I built it and nobody came. What got you your first users?

Question

I'm not a developer; MBA, cyber project manager by day. Years ago I taught myself enough SQL and API glue to automate the risk levels on my own trades. That was my ceiling, and every idea that needed real software died there. AI coding tools moved the ceiling, so I spent months of nights rebuilding it into something real and launched it last week.Six days later: three posts, two followers, essentially zero visitors. The best thing I have ever posted got four likes. 1 like was from me lol...The part I wasn't ready for is that nobody rejected it. I'd braced for "this is bad" or "this already exists." Instead there's just silence. Every community I tried was either gated to new accounts or moving fast enough that a stranger's post sinks inside an hour.So I have a working product, months of work, and zero information. Not "no demand" &mdash; no exposure. I can't tell you whether the thing is any good, because nobody has looked at it.For those who have been here: what actually got you your first hundred real users? Not "post more." What actually worked?

akashskypatel · Accepted Answer

I think we are in an age where there is so much saturation and noise in every corner of the internet and with the rise of AI everyone is building "disposable" software for their own niche use or what THEY think is new and unique that it's impossible to generate organic traffic anymore. All the "hot" projects are botted to hell with most likely paid promos on places like twitter to promote their project and botted stars on github. Everyone is throwing their own project out in the void and hoping someone will adopt it. I have resigned to just working on what I enjoy and find useful that fills a niche somewhere and just having fun with it.

rdegges · Answer

I've built quite a few projects from 0 -> business over the last 20 years, and I think the fundamentals are still true today.
First rule: if you're building the product solo, is it something you're the target user of? I've always felt like the biggest "cheat code" for building successful products is just making them for people like you. I know that goes against a lot of lean startup methodology (talk to users, etc.), but it has always worked in my experience. Use your unique domain knowledge to make something meaningfully better, cheaper, more accessible/simple than the competition.
Second rule: marketing is important. Almost all the things I've built are developer services, so to get user feedback and early traction, I'd submit to go speak at the local meetup groups in my area, talk about the tech stuff I worked on as part of the product, then give people a free shirt if they'd give me some in-person feedback after the event. I made some good friends that way (hello, SoCal Pythonistas!), and also made meaningful product growth. Don't be a shill, just genuinely nerd out about the things you're doing in an authentic way. People like that.
Third rule: write well. Don't use LLMs to spam blog content that's low quality about your product. Write about it yourself. Show examples, highlight features. Don't use marketing words, use simple descriptions.