17 y/o, started building during exams, launched after. $0 revenue. Here's everything — the product, the numbers, and what I need help with.
I'm 17. CSE student. My semester exams started.
I started building anyway.
Finished when exams ended. Launched after exams week.
Total build time: 3 weeks.
What I built
KeelStack — a production-ready Node.js + TypeScript backend starter kit.
Auth, Stripe billing, PostgreSQL, webhooks, email,
background workers — all wired and tested.
Real numbers, not claims:
-597 unit tests passing
-36 end-to-end checks passing
-93.13% statement coverage
-0 known vulnerabilities
-Clean TypeScript compilation
-$29 one-time for first 20 buyers . You own the code. No subscription.
Backend-only — works with React, Vue, Svelte, React Native, or any frontend you already have.
Why backend-only
Every paid kit I saw was Next.js-first.
ShipFast. MakerKit. SupaStarter. All of them.
If you're using Vue, building a mobile app,
or already have a frontend — none of them work cleanly.
KeelStack doesn't care what frontend you use.
You hit REST endpoints over HTTP. That's it.
Current status
$0 revenue. 0 sales. 0 customers.
The product is done.
The distribution is not.
I have no audience. No Twitter following worth mentioning.
No email list. No community.
I'm weak at marketing. I know how to build.
I don't yet know how to find buyers.
What I've tried so far
- Launched the landing page at keelstack.me
- Posted on Reddit (9 downvotes, 0 upvotes — learned from that)
- Writing on Dev.to
- Posting on X/Twitter with build-in-public angle
- Now this post
What I'm asking
Two specific questions:
-
Is the positioning clear?
Backend-only. Any frontend. $29. First 20 developers
at early builder price. -
How did you get your first 5 sales with zero audience?
What channel, what message, what actually worked?
Not looking for encouragement.
Looking for what's real.
One more thing
I'm going to update this post as things change.
First sale. First feedback. What worked. What didn't.
Starting from zero in public.
Update March 30: Tests now at 597 (93.13% coverage), price reduced to $29 for first 20 buyers. Still 0 sales – iterating in public.
Respect for posting real numbers and specific asks.
On positioning: “backend-only, any frontend” is solid, but I’d sharpen the pain in headline form:
“Ship auth + billing + webhooks in days, not weeks — without locking into Next.js.”
On first 5 sales with no audience, I’d run this tight 10-day loop:
You’ve already done the hard part (proof + shipping discipline). Now it’s mostly distribution where the pain already exists.
If useful, here’s a practical teardown + message-angle checklist for this phase: https://roastmysite.io/go.php?src=nonhn_ih_keelstack_needhelp_20260328t0706_03_usd_presell_hv
Hey, thanks a lot for this — seriously. The headline idea is actually really good. I'm gonna try something like "Ship auth + billing + webhooks in days, not weeks — no Next.js lock-in" on my landing page.
And yeah, you're right about distribution. I've been heads-down building for weeks and kinda forgot that people need to actually find it first. The "help first, no pitch" thing makes sense — I'll start hanging out on Reddit and X more, just answering stuff.
Really appreciate you taking the time to write this out.