Day 1 after public launch: 0 signups. Here's what happened.

This is the most authentic and universal startup experience there is. That deafening silence after the first public launch is a rite of passage. Congratulations—you've now leveled up from "builder" to "iterative problem-solver."

You're 100% right to suspect messaging and targeting. Traffic without conversion is a classic sign that you're speaking the wrong language to the wrong crowd. Your product likely solves a real problem, but the people who clicked didn't instantly see their pain reflected in your copy or believe you were the solution.

Your "What's next" list is gold. Especially "Actually talk to people instead of just broadcasting." Do that immediately. Find 5 developers who should need docs and interview them about their current process. Don't mention your tool at first. Just listen.

A few tactical thoughts based on your post:

1. "Free tier too limited?" Possibly. Could it feel more like a trial than a free plan? Consider a temporary "Unlock all features for 30 days" launch offer to remove friction and get critical early users in the door.

2. Landing Page Autopsy: Does your headline state the user's biggest frustration with documentation, or does it just describe your product? People buy aspirin, not vitamins.

3. Targeting: r/SideProject is full of builders launching their thing, not necessarily looking for new tools. Where do developers go to complain about writing docs? Find those threads, listen, then engage helpfully.

The only failure now would be to stop. You've built in public, now learn in public. Share what you discover from talking to people. That shift from "Here's my thing" to "Here's what I'm learning about your problems" is where the real connection starts.

You're in the trenches. This is where founders are made. Keep going.

Love this model

As someone in the painting industry, especially serving clients searching for Painters in San Antonio, keeping costs lean matters. BYOK makes total sense—why pay inflated AI markups when you can use it at real API cost?

Transparent pricing builds trust, just like in painting. Respect for choosing the honest route.

I am getting close to this point. And it does terrify me a bit. But hopefully things go well.

Been there. First launches rarely convert.
What channel brought the most qualified traffic, not just volume? That’s often the clue. I am curious which platform you advertised on.

Oof I really feel this. That “people clicked but nobody signed up” silence is uniquely brutal, especially when you’ve been carrying the whole thing solo for months. You’re handling it with a lot of clarity and honesty, though, which already puts you ahead of where most people are after Day 1.

One thing that jumped out at me is your instinct that it’s probably not the product, but the messaging. That’s very often the case. You might find the StoryBrand framework helpful here. It forces you to make the user the hero, clearly name the problem they feel, and show how your product helps them win quickly, without asking them to work too hard just to understand the value. A lot of dev tools fail not because they’re weak, but because the landing page answers what it isinstead of why the visitor should care right now.

When someone lands on your homepage, can they immediately see what painful problem in their day gets easier in the next 5 minutes if they try Dokly — or do they have to think like a builder to get it?

You’re absolutely right that talking to people next is the move. This post alone shows you’re doing the hard part: staying in the game after the first punch. Rooting for you! Day 1 is rarely the story people tell at the end.

Been there! That first silent launch hurts more than people admit.

One thing worth sanity-checking early: 0 signups with traffic usually isn’t a “marketing” failure yet, it’s a clarity or friction issue.

When someone lands, they’re subconsciously trying to answer three things very fast:
– what is this actually for?
– is it meant for someone like me?
– what do I get before committing?

If any of those feel fuzzy, people don’t reject the product, they just don’t act.

Before changing channels, I’d try watching a few people react to the page cold (even friends). If they can’t explain the value in one sentence after 5 seconds, that’s usually the first lever.

Respect for shipping publicly though, most people never even get this far.

This resonates deeply. I'm a solo dev from Japan with 24 iOS apps, and the silence after launch is something I know too well.

Your point about "broadcasting vs actually talking to people" is the key insight here. I spent months localizing my apps into 35 languages thinking that would drive downloads. It didn't. What I should have done was exactly what you're planning - genuine conversations, not just announcements.

One thing that helped me reframe: Day 1 data tells you nothing except that you shipped. The real signal comes from the conversations you have in the next 2-3 weeks.

Keep building in public. This kind of transparency is exactly what makes IH valuable.

Thanks for sharing this transparently.

It’s striking how often traffic exists, but no decision happens on the other side.

I also encountered the same situation. The product I just released, Qibanhub (https://www.qibanhub.com), has very few users and is scattered. I post too many external posts and worry about being blocked or deleted by the platform. Cold start is always difficult, but you have to be shameless to find users for your own products and your own children. No matter how hard it is, we still have to maintain it well so that it can survive this period and slowly grow naturally.

I know how frustrating that can be but I think you are targeting the wrong subreddit. My opinion about reddit could be really biased since I am resenting them for banning by 12 years old account with lots of karma but I have noticed their audience convert poorly with ads. They are hardliners . There's the bots issues too.

I don't know how you validated the idea but I think you are up to some real deal, it's a nice product. You just have to build your distribution now and perhaps try to find a better positioning, a small group of people that'd live on your product all day.

You can solve positioning issues by making ad variations with so much variation like, virtually different positioning. Doesn't have to be an ad, could be free posts on Quora, indiehackers, medium, YouTube, or just go for meta ads, track the source whose audience stayed longer, did more clicks or signed up. That's the audience you should be talking to.

I have also found that products like yours do much better on viral platforms like tiktok, especially when you find a way to bundle 'AI' term into the marketing/promotional texts.

Goodluck!

I feel your pain. Hang in there.

The 0 signups sting is real - been there more times than I'd like to admit. What yamamoto said about broadcasting vs genuine engagement is spot on.

One thing I'd add: your timing might actually be fine, the targeting probably isn't. Reddit posts in generic startup subs reach people who are *curious about startups* - not people who are actively wrestling with documentation pain right now.

The developers who'd pay for this are mid-project, probably googling things like "how to deploy docs site" or "docusaurus vs gitbook" right now. They're not browsing r/SideProject. Might be worth lurking in language-specific discords and subreddits where people ask documentation questions, then just... answering them. When someone asks "how do I host my API docs?" the answer isn't "use my product" - it's genuinely help them, and they'll click your profile.

Also worth considering: the free tier might be testing the product but not testing the *workflow*. If someone can't actually go through the full "write docs, publish, share with team" loop in the free tier, they haven't really evaluated it. They've just looked at the editor.

Day 1 data is basically noise anyway. Keep shipping.

Day 1 with 0 signups is brutal, but it's also information. A few things I'd dig into:

Traffic source mismatch: Reddit and broad ads often bring curious browsers, not buyers. Developer docs buyers typically discover tools when they're actively building something. Have you tried reaching out to recently launched projects on IH or PH that might need docs?

Free tier friction: The 1 project / 5 pages limit might actually work against you. It's not enough to properly evaluate the product, but it's also not generous enough to feel like a gift. Consider either removing limits for 14 days or making the free tier more useful.

The "who's using it" concern: I'd address the previous comment's point directly. If those logos are aspirational, better to remove them. Trust is everything early on.

One thing that worked for me: Instead of "broadcasting" on Reddit, I started commenting genuinely on posts where people discussed the problem my product solves. Much slower, but converts way better.

The product looks solid. The gap is in the distribution, not the build.

Hey, I checked the site out. Honestly, simplify it by 10x. I say this to be constructive, not mean, but it just looks like annother fancy js heavy LLM bloat site. Show the value on the landing page straight away. There are also some dishonest claims on the site about who is using it, which isn't a great vibe.