Are you fed up with the various limitations and performance issues of distribution platforms like X, Reddit, and Product Hunt?
I’ve been distributing my own products over the past few months.
My previous post on "how to distribute your product" went viral; I gained a lot from it, and people shared many insightful perspectives.
See details here:https://www.indiehackers.com/post/hey-how-do-you-distribute-your-products-06a304f34c
It really opened up my thinking. Let me first reflect on my own experiences:
Reddit is for discussion.
Quora is a community for knowledge and answers.
Product Hunt is for product discovery.
G2 is for product reviews.
I’ve used them all, but I always run into various limitations and issues with effectiveness. Somehow, it always felt like something was missing.
What was missing?
It seems like each channel is built around a specific core focus. Therefore, choosing a channel requires your product to align with that channel's characteristics; otherwise, the distribution process becomes frustrating. I won't go into the specific pain points here—anyone who has used them knows what I mean. It’s not that these channels are bad; I think the issue is more about the fit between the product and the distribution channel.
I found myself wondering: why are there so many restrictions when promoting a product? Why does the effort put into distribution often yield poor results?
Product or service providers want a place where they can openly and legitimately distribute their offerings and find users—not a place where posts get deleted or comments get restricted.
Users, on the other hand, want products or services that solve the actual problems they face.
Digging deeper, the essence of any product or service is providing a solution to a specific problem. That solution could be a SaaS platform, an app, or any other type of product or service.
This sparked a new idea for a distribution channel—distinct from AI-driven distribution. It would be a new kind of community focused on problems and solutions (where products/services serve as the solutions). Ideally, it would work like this:
- Product providers submit the core problem they aim to solve and explain how their solution addresses it; users can then leave comments.
- Users can post about the problems they are facing to seek products or solutions; others can then showcase how their products solve those issues and engage in discussion.
The core focus isn't just discussion or general knowledge; it’s about identifying the problem and presenting a tangible, effective solution for it. The data is completely open—unlike those new communities that lock data away behind a paywall—making it truly AI-friendly and accessible.
Well, to be honest, ideas are one thing and reality is another; there are risks involved in anything.
But isn't that true for any product? You only find out the real results once you actually build it.
What do you think of this distribution channel? This is the second new distribution strategy I’ve come up with after some painful lessons.
One channel missing from your list, and it has no moderators deleting posts: being callable by users' agents. When Meta opened its Muse connector platform, the pitch was literally "people reach your service just by asking for it, and their agent takes it from there." It rewards products with a clean API rather than good copy. Examples of small teams who shipped connectors, plus a deployable template: https://shipwithmuse.live/categories/connectors-and-mcp (I help curate it)
Here is another perspective: I view Muse more as a system where a user states a requirement, and the AI invokes established SaaS platforms or apps to complete the task—such as booking travel.
The "cold start" phase, however, presents a different scenario.
That said, since Muse can integrate the entire travel workflow, this approach could theoretically be extended to connect other workflows as well—making it a promising strategy for developing large-scale models.
What makes your observation particularly interesting is that this doesn't necessarily have to be embedded within the pipeline of a specific large model; instead, it could be developed as a SaaS or app that any large model can call directly—especially since, for some questions, the products themselves aren't yet fully mature.
Great concept! Focusing on "Problems and Solutions" is a very clear approach.
My main observation is around platform governance: without proper boundaries, the desire to self-promote and sell can easily spiral out of control. Creating a free, open marketplace for supply and demand sounds ideal, but maintaining quality and order will likely be the biggest hurdle.
Do you have a specific moderation model or framework in mind to keep it from becoming another spammy promo board? Would love to hear your thoughts on this!
That’s a good question; I think Reddit and Quora have already provided the answer.
I don't think there's a need to artificially control quality. People facing actual problems need solutions, so they will naturally try out products associated with those issues; good products will naturally garner high upvotes and comments, while poor ones will inevitably attract negative feedback.
This essentially represents a fusion of Reddit/Quora with platforms like G2 and Product Hunt. As a user, I don't need to know how many products are on the platform; what I want is a practical solution to the problem I'm facing. Meanwhile, when developers build a product, they are inevitably focused on the core problem that product solves.
Ideally, the combination of problems, solutions, and user feedback naturally filters out which issues need addressing and identifies which solutions are superior. It even allows for further filtering to pinpoint problems frequently reported by users, enabling developers to create targeted solutions.
"Thanks for explaining! You're right that community self-regulation and upvotes can handle quality. But I suppose we'll need to think about how to kick-start that 'natural filtering' during the early days when user numbers are still low (the cold-start problem)!"
Right, every project requires a "cold start"—even if the project itself is designed to solve a distribution channel problem. Ideals may be stark, but reality is just as real.