I launched my first iPhone app and I’m stuck at 13 downloads. Roast my positioning.

Launching is already a big achievement. I'd spend more time understanding where your target users hang out than making product changes immediately. Even 10–20 conversations with potential users can reveal much more than download numbers alone. Good luck!

The three buyers you listed (save money / decide faster / stop wasting) aren't one app — they're three different first screens. My honest take: pick ONE for the launch, even though the app does all three. "Stop wasting groceries" is the most visceral — the pain has a face, you literally watch money rot in the fridge. "Save money" is too abstract, "decide dinner" too mild. Lead with the guilt of the thrown-away food and the other two come along for free. You can serve all three; you can only position for one.

At 13 downloads, the sample is too small to blame the product. I would tighten one sentence around a specific user, the moment they feel the problem, and the outcome they get. Then make the first screenshot prove that sentence and test it in three small channels. Positioning improves when you can compare where qualified visitors actually convert.

You asked whether to position around saving money, food waste, or "what do I cook tonight" — the fact that you're asking is the actual problem. Right now the app is trying to be all three, so it's sharp at none.

My honest vote: "what do I cook tonight?" It's the only one of the three that's an acute, felt pain at a specific moment (6pm, fridge open, brain empty). Food waste is a "should" — people feel vaguely guilty but don't download apps over it. Saving money is too diffuse to attach to a cooking app. The dinner-panic moment is when someone would actually reach for their phone.

On the first 50 users: everything you listed (Reels, LinkedIn, DMs, groups) is broadcasting. For the first 50 you want to go where people are literally typing "what can I make with X and Y" right now — recipe subreddits, the "what's for dinner" type communities, comment sections on meal-prep content. Answer the question manually a few times, mention the app only when it genuinely fits. Slower, but those are real users who felt the pain 30 seconds ago.

And drop "AI cooking assistant" — it describes the tech, not the relief. "Tells you what to cook with what's already in your fridge" is the one-liner.

your roast is that you already answered your own question and didn't notice. you listed three buyers (save money / decide faster / stop wasting) and six subreddits. that's exactly why it's stuck at 13 - a message aimed at all three lands on none.

pick ONE. my gut says B is weakest (plenty of free ways to decide dinner) and A is strongest because "spending too much on takeout" is a wallet pain people actively try to fix. go all in on the save-money angle, live in r/Frugal and r/EatCheapAndHealthy for two weeks, make every screenshot and line about dollars saved not cooking. you can widen later, but you can't get traction being three apps at once

Your A/B/C question (saver vs. faster-dinner vs. less-waste) is the whole game, and there's a cheap way to make visitors answer it for you instead of guessing. I'm mid-validation on my own product and the single most useful thing on my landing page is a selector widget: the visitor clicks which problem is theirs BEFORE the email field appears, and the choice gets stored with the signup. Every signup is a vote on positioning. You could do the same with your three buyers: one screen, "what brings you here," three cards, then the download link. Two weeks of that beats a month of subreddit archaeology.

One caution on the subreddit list: check each sub's rules before you post anything that smells like promotion. I mapped out my own distribution plan recently and three of the four subreddits I planned to use turned out to ban surveys, market research, and self-promo outright, with permanent-ban astroturfing policies. r/Frugal and r/povertyfinance are especially strict. Mining those threads for language is gold and totally safe; posting into them can cost you the account. Reply where you can genuinely help, and let the app live in your profile.

the idea's fine, the framing is what's costing you. "AI cooking assistant" is a category label, not a reason to download. your best line is the one you buried: you open the fridge, food's right there, and you still don't know what to make. lead with exactly that.

and i'd push the wedge toward waste. "use food before it expires" is really "stop throwing away groceries you already paid for," which is money plus guilt, both stronger than "generate recipe ideas" (every app claims that one). it's also closer to how people actually search: "what can i make with chicken and whatever's left," not "AI cooking assistant."

on distribution: 13 downloads after reels + LinkedIn + IH says the hook is the problem, not the volume. and LinkedIn/IH are founder channels. your real user is someone tired at 6pm staring into a fridge, and they're on TikTok or Pinterest searching "dinner with what i have," not reading build-in-public posts. match the channel to that person.

fastest test: rewrite your App Store subtitle as that fridge sentence and watch if installs move before you change anything else.

13 downloads after launch usually means positioning isn’t landing where buyers already complain — not that the app is bad.

Curious: are you looking for those complaints in Reddit / communities, or still iterating the App Store listing only?

I run a small tool that scores fresh pain threads for indie apps. If useful, I can show a quick mapping on a short call — or send a sample if you drop your one-liner + target subs.

I'd separate the product from the buying trigger. "What should I cook tonight?" is a daily frustration, while saving money and reducing food waste are reasons people justify changing their behavior. Understanding which one actually gets someone to install the app is the bigger positioning question.