Built a grant proposal kit, launched it, made $0 so far. Roast it.
I spent about six weeks building GrantKit. It's a set of proposal templates plus a walkthrough for small nonprofits and solo founders who have to write grant applications and have never done one before. The idea came from watching a friend who runs a tiny arts charity spend two full weekends rewriting the same budget narrative for three different funders.
It's live. It works. Revenue is basically zero.
I've had a handful of visitors, mostly from me posting in two Facebook groups, and nobody bought. I don't know yet whether that's a product problem, a price problem, or just nobody knowing it exists. My gut says the third one, but my gut also said people would buy in week one.
So two things I'd like from anyone who's been through this. First, if you look at the page and immediately think "I wouldn't pay for that", I want to hear why, in whatever words you'd use to your mate. Vague encouragement doesn't help me. Second, what actually got you your first ten paying users? Not the growth story from month eight. The awkward early bit where you had nothing.
Anyway, here's the thing if you want to poke at it: https://grant-proposal-kit-site.vercel.app/?utm_source=indiehackers&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=grantkit_202609
The page answered why I would not buy, but probably not for the reason you expect. Your post says this is for small nonprofits that need help writing grants. The landing page sells a grant writing side business, complete with client acquisition and retainers. Your friend's problem was rewriting the same budget narrative for three funders. I would build the page around that exact job and show what gets reused. Right now you are speaking to a different buyer.
You read it correctly and the page is wrong. The post describes someone rewriting the same budget narrative for three funders, and the page sells client acquisition and retainers, which is a different person entirely. I am rebuilding it around the reuse job: one narrative, three funder formats, and what actually gets copied between them. The side business framing came from wanting a bigger market, and it cost me the specific buyer. Would you keep any of the retainer material further down the page, or cut it completely?
Your gut is right. We spent €150 on ads with a decent landing page and got 4 clicks, 0 installs. Our first users came from a much cheaper source: showing up in live conversations where founders described the exact problem we solve, and replying with specifics instead of a pitch. The awkward early bit is unglamorous — answer the "how do I write a budget narrative" posts in those two Facebook groups one by one. Your friend's weekend is not a niche, it's a pattern. Find where it repeats and be the useful voice there.
150 euro for 4 clicks and 0 installs is the number I needed to read today. I have been running the same experiment from the other end and getting the same answer.
The "reply with specifics instead of a pitch" part is where I keep failing. My instinct is still to lead with what I built rather than with the thing the person actually asked. Answering the budget narrative question properly, with no product in the sentence, is harder work and slower, and it seems to be the only part that moves.
What I have started doing instead of ads: build the finished thing for one specific person first, send it to them, and say nothing else. It costs an hour instead of 150 euro and the reply rate is not close.
How long did it take before those live conversations turned into installs rather than nice replies?