Day 2 update: 50 users in 25 days — what actually happened
Posted my plan yesterday. Here's the real numbers:
202 views, 53 comments, 15 likes in 24 hours
Best comment in the thread: "8 real users beats 50 tourists" — reframed my entire goal
Second best: build comparison pages for AI search visibility — doing this today
What I learned from the comments:
IH audience is mostly founders, not freelancers. Great advice, wrong target users. Reddit is where my actual users live.
Facebook groups are dead — AI slop and zero engagement in every UK freelance group I checked.
The activation moment matters more than signups — I'm now tracking what action proves Helios replaced one existing tool in the first session.
What I'm doing today:
Reddit warmup — 15-20 comments across r/freelance, r/smallbusiness, r/FreelanceWriters
Building Helios vs Bonsai, vs HoneyBook, vs Harvest comparison pages
Posted in r/smallbusiness today
Current user count: 0
Still zero. But the thinking is sharper than it was yesterday.
helios.today — free plan, no card needed.
This is a much sharper update than “I got 50 signups.”
The important shift is realizing that freelancers are not just looking for another dashboard. They already have messy workflows, invoices, time tracking, docs, email, reminders, and client follow-up spread across tools.
So the first user test probably should not be “will they sign up?” It should be: “can Helios replace one painful part of their current client workflow in the first session?”
The Reddit direction makes sense, but I’d keep the ask extremely specific. Not “try my tool,” but something like: “what part of client/admin work do you still manage in spreadsheets or notes?”
That gives you pain language before pushing the product.
For the comparison pages, I’d make them less feature-vs-feature and more workflow-vs-workflow: Helios vs Bonsai for freelancers who want less setup, Helios vs Harvest for people who need client workflow not just time tracking, etc.
Zero users is fine if today’s work gets you closer to the exact pain sentence freelancers already believe.
This is genuinely sharp aryan_sinh — the 'can Helios replace one painful part in the first session' reframe is exactly the test I should be running. I've been thinking too broadly. And the workflow-vs-workflow positioning for comparison pages is something I'm going to steal directly. Helios vs Harvest for people who want full client workflow, not just time tracking — that's a much more honest frame. Saving this comment.
Glad that helped.
I’d actually keep the next step very concrete: turn that “one painful part in the first session” idea into the actual pain sentences, Reddit questions, homepage angle, and comparison-page framing.
That is the part that will tell you whether freelancers see Helios as another tool or as a real replacement for one annoying workflow.
If useful, I can put together a small written breakdown for Helios around that.
What’s the best email to send details?
Appreciate the offer but I'll keep it in the thread for now — happy to work through it publicly, that's kind of the point of building in public. What would the breakdown actually cover?
Fair question.
I’d keep it very specific to Helios, not a broad GTM doc.
It would cover:
the one freelancer workflow to target first
the pain language to look for on Reddit
the homepage angle
the comparison-page framing
the first-session activation test
Basically, turning the current direction into a practical positioning and acquisition plan you can test.
Happy to put the cleaner version in writing if useful. Easier than turning the thread into a full teardown.
Appreciate it but I'd rather keep it in the thread — if it's useful for me it'll probably be useful for others following along too. What workflow would you target first?
That’s the part I’d keep for the written breakdown.
The useful work is not just naming one workflow. It’s mapping the pain, first-session test, homepage angle, and comparison framing around it.
Happy to write the structured version if useful.
aryan_sinh if the mapping is useful just drop it here — genuinely open to it. But I'm not going to take it offthread. If it's good advice it's better shared publicly anyway.