125+ users in 10 days. Building a Reddit marketing tool that refuses to be a bot
Hey IH,
I'm Bhavya. Solo founder. One-person army. Chief Everything Officer. Whatever makes the loneliness sound cooler.
Launched Snoogrow 10 days ago. It helps founders market on Reddit without getting banned or building an army of bot accounts. Figured I'd share where things stand while I still remember what day it is.
The numbers (unfiltered)
- 125+ users in 10 days
- Solo founder, no team, no co-founder, no therapist (probably need one)
- Revenue: enough to mass-fund one very sad cup of coffee
- Most users are on free tier, kicking the tires
- A handful of paid conversions. Every notification makes me do a little chair dance
Not retiring anytime soon. But for something I built alone and launched 10 days ago? I'll take it.
What Snoogrow actually does
The problem: Reddit is one of the best places to find your audience. But doing it manually means hours of scrolling, learning each subreddit's unwritten rules, figuring out when to post, and praying the mods don't nuke your account.
Here's what we do instead:
1. Knowledge-first matching
Users fill in their expertise and their product's knowledge base. We use that to match them with Reddit conversations they can actually contribute to. No random subreddit blasting. If you don't know what you're talking about, we won't help you pretend.
2. AI-assisted writing (not AI-generated)
This distinction matters to me. Every time AI generates a comment or post, it asks: "what's YOUR experience with this?" AI structures. The user's real knowledge is the content. The result reads like a person who knows their stuff. Because they do.
Think of AI as the editor. You're still the writer. We just make sure you don't ramble for 6 paragraphs. (Unlike this post.)
3. Subreddit rules are non-negotiable
Post generation is multi-step: find trending topics, match to user expertise, check subreddit rules, match the right community, THEN generate. If a subreddit doesn't allow promo, we don't let you sneak it in. No amount of "but my product is different" overrides this.
4. HET (High Engagement Time) scheduling
We calculate when each subreddit is most active and let users schedule for those windows. It's the Reddit equivalent of "don't post on Instagram at 3am." Small thing, big difference.
5. Engagement analysis and lead detection
Every post and comment gets sentiment analysis after 24 hours. We figure out which responses look like potential leads. So you spend time on conversations that might actually go somewhere, not chasing every reply.
The philosophy (the part that lets me sleep at night)
Reddit users are anonymous for a reason. Communities are self-policed. People hate spam with a burning passion and they will call you out publicly. It's beautiful, honestly.
So our rules:
- No bots. Nothing gets posted without a human reviewing it. Period.
- No followup DMs. You DM someone, they don't respond? That's it. Move on with your life. No "just circling back" nonsense. We built guardrails, not a stalking tool.
- No karma farming hacks. You build karma by being genuinely helpful. Revolutionary concept, I know.
- Subreddit rules are enforced. Not "suggested." Enforced.
Reddit will always win against people trying to game it. I'd rather build something that works WITH the platform than against it.
What's been hard (the honest part)
- Days 1-4 were pure chaos. Every edge case I didn't test decided to show up at once. Timezone bugs. Reddit API quirks. Things breaking in combinations I didn't know were possible.
- Solo founder support is a special kind of pain. I reply to every message personally. Right thing to do. Does not scale. My DMs look like a customer support ticket queue.
- Onboarding needs work. Too many users get stuck at "connect your Reddit account." I'm losing people before they even see the good stuff.
- Free tier users are curious but cautious. 125+ users sounds nice. My bank account disagrees. Most want to try everything before paying, which I respect, but patience is being tested.
What's next
- Fixing onboarding (biggest drop-off, biggest priority)
- Better analytics so users can see what's working
- Iterating on AI quality based on actual user feedback
- Maybe a Product Hunt launch once things stop catching fire every other day
The ask
If you're marketing on Reddit (or thinking about it), I want your feedback. Not the polite kind. The "this doesn't make sense" or "I'd never use this because..." kind. That's what actually helps.
And if you've built tools around community platforms (Reddit, Discord, forums), how did you handle the line between useful automation and spam? Because that line haunts me.
