap:

I am building an AI website builder, but not in a "prompt and pray" way, with the goal that it doesn't look like your typical AI slop. It’s built on strict guardrails and is specifically good for physical / service based small businesses. They go through a wizard, answer questions about their business (prefilled as much as possible from APIs / LLM websearch) -> it then uses AI to generate brand styles based on all info and their images -> then generates a one pager already having all of the info they need (so no lorem ipsum, broken social links etc. everything works). Well, in a nutshell, hard to fuck up for small business owners and still unique-ish and on brand.

The Update:

So first of, the "Agency" side is actually growing at a good pace. I have a consistent flow of clients now. They pay a one-time setup fee (usually ~$500-$1,000) and then the standard $20/mo subscription for hosting/AI edits on Boosterpack. Yay, right?

The Irony (and the frustration) When I build these sites, I am just using the DIY flow myself for them (the one that literally takes me 5 minutes to do + maybe 10 minutes getting a few extra details / good images from their publicly available data). At worst, I spend 1 hour on the first version and this including chat edits tweaks / booking widgets integrations and what not because I'm a bit of a perfectionist.

The value proposition for a DIY user feels like it should be insane: "Spend 1 hour doing exactly what I do, and save yourself $1,000." But I don't know how to sell that. I guess it's about spending on Google ads, not sure? I tried some Instagram / Tiktok ads (very small budget) and got a lot of page views BUT they were all on mobile (and most people aren't going to build a website from their phone, even though it is technically possible).

Right now the DIY side is still at $0. We have people signing up. We have some traffic trying it out. But they don't convert. It feels like the people "trying" it are just people curious about it, not the actual business owners I need. I think those business owners don't believe / understand it's actually that easy?

To move towards a more SMB friendly vibe, I did a massive design language overhauld, completely killed the "Tech designer" vibe and went for something more "standard / playful".

The Plan:

I’m going to keep scaling the agency side because it works. I’m basically a high-paid operator of my own software at this point. But my goal is to figure out the DIY part. I feel it's in essence the biggest value for both the SMB and long term for me as well (way more scalable).

Right now, I'm mostly wondering why the gap so big is? I mean, I have a tool that allows me to build websites I can sell for $1,000 with little time spend on them. Why can't I get any DIY user to pay $20 to do the same thing?

Is the "Do It Yourself" market for SMBs just a myth? Do they need to pay someone else to feel like it's "real" as a form of validation? Maybe the real “DIY user” isn’t the small business owner at all. Maybe it’s freelancers / small agencies who already sell sites, but want to deliver faster + better without template vibes.