This little idea started as a tiny experiment… and honestly, I wasn’t sure anyone would care.
I had no idea it would quietly grow into something used by thousands.
Sometimes it still feels like I’m peeking over my own shoulder 👀, hoping it all makes sense.
I did launch it.
On Indie Hackers.
And on Product Hunt.
Product Hunt got… 2 votes (read: nothing 😆), so no spike, no magic — just quiet.
A few weeks ago, this project had barely 20 users.
Today, it’s 2,000+.
And most of that growth didn’t come from launches.
It came from what happened after people installed it.
I’m building a small Chrome extension — a screen recorder I made mostly for myself (Showesome).
Nothing flashy. No AI buzzwords. Just something that had to feel right to use.
Honestly, I worried no one would even care. Every little message, or even a tiny sign of interest, felt like a hug from the universe. 💛
Here’s what actually made it grow:
If anything felt confusing or awkward while using it myself, that was on me.
Every unclear label, shortcut, or “why is this here?” moment got fixed as I iterated.
Even the tiniest friction felt like a personal challenge to solve.
I spent hours refining small details, testing different flows, and iterating again and again — sometimes muttering to myself like a mad scientist.
Onboarding isn’t a checklist. It’s whether someone feels confident using your product.
Even the few messages I received, or small signs I noticed while testing, were louder than any launch metrics.
Each hiccup reminded me this was still my baby project 🍼 — I couldn’t leave it broken.
Sometimes a small improvement would make me grin — a tiny sign that it was finally feeling right.
No big features. No hype.
Just tiny improvements: shortcuts, wording tweaks, UX fixes.
The boring stuff nobody tweets about — but everyone feels.
Some nights I stayed up tweaking a word or a button color, thinking: does this feel right?
Other nights I whispered to my laptop: please be good enough…
Often, the tiniest tweaks nobody tweets about ended up making the biggest difference.
At some point, users started returning without reminders.
Then it compounded.
Word of mouth and Chrome Web Store discovery did the rest. 🌱
Every time someone came back, I felt a little spark of joy — like my baby project had grown a tiny pair of wings. 🪽
The extension didn’t go viral.
It just quietly stopped giving people reasons to leave — and that… that felt amazing. 😌
If you’re stuck at 10–50 users, this phase matters more than it feels.
Sometimes the difference between 20 users and 2,000 is just fixing one small annoying thing you’ve been ignoring.
Growth isn’t always loud. Sometimes it’s the quiet moments — the little “aha” moments — that stick. ✧
And sometimes, those quiet moments are exactly the reason you started building in the first place. ❤︎
Yepe you gave me a hope
So glad it gave you hope! 😄 Keep building — momentum comes with time.
Woah, really gave me a hope for my new launch. And corrected my perspective, i was looking forward to the first week of lauch itself . I have to wait and keep on improving with the feedback i will receive.
Exactly! 😌 Votes and the first week are fun, but real growth comes from polishing your product after people start using it. Patience pays off! 💛
Love this perspective. The first-time experience often matters more than any launch spike — small details compound over time.
Thanks! 💛 Absolutely — those first-time experiences and tiny details really do stick with people.
This is such a wholesome journey — so glad it’s getting the users it deserves! 💛 What do you think was the single change that made the biggest difference?
Thanks a lot! 😌 Honestly, I didn’t do anything fancy — just focused on small tweaks and making sure it felt right for users.
Thanks for sharing, I also built an extension and planning to launch on PH, I will follow the points you mentioned.
Awesome! 🙂 Glad it was helpful — best of luck with your launch on Product Hunt! Keeping the focus on smooth UX and small, genuine updates really makes a difference.
This is super inspiring! Everyone chases the big launch spike, but your story shows how retention and word-of-mouth from a polished experience is the real winner. Congrats on 2k users—what was one tweak that surprised you with the biggest bump?
Thanks! 🙂 Honestly, no single tweak — just lots of small UX polish and thinking like an end user. Making things smooth and intuitive ended up having the biggest impact!
This is such a good reminder that real growth often happens after the launch, not during it. What stood out to me is how your traction came from retention, UX polish, and word of mouth, not spikes. I’ve seen this compound even further when founders pair this mindset with Reddit: not launching there, but answering existing problem threads where users already care about the exact friction you’ve removed. Those conversations quietly rank, attract the right users, and keep sending traffic long after the hype fades. Your story is a great example of why that approach works.
Thanks so much! 🙂 Couldn’t agree more — the real magic usually starts after launch, when people actually use the product. Focusing on retention, smooth UX, and solving real problems quietly compounds over time.
And yes — finding the right communities where people already have those frustrations is huge. That kind of targeted, helpful engagement often outperforms big launches by a mile. Appreciate you sharing that perspective!
Totally agree. These kinds of conversations are where the real insights live. I’ve been working closely with teams on retention and community-driven growth lately, happy to share what’s been working if you want to compare notes. Feel free to DM me anytime or reach out at [email protected]
or Telegram: @preshtechsolution.
Love the insight of going from 20 to 2000 users !!.we start focusing on all big features and miss out tiny little details which worries the users most.
Thanks! 🙂 Totally — it’s crazy how often the small details get overlooked. Those tiny UX tweaks and polish moments usually have a bigger impact on whether people stick around than any single big feature.
Little "aha" moments make the difference.
Exactly 🙂 Those little moments of clarity often matter more than big features.
This is honestly refreshing. Tiny UX wins compound way more than big launches.
Thanks! 🙂 Totally agree — those small UX details add up faster than most people expect.
Love this quiet-growth story, Alma; reminds me of my own alpha grind with BOS+HUB idea I am launching. Obsessing over those first-minute tweaks turned my clunky UX into something testers actually stuck with.
What's one fix that surprised you with the biggest impact? Hit me with some pro tip, please, just getting started on indie hackers.
Thanks! 🙂 For me the biggest impact came from polishing the existing flow and really forcing myself to think like a first-time user.
I focused on making things visually clear, easy to follow, and obvious without instructions — better spacing, clearer actions, fewer moments where you have to think “what now?”. Those small UX details added up fast and changed how people felt using it in the first minute.
Main takeaway: don’t underestimate visual clarity and simplicity. When something feels intuitive, people stick with it.
Good luck with BOS+HUB — the alpha grind you mentioned is where a lot of the real progress happens.
love the "quiet growth" mindset. had similar experience - PH barely moved the needle but finding the right reddit threads and just being helpful there brought way more real users.
the polish part you mentioned is so true tho. people notice when something just works.
for anyone doing reddit outreach - search Wappkit Reddit on google, helps find threads without wasting hours scrolling
Thanks so much! 🙂 I completely get it — it’s amazing how engaging in the right small communities can bring real users, while big launch platforms sometimes barely make a dent. I’ve found that focusing on making things work smoothly often gets noticed more than any flashy promotion.
Also, really appreciate the Wappkit Reddit tip — that’ll save a lot of time digging through threads!