How We Hit 10,000 Users in Just 3 Months

Still feels unreal. Last week, we crossed 10,000 people using Pretty Prompt.

Just 3 months after launch 🤯.

How did we get here? That’s a good question, and I don’t have a clear answer. But I can share our journey, so that others in this community can benefit from it and celebrate their own milestones as well.

10k is not the end goal. Goals are like moving targets. They never settle. They’re always moving further… 🎯

Why did we build Pretty Prompt?

We built Pretty Prompt as an internal tool to help us while working on our past product, Dolphin AI. We eventually pivoted from Dolphin to Pretty Prompt 🔄.

We were constantly running into issues with Prompt and Context Engineering. It was like fighting with AI to get the AI to do what we needed to do. So we did what any founder would do: build a tool to solve our own problem.

The MVP was very tight. We built it over a weekend. My Co-Founder, Charlie, locked himself in a room, and by Sunday night, we had a very simple version ready to launch.

The launch

The launch felt like it never happened. We did not push it. We actually forgot it was happening 😅.

We launched on Product Hunt on May 31st. I remember the date because it was Charlie’s birthday. That morning, I thought of canceling the launch because we had not put any effort into promoting it. But there was one advantage:

The product was really, really simple.

The language was simple. The demo was simple.

The time to value was fast. And new users were able to just get it.

There was no paywall, no analytics.

Just a simple MVP. But this MVP solved a real pain. Most importantly, it was a Chrome Extension, embedded in the users’ workflow.

Basically, it was 0 to value in ~20 seconds:

Install the extension → Type something in ChatGPT → Hit Improve Prompt → Magic!

That same flow is what makes Pretty Prompt magical today. You don’t need to know how to use Pretty Prompt to get value out of it.

Pretty Prompt became 2nd Product of the Day. Emails started to pile up, users organically sharing it with more users… and the flywheel began.

We quickly integrated with Stripe, allowing users who wanted more to upgrade.

The biggest difference from Pretty Prompt and Dolphin AI (our past product) was the shift from Pull to Push.

I had to push people to buy Dolphin AI. Whereas people started to pull Pretty Prompt out of our hands. We had to do no pushing.

And the numbers kept growing week over week:

First 2,000 users, then 5k, then 8k. The last 2 weeks, growth accelerated. Took just 3 days to get to 9,000, and a few days after to 10,000.

The number of users is not our North Star. But growing this number helps with every other metric we care about.

Tactical takeaway: Keep an eye open for that pull. If you feel it, follow it. And do things that don't scale. They are your biggest tool to unlock scale.

A few learnings

I never thought this small tool, which feels almost like a toy rather than a product, would be loved by so many people around the world.

But that’s the biggest learning of all:

• Small = Advantage.

• Niche = Higher chances to succeed.

For Pretty Prompt, we are building a tool that helps improve prompts as a Chrome Extension.

• Small = Improve Prompts

• Niche = Chrome Extension

You don’t need big products. What you need is difficult problems to solve.

That’s why so many great startups started as a small side project, intended to solve just a problem for the founders in the first place.

For example, Airbnb didn’t start as a “billion-dollar idea.” Airbnb started as a way for Brian, Joe, and Nathan to make some extra cash by renting airbeds in their SF apartment. (Airbnb = Air Bed and Breakfast…)

If you want to dive deeper into their story, read this letter from Joe, Airbnb's Co-founder.

Bad advice

Most people give bad advice when it comes to startups. They tell you to build complex tools to have defensibility. They tell you to think big. They ask you about your LTV:CAC ratio, and what your roadmap will look like.

The truth is that in the very beginning, the roadmap is kind of irrelevant. What you will build tomorrow is too. Your sole objective is to find 1 person who loves what you’ve built. Then 10. Then 100.

Don’t follow my advice either, but here’s what Brian from Airbnb always says to other founders and people building new businesses:

“It’s better to have 100 people who love you than 1M people that just sort of like you.”

Thinking big is important. But to get started, you just need a small thing that you really want, and solves a real problem for you or someone you know.

And if it solves your own problem, at least you will have found your first user: You 🎉.

Tactical takeaway: Start with a small problem. Build something you personally really want.

Your first job as a founder

Your first job as a founder is to not die. To make sure you build something people want and are happy to pay for, so that you eventually make more than you spend to run the company.

To build something people want, you need to cut features.

Adding features is easy. The real learnings come from building something so good, and so simple, that people want it as it is. Even if it’s not perfect.

If people love your product, they will ask you for new stuff. Let those requests come from your users.

Note: Something simple from a user perspective does not mean it is simple from a technical perspective.

My top 3 learnings so far

1. Keep it small.

2. Answer every user personally, and do it manually.

3. Chrome Extensions are underestimated.

4. Bonus: Don’t be afraid of sharing what you’re building in public.

1. Keep it small

Starting small is an advantage rather than a disadvantage.

2. Answer to every user personally, and do it manually

I spend a lot of my time obsessing over what users say about Pretty Prompt.

A big chunk of my week revolves around talking with users to learn more about their experience.

By doing things manually, you get so close to your customers that you start to learn their names by heart and can almost predict what a specific user will do or say before they’ve done it. The other half of my week is spend in Content, Product, and Analytics.

Tactical takeaway: Manual work in the early days is the fastest way to deeply understand your users.

3. Chrome Extensions are underestimated

Chrome Extensions are underestimated in both power and complexity.

What makes them powerful is that they meet users where they already are. No extra learning curve. That flow is incredibly powerful.

They are also very hard to build. And a lot of the “obvious” things from Web and Mobile apps don’t apply to Chrome Extensions in the same way.

4. Bonus: Don’t be afraid of sharing what you’re building in public

Don’t be afraid of saying what you think and what you’re working on with the world.

Share constantly and think long term. It’s not a linear path. Growth is a 360 concept, and every piece of content adds another step toward the finish line.

Every small nugget of information you throw online is another opportunity to add value and get another user.

Writing helps you structure your thoughts. Sharing helps your audience learn. Content helps your startup create more luck.

Think of it as:

• Content = Product.

• Building = Writing.

I’m a technical founder, but I’m no developer. From the get-go, I’ve been pushing code into Production. My Co-Founder is technical, and from the get-go, he’s been writing content.

It’s amazing what you can achieve in a short amount of time.

You can do more, and you can achieve more.

You don’t need anything else to get started.

You’re the owner of your luck, and tomorrow is too late. It starts today.

100 Days in, closing thoughts

100 days. 10,000 users.

To each one of you, you’ll always be our first 10,000 🙏.

While most startups focus on raising funds, we’ve decided to focus (for the second time) on customers. You are our sole focus.

Every Monday morning, we start the week with two bullet points:

• Product → What we need to build/fix.

• Customers → What we need to do to grow and retain.

If you’re enjoying Pretty Prompt, share it with a friend.

If you have feedback, or there’s something you’d like to see that is not there yet, let me know. I hope you can see how obsessed I am with our customers 🥹.

To close, here are 3 testimonials about Pretty Prompt:

“It doesn't just make your prompts better, it also makes you a better prompter.”
– Ben Wallman, Curvo.ai.

“If you aren't using Pretty Prompt, you're missing out! It’s the ultimate growth hack in your AI capabilities.” – Paul Tucker, ChiroCat.

“That tool you didn't know you needed has become a daily favorite. I'm falling more in love with it every day.” – Henrique Girardi dos Santos, Circle.

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Reading reviews like these makes all those late nights worth it.
(I wrote this at 10:43 pm).

We’re just getting started 🚀

Ilai.