How I got my first sale from a forgotten project
I built Deep Work Zone a while back — a productivity app for distraction-free focus sessions.
Launched it. Nothing happened. Moved on to other projects.
Recently, I added it to TrustMRR.
Got my first paying customer.
The lesson?
Your product might not be the problem. Your distribution might be.
We spend months building, days launching, and zero time on ongoing distribution.
Before you kill a project, ask yourself:
→ Have I really tried different channels?
→ Is it in front of the right audience?
→ Or did I just launch once and give up?
Sometimes all a "failed" project needs is a new home.
Don't bury your old projects. Reposition them.
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I just launched my first app (SelfOS, a productivity tool) a week ago — built with AI, no coding background.
Right now I'm figuring out distribution. Reddit karma limits, Indie Hackers posting restrictions... it feels like building was the easy part.
Your point about "one launch attempt isn't enough" is a good reminder to keep pushing. What other platforms besides TrustMRR would you recommend for productivity apps?
"Your product might not be the problem. Your distribution might be."
This is such an underrated insight. Most founders (myself included) treat launch day as the finish line when it's really just the starting point for distribution experiments.
What made TrustMRR the right channel for Deep Work Zone? Was it the audience overlap, the discovery mechanism, or something else? Curious what signals told you it was worth trying there vs. other directories.
It’s so true... I almost gave up when I got banned on Reddit and saw zero traction on a couple of other platforms.
But I launched this to a local community 24 hours ago and was blown away by the response: 5,000 views and 60+ users on day one.
Sometimes we really do give up way too soon.