Dokly - March Update: New Job, 1 Signup, and Why Distribution is King
TLDR: Started a new job. Managing that plus house commitments has slowed progress significantly. Only 1 signup this week. But I've had a key realization: distribution > product. I believe in what I'm building. Showing up every day.
One signup this week. Slow, but still moving.
The Reality: New Job + Side Project is Hard
Let me be real about what's going on.
I recently started a new job. The learning curve has been steep. Between that and house commitments, finding time for Dokly has been genuinely difficult.
I'm not complaining—this is the reality of building something on the side. Most indie hackers aren't full-time founders. We're squeezing in work between jobs, family, and life.
Some weeks you ship features. Some weeks you ship one tweet. This was a one-tweet kind of week.
The Realization : Distribution is King
Here's what I've finally internalized:
Distribution > Product
I spent 6 months building Dokly. Visual MDX editor. BYOK AI writing. Auto-generated llms.txt. Custom domains. All the features Mintlify charges $300/month for, at $49/month.
The product is solid.
The problem? Getting people to try it.
Mintlify raised $20M. They sponsor every conference. They're in every "best docs tools" listicle. GitBook has 10 years of SEO. ReadMe has an enterprise sales team.
I have a laptop and a Twitter account.
No amount of features will fix a distribution problem. I've been playing the wrong game.
What I Shipped This Month
I'm not adding new features right now. Just refining what exists and focusing on distribution.
Feedback Widget
Every dashboard page now has a help widget at the bottom.
Why it matters:
- Direct signal on which pages need work
- Users can leave comments without leaving the page
- Helps prioritize what to fix
Small feature. Took maybe 3 hours. But it's the kind of thing that compounds—every piece of feedback is a free product roadmap.
BYOK AI Writing (Why I'm Proud of This)
Most documentation platforms charge insane markups for AI features. Mintlify, GitBook, others—they're charging $50-100+/month extra for AI writing that costs them pennies.
Dokly does it differently: Bring Your Own Key (BYOK).
You connect your own OpenAI API key. You pay OpenAI directly (usually $5-20/month for heavy usage). No markup. No "AI tier" upsell.
Why this matters:
Transparent pricing (you see exactly what AI costs)
No vendor lock-in on AI features
Works with GPT-4, GPT-4o, whatever you want
You control your data
I genuinely think BYOK is the right model for AI
4 Blog Posts Ready
Finished these comparison posts:
Knowledge Base Software 2026 (301K monthly searches, KD 15)
Docusaurus vs Mintlify
README vs GitBook Alternatives
Technical Writing Examples
SEO is slow. But it compounds. These posts will keep bringing traffic for years.
Why Not Paid Ads?
I've thought about it. But running paid ads as a solo founder is expensive and risky.
Google Ads for "documentation tools" = $5-15 per click
100 clicks to maybe get 2-3 signups = $500-1500
No guarantee any convert to paid
When you're bootstrapped, burning $500 on an experiment that might not work is a big deal.
For now, I'm betting on content. SEO takes longer but the economics are better—write once, rank forever.
Maybe I'll test ads eventually. But not until I have more data on what converts.
The Competition Reality
Mintlify : $20M raised, YC network, conference presence
GitBook : 10 years of SEO, brand recognition
ReadMe : Enterprise sales team, established
Docusaurus : Free, Facebook backing, huge community
Me: Solo founder. Bootstrapped. Building on the side.
I charge $49/month for what Mintlify charges $300/month. Same features. Better price.
But price doesn't matter if nobody knows you exist.
The Plan : Distribution Mode
I'm not adding new features. The product works. Now it's about getting it in front of people.
What I'm doing:
SEO content - 2 blog posts per week targeting comparison keywords
Twitter daily - Building in public, sharing what I learn
Refining, not building - Polish what exists instead of adding more
Talking to users - That 1 signup this week? I'm going to learn everything about why they signed up
What I'm NOT doing:
- Adding features nobody asked for
- Chasing shiny objects
- Pretending I have more time than I do
I Believe in This
I know this sounds like cope, but I genuinely believe in the product.
Documentation tools are overpriced. $300/month for docs is insane for most teams. There's a real gap in the market for something that's:
- Beautiful (like Mintlify)
- Easy to use (no Git required)
- Affordable ($49/month, not $300)
Dokly is that. The product-market fit is there—users who try it, stay.
The only missing piece is distribution. And that's a solvable problem.
Showing Up Every Day
The plan is simple: show up every day.
Can't outspend Mintlify. Can't out-network YC companies. Can't quit my job to go full-time (yet).
But I can be consistent. Write content. Tweet about what I'm learning. Talk to users. Ship small improvements.
Compounding works if you don't quit.
Follow the Journey
I'm trying to tweet every day about building Dokly, the docs space, and indie hacking in general.
If you want to follow along: [@gsharm_](https://twitter.com/gsharm_)
Not promising wisdom. Just honest updates from someone figuring it out in public.
The product: [dokly.co](https://dokly.co) - Documentation platform with visual MDX editor, BYOK AI writing, $49/month instead of $300/month.
Happy to answer questions about the stack (Next.js, Supabase, Vercel), the docs space, or just chat about building on the side while working full-time.
