I launched my first waitlist and got 20 signups on day one — here's what worked
Hey IndieHackers! Long time lurker, first time poster.
Today I launched the waitlist for Kindheld, a relationship memory assistant that helps you show up for the people who matter most.
The idea came from a personal moment. A close friend went through something hard and told me months later "I didn't tell you because you never follow up on things." That hit me hard. I genuinely cared. I just didn't have a system.
So I built something to fix it.
What Kindheld does:
Add notes about the people in your life, get gentle reminders at the right moments, and AI drafts genuine personal messages so you're never staring at a blank screen.
What worked for day one signups:
Texted 30 friends and family personally, not a mass message. Got 19 signups from that alone. Posted in my coding bootcamp Discord and put it on my Instagram story with just a screenshot and "I built something 😊"
Reddit and Product Hunt are next. Launching on PH this Monday.
Would genuinely love feedback from this community. Especially on the positioning and whether the problem resonates with you personally.
Waitlist is open at kindheld.com
It is painful when you genuinely care about someone but lose their trust simply because you forgot to follow up on a tough moment.
Most people think they have a bad memory when they actually just lack a simple system to manage their personal connections.
Since you are heading to Product Hunt soon do you think the personal assistant angle will attract more busy professionals or people just looking to be better friends?
Thank you, that really captures it perfectly. It's not a memory problem, it's a systems problem.
Honestly I think it will attract both and that's intentional. The consumer angle is people who just want to be a better friend or partner. The B2B angle is professionals like salespeople, recruiters and real estate agents who know relationships are everything in their work.
For the Product Hunt launch I'm leading with the personal angle because it's more emotionally resonant and easier to explain quickly. But the professional use case is where I see the long term business model going since those users are less price sensitive and churn less.
Curious what angle resonates more with you personally?
Starting with the personal angle for Product Hunt is a smart move because that emotional "hit" you felt is something almost everyone relates to immediately. Bridging that into a professional CRM for non-salespeople is where the real scale is, especially for anyone whose career depends on genuine networking rather than just transactions. By the way, I handle PR and media placement for founders, and this transition from a personal "fix" to a professional tool is a narrative that lifestyle and productivity journalists love to cover.
19 out of 30 personal texts converting is the real insight here. most founders skip that step and go straight to ads. i'm in a similar phase with synclo right now — building a shopify automation tool and doing the same thing, talking to people one by one before scaling. what was your biggest surprise from those conversations?
19 out of 30 personal texts converting is exceptional. Most founders mass-message and get 5-10%. The reason yours worked is because people could feel it wasn't a template — it was you. That data point alone is your best case study for the product itself.
On the B2C vs B2B question: don't split your focus yet. The professionals who will pay $20-30/mo for this (sales, real estate, recruiters) often discover it because they were first using it personally. Lead with the emotional story for acquisition, let the professional use case reveal itself in user interviews. You'll naturally find 2-3 power users in that segment within your first 100 signups.
One thing to add before your Product Hunt launch: get 5-10 of your existing signups to record a 30-second voice note or video about why they signed up. Real people's words in your own voice will outperform any positioning copy you write. That authentic signal from real users is what converts on PH.
Congrats on shipping and being honest about what worked — more founders need to share this phase.
19 out of 30 signups from personal texts is honestly the most valuable part of this post.
A lot of founders jump straight to Reddit, Product Hunt, or ads because it feels more scalable, but direct conversations usually teach you way more in the early days.
I'm curious, what surprised you most from those first conversations? Did people sign up because they struggle to remember important moments, or because they felt guilty about not following up with people they care about?