I launched my SaaS. Now comes the hard part.
https://getpublishub.com/
I built Publishub, an AI copilot for video creators.
It analyzes your video and suggests better hooks, cuts and improvements.
Now I'm trying to get my first users.
How did you get yours?
Nice progress. What is the next thing you are focusing on?
I’d show the result before explaining the product.
Pick a few creators who are already asking for video feedback and run one of their videos through the tool. Give them one useful observation for free.
“Your first six seconds don’t actually contain the hook” is much stronger than “here’s my AI video tool.”
If the insight is genuinely useful, curiosity about the tool comes naturally.
Congrats on shipping. The thing that worked for me with a free tool was to stop explaining it and just show one result.
Creators post their videos asking for feedback all the time (r/NewTubers is full of them). Run Publishub on a few and reply with what it actually found. Something like "your hook starts at 0:07, the first 6 seconds is you saying hi". If the advice is good, someone will ask what you used. That's when you mention it. A result on their own video beats a landing page every time.
One more thing I learned the hard way: pick one channel at a time and decide up front what "working" means, like 5 signups in a week. And tag your links, otherwise you won't know where anyone came from. I ran a few channels at once in the beginning and had no idea which one was doing anything.
Who do you picture as the first user? Small creators with no audience yet, or people already getting views who want more?
Yeah, I think smaller creators are probably the best place to start. People who are already posting consistently, but are still doing the editing and figuring out what works on their own.
And honestly, your point about showing the result instead of explaining the tool makes a lot of sense. I think seeing what Publishub actually finds in their video would be much more compelling.
I’m definitely going to try this approach. Appreciate the advice!
A video can lose viewers before the creator reaches the interesting part. I'd show Publishub finding where an opening loses momentum and suggesting a stronger hook from existing footage.
That comparison could spark useful creator feedback while making the product immediately clear.
Yeah, exactly. I think showing the actual moment where the video starts losing momentum could make the value of Publishub much easier to understand.
And I really like the idea of suggesting a stronger hook using footage the creator already has. That’s actually something I want to explore more.
Appreciate the suggestion!
How did you decide this was worth building in the first place?
Honestly, it started with a problem I was experiencing myself. I was building content and noticed how much time goes into figuring out what actually makes a video work — the hook, pacing, cuts, subtitles, etc.
I also realized that a lot of smaller creators are doing all of this themselves, without an editor or a team to give them feedback.
So I started building Publishub as a way to have an AI “second pair of eyes” on a video and point out things that could be improved.
I’m still validating whether this is a problem creators actually care enough about, but that’s what made me want to build it in the first place.
This is great work — reminds me of some of the calls I've had to make building Xstream4K. What would you do differently if you started over?
Honestly, I’d probably start talking to creators much earlier. 😂
I spent a lot of time building before really getting enough feedback from the people I’m trying to help.
If I started over, I’d validate the problem first, talk to creators every day, and build around what keeps coming up instead of assuming I already know what they need.
Still figuring it out, but that’s definitely one of the biggest lessons so far.
Congrats on shipping — the “now get users” freeze is real. Free text-only finish week for one next distribution step: one done line + one next step/day, no calls. Want in?
Yeah, I’m in 😂 I’ve definitely reached the “okay, now I need to actually get users” phase.
I’ve been talking to creators and trying different ways to get Publishub in front of people, so I think having a simple daily goal would help me stay consistent.
Let’s do it!
Helpful post. How did you get your first bit of traction?
Honestly, mostly by putting Publishub in front of creators and talking to people directly. I’ve been doing a lot of outreach on Instagram and also sharing the build in public.
It’s still early, so I’m mainly trying to figure out which channel actually brings people who are genuinely interested, not just clicks.
This is useful. How are you finding your first users so far?
I’m still pretty early on this. I’ve been reaching out to creators directly, mostly on Instagram, and trying to have actual conversations instead of just sending a pitch.
I’m also experimenting with Reddit, X and Indie Hackers to see where I can find creators who actually have the problem I’m solving.
Nice work shipping it. What has been the biggest challenge since launch?
Definitely distribution. Building the product is something I can work on every day, but getting it in front of the right creators is a completely different challenge 😂
Right now I’m spending a lot more time talking to people and testing different acquisition channels.
The hard part is distribution, not product. We learned this at €150 CAC via Ads. Organic channels (Threads replies, cold DMs, build in public) compound. Product is table stakes; distribution is the moat.
Getting more creators to actually use it and give me feedback.
I’ve built a lot of the core product already, so I think the next step is learning what people actually find useful and what they don’t.
Nice work! Curious about your LLM costs — I run an AI product too and
found that model choice makes a huge difference (I cut my bill ~74% by
switching some tasks to DeepSeek/Qwen). What model are you using?
Yeah, definitely. I’m still at a pretty small scale, so the costs are manageable for now, but I’m paying close attention to it.
I’m also trying to figure out which parts actually need an LLM and which can be handled with simpler logic. I imagine model choice is going to become a much bigger factor as usage grows.
For first users, I would pick one creator workflow and make the promise extremely concrete. Find people already describing that pain in their own words, then show one before and after example using the same kind of video they make. That gives you better feedback than a broad launch, and it creates language you can reuse in the landing page, outreach, and future discovery. The first goal is not reach. It is learning which problem makes someone come back.
This is actually really helpful. I think I’ve been thinking too broadly about “creators” instead of focusing on one specific workflow.
I’m going to pay more attention to the exact problems creators are already talking about and see if I can build the first version around one of those.
Appreciate the advice!
"How did you get yours" is a fair question, but the more useful one might be: what does a "using it" user look like for Publishub versus someone who ran it once out of curiosity? An AI copilot for editing is the kind of tool people might try on one video and not come back to unless it changes their actual workflow. Knowing what repeat use looks like before you go looking for users would tell you whether you're solving for acquisition or for retention first.
That’s a really good question. Right now, I’d say a real user is someone who uploads a video, actually uses the feedback to make changes, and comes back with another video.
I don’t want to optimize for people who just try it once. I’m more interested in finding creators who can actually see Publishub becoming part of their workflow.
I’m still figuring out what that looks like in practice though.