Public number: 67 weekly users. So I built a tool for myself instead
Doing the Levels thing: one real number, in public.
My resume tool ResuHive had 67 active users in the last 7 days (GA4, as of Sep 26). Search Console, last 28 days: 354 impressions, 10 clicks. Small. Honest.
Yesterday I shipped something different: a Chrome extension called Triage for TrustMRR. While browsing TrustMRR listings you can mark each product Pass / Later / Deep dive, add a note, and export everything as Markdown. It also restores your filters when you go back to the list. TrustMRR itself forgets them, and that bugged me every single day.
It was built on my own SaaS extension template, so it took one day. Now it's waiting for Chrome Web Store review.
Reality check: the closest competitor, Markers, has 266 users after 4 years. So I'm not expecting a business. It's a tool I use myself, plus a way to get some exposure from the TrustMRR ecosystem.
Next number: install count after review.
The asset here isn't Triage, it's that your extension template turns a one-day build into a repeatable way to show up inside someone else's ecosystem — Markers' 266-in-4-years ceiling matters a lot less when the cost of each attempt is a day.
Your 354 impressions / 10 clicks resonates. We run an SEO tool — 4 visits a month right now, DA 3. Sharing real numbers is uncomfortable but it's the only way to build in public honestly.
The "bugged me every single day" line is the most reliable product signal I've seen. Market research, surveys, competitor analysis — none of them match the certainty of scratching your own itch daily. If you're the first power user and you can't stop using it, the product-market question becomes distribution, not validation.
The 266 users after 4 years for Markers is actually useful data. When you can see the ceiling clearly, you stop optimizing for growth anxiety and start shipping for utility. That's a better headspace for building. One-day build on a SaaS template plus real competitor benchmarking — that's a more honest launch process than most Series A decks describe.
The one-day build is the right cost for this kind of bet — the danger with "built it for myself" tools is they quietly eat weeks. My rule: side bets get time-boxed to a day or two; anything longer has to earn a slot on the main roadmap. And the metric that matters isn't install count, it's whether Triage feeds ResuHive: if one Triage user a month turns into a real conversation about your main product, the extension pays for itself even at 50 installs. At 67 weekly users you can still talk to everyone, so pair the public number with one user conversation a week — the scoreboard is good content, but the interviews are the strategy.
thats intresting. i love building my own tools also to solve my problems. i remember when i built an automation tool because doing it with python became a long task i started with minor task and bam it became a huge project and a serious automation tool
"This is such a relatable journey! Building a tool out of personal need is often how the best solutions are born. Moving past the initial review hurdles and focusing on actual user engagement makes all the difference. Wishing you great success with it!"
Install count may be the wrong next number. For a triage tool, I’d watch how many people classify a few products, export once, then come back the next week. One install proves curiosity. A second session proves the workflow found a place.
I actually like the way you're tracking the numbers honestly. With 67 active users, I'd be more interested in understanding where those users came from and what made them stick than chasing bigger traffic immediately. That could reveal the most repeatable acquisition channel before you scale anything.
Once Triage is live, what result would make the ecosystem exposure worth maintaining—new ResuHive visits, signups, or something beyond installs for the extension itself?
Respect for the honest number. With 67 weekly users you can still ask every one of them something. A single question after they finish a resume ("what almost made you leave?") would tell you more than the Search Console numbers right now.
respect for posting the real number. 10 clicks off 354 impressions is about 2.8%, which isn't bad at all for a brand new site, so the bigger lever is probably getting more impressions in the first place. building something you use every day is a good call too, you'll hit every annoying edge before a user does
Love this angle. Building Xstream4K right now so this hits close to home — what made you look into it in the first place?