Building Gatehook: Trying to find 15 beta users in 15 days. Here's my plan.

Hey Indie Hackers! 👋

I'm building Gatehook - API monitoring for integrations.

The problem I believe exists:

Companies have monitoring for their code (Datadog, Sentry) and servers
(CloudWatch). And yes, there are API monitoring solutions (Kong, Gravitee, etc.)
but they're either:

• Expensive ($500+/month for small teams)
• Complex to set up (need DevOps team, k8s knowledge)
• Require ongoing maintenance (another thing to manage)

I think there's a gap for something that:

• Works in 30 seconds (just swap the URL)
• Doesn't require a DevOps team to set up
• Zero infrastructure to manage

Questions I think developers/CTOs ask themselves:

• "When did Stripe start failing? Was it before customers complained?"
• "What exactly did this customer send to my API that caused the error?"
• "Is this API slow right now or is it always this bad?"
• "Can I get visibility without setting up Kong/Gravitee?"

What I built:

Gatehook = API monitoring without the enterprise complexity.

No infrastructure. No DevOps setup.

Just swap the URL:

Before: api.stripe.com/charges
After:  ghook.io/proxy/stripe/charges

You get:
→ Request/response history (debug in minutes, not hours)
→ Metrics and alerts (know when things break)
→ Zero setup/maintenance (no Kong/Gravitee complexity)

Think: "Datadog for APIs, but way simpler"

The challenge:

I have 5 people testing now, but I need 15 more to:

• Test different use cases (different APIs, different tech stacks)
• Understand what features matter most (roadmap priorities)
• See how the system handles different volumes and patterns
• Validate if this problem is real across different companies

Goal: 15 more beta users in 15 days.

My strategy:

Primary: LinkedIn outreach to CTOs/Tech Leads/Engineers

Also testing:

• Communities (Telegram/Slack: Backend Brasil, DevOps groups, etc.)
• Email to warm network (ex-colleagues, people I've worked with)
• Product Hunt Ship page
• Maybe some technical posts (Dev.to, Medium)

Target: Anyone who uses external APIs (Stripe, Twilio, etc.) or provides
APIs to customers. Basically any SaaS/tech company dealing with integrations.

Budget: $0 (just time)
Time: ~2h/day

Full transparency:

→ Product: Works but needs polish
→ Current beta users: 5
→ Previous experience doing this: 0
→ Confidence level: 6/10

I have no idea if this will work, but I'm going to document the journey.

Why I'm sharing:

1. Accountability (if I post it, I have to do it)
2. Learn from this community (you've been here before)
3. Maybe help others who want to do beta outreach
4. And honestly - why not get beta testers from this community too?

I'll post updates every few days with real numbers and what I learn.

Want to be a beta tester?

If you work with API integrations and want to try Gatehook:

→ Sign up at gatehook.io (early access form)
→ Or comment/DM me for personal onboarding

Or just want to follow along?

Drop a comment and I'll tag you in updates.

Questions for you:

1. Does this problem resonate? How do YOU monitor API integrations?
2. Any advice for LinkedIn outreach that doesn't suck?

Site: gatehook.io

Starting tomorrow. Let's see what happens