I’m launching on ProductHunt in 7 days with zero customers. Here’s my exact plan.
Most people wait until they have users before they talk about their product. I’m doing it the other way around.
Filleo turns messy product data (supplier sheets, PDFs, raw notes) into a ready-to-publish Shopify listing in seconds.
Today I have 0 paying customers, 0 revenue, and 32 people on the waitlist. That’s it.
I’m sharing this because I think the honest version of building is more useful than the polished one.
Here’s what I’m actually doing before launch day.
Not running ads. No budget. No growth hacks. Every single early user so far came from direct conversations with people who actually list products daily.
Showing up in places where Shopify founders already talk. Not to push Filleo, but to understand if the pain is even real outside my own head. Turns out it is — people are still spending 10–20 minutes per product doing the same repetitive work.
Building in public with early testers. The waitlist is live, and I’m already getting feedback on what feels useful vs what’s just “cool but unnecessary”.
Not adding features. One rule until I get my first 5 paying users — no new features. The product already works. The only thing left to figure out is distribution + trust.
Waitlist: https://filleo-roan.vercel.app/
30s demo: https://youtube.com/shorts/K_uncUg2NVc
The goal for this week isn’t to hit #1. It’s to have enough genuine relationships built that when I post “we’re live,” the people I’ve been talking to actually know my name.
If you’re building something and want to swap notes on the pre-launch grind, drop it below. Seven days is enough time to do this right.
Just brilliant.
This is a brilliant idea, u have to keep pushing until everyone knows about it
Thanks for the appreciation!
This pain is real. I’ve dealt with Shopify listings from supplier data, and the hard part is not just writing descriptions - it’s turning messy specs, variants, images, and notes into something that actually feels publish-ready.
Also really like the “no new features until 5 paying users” rule. Distribution and trust are probably the real test here.
"No new features until 5 paying users" — this is the hardest rule to follow and the most important one. I built a launch marketing tool for 4 months, shipped everything "perfectly," got 2 upvotes on Product Hunt and zero conversions. Then I stripped it down to a bare landing page + Stripe checkout and got more traction in 2 days than in 4 months.
Your approach of talking to real users before scaling is exactly right. The 32 waitlist people who actually know the pain > 1000 random signups.
Curious — are the people on your waitlist mostly solo Shopify sellers or agencies managing multiple stores? Feels like the use case could be very different.
Just shipped my own launch yesterday and the day 1 numbers were similar. The data point that actually matters is the 14 day trial to paid window, not the launch day metrics. I think we both have to wait it out.
I agree with this. Launch day numbers can be pretty noisy and don’t always tell the real story. In SaaS, what tends to matter more is what happens over the next 7–14 days—how trial users actually engage and whether that starts turning into consistent conversions. You are doing great work.
Love the honesty here this is how real building looks before the hype. Focusing on conversations and validation over features is a smart move.
Curious to see how your Product Hunt launch goes—good luck 🚀
Really appreciate your support!
🚀
32 in a waitlist is a vanity number that I'd ignore. The real metric pre-launch is how many of those 32 you've had a 20-minute call with. Last project I shipped, the waitlist was 412. I called the first 60. Twelve answered, four bought, two became my first paying customers within 30 days of launch. The other 408 evaporated on launch day. PH is good for a noise spike, but the contracts close in DMs the week after the spike fades.
oh man same boat. ~1 week out for my PH launch too (ios+android health-tech, zero customers).
stuff that's been working: blog post about why i built it (the personal story). actually drives traffic from google + gives me something to send to people who ask "what is it again?".
stuff that's not: group chat asking friends for reviews. like 5% conversion lol. 1:1 + a phone call works way better.
also DMd chris messina on twitter for hunting. 5 days nothing. so going self-hunt.
how are you thinking about hunter vs self-hunt? and momentum during the day — feels like the asia evening / US morning thing is gonna kill me.
Love the honesty here 👏
Are you focusing more on distribution now or still improving the product before launch?
Currently, my goal is distribution. My shopify App is on a pre-launch state but it has been developed
Hey Ehaan, it’s so refreshing to see someone being so transparent and focused on real relationships over the usual growth hacks. Your method of showing up where the right people are and genuinely listening to their pain points is spot on. I’m also in the "build in public" camp and have found that feedback from early users is so much more valuable than adding extra features that no one asked for. Keep up the great work, can’t wait to see how Filleo evolves from here! Best of luck on launch day . Looking forward to seeing your first 5 paying users roll in.
I also am on in this approach, I want to hear from people before I get too deep into the work so that i don't risk as hard the resources and time for my potentially unsuccessful product in the near future that no one would want.
The "no new features until 5 paying users" rule is one of the hardest disciplines to maintain but probably the most important one at this stage. I've watched so many founders (and helped some clients) spend months adding features that nobody asked for while ignoring the distribution problem sitting right in front of them.
The direct conversation approach is smart. 32 waitlist signups from actual conversations means you know exactly who those people are, what they need, and whether they'll actually pay. That's worth more than 500 anonymous signups from a landing page with a clever headline. When launch day comes, those 32 people might be the difference between a dead page and early momentum.
One thing I'd think about for the PH launch specifically: the Shopify ecosystem has a ton of makers who are active on Product Hunt. They understand the pain of listing products because they do it themselves. If you can get even 5-10 of those people to show up in the first hour and leave detailed comments about how they'd use it, that social proof does more work than 50 generic upvotes from people outside your niche.
The 17 and building thing is going to work in your favor on PH too. The community loves young builders who ship real products. Not in a patronizing way, but because it signals that the person is going to keep iterating. Investors and early adopters both care about founder energy, and shipping at your age signals a lot of it.
the part about building relationships before launch day is the move most people skip and then wonder why their PH page sits at 30 upvotes. you're already doing the actually-hard work — the launch itself is just the public moment.
one thing I'd add: the people you're talking to now don't just become day-1 supporters, they become your warm intro layer for the next 6 months. someone you DM'd this week ends up in a slack with 200 shopify founders next month and you're the tool they mention when someone asks. compounds way more than the launch metrics ever will.
that 0.99$ premium grandfather is a smart move btw — turns waitlist signups into actual skin-in-the-game testers who'll show up on launch day.
This resonates a lot — also launching on
Product Hunt soon for FollowShop 🇵🇭
The zero-customers-before-launch struggle
is real. Following your journey! 🚀
We’re doing something similar a platform built for creators across art, music, photography, filmmaking, dance, writing, illustration, spoken word, fitness, culinary, and AI art — under one roof. Ive been talking about it too, hoping to build the momentum before all the features are ready to onboard users!
Really respect how honest this is , '0 customers, 0 revenue, 32 waitlist.' Most people fake the hype. You're just sharing the real grind. That alone makes me root for you.
Quick question about the waitlist, I'm in a similar boat (18, building Bexra, a personalized business guidance that help business find, build & grow). Zero following. No budget.
How did you get those first 32 people without any existing audience? Was it purely from posting here on Indie Hackers? Or did you go into Shopify groups, Reddit, DMs?
And when someone joined the waitlist, did you do anything manual , like email them personally, ask for feedback, or just let the tool handle it?
Not looking for a growth hack. Just genuinely trying to understand the 'first 30 people' playbook when you're starting from absolute zero.
Appreciate you sharing this. Makes the pre-launch phase feel less lonely
Thanks for the appreciation! My main channels to get early waitlist users were from diverse sources, which included reddit, twitter, facebook posts, shopify forums, and indie hackers. Eventhough it took me a month to gather those first few people to support my early launch, but I'll get there! And btw, goodluck with your journey 🚀
The "no new features until 5 paying users" rule is underrated. Most builders keep adding because shipping feels productive. Freezing the product and just focusing on distribution + trust takes real discipline, The 10-20 minutes per listing pain point is clearly real
— that's the kind of repetitive work people will pay to eliminate immediately, Curious how you're approaching trust with Shopify sellers specifically — do they worry about AI getting product
details wrong on live listings?
Respect the approach - especially launching with zero customers and still pushing forward.
I'm actually in the opposite situation. I finished building a desktop tool about a month age, but I've been stuck on distribution ever since.
No ads, no audience, and honestly not even sure where to start getting the first real users.
Your point about talking directly to people instead of "promoting" really hits - I think that's where I'm lacking right now.
Curious - how did you find your first few conversations ? Was it mostly communities, or direct outreach?
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The "no new features until 5 paying users" rule is underrated advice. I made the opposite mistake — kept building for 3 months before talking to anyone.
Building in public before launch is smart. The 32 waitlist people who found you before you even launched are more valuable than 1000 visitors after — they actually care enough to wait.
One thing that helped me: instead of asking "is this useful?" I started asking "would you pay for this today?" The answers were very different.
Good luck with the 7 days — following to see how it goes.
32 people in waitlist is really positive sign!! Love the honesty here this is how real building looks before the hype. Also getting error when i tried to use the waitlist link. Wanted to see the UI/UX Design and Interaction
Curious to see how your Product Hunt launch goes—good luck :)
The direct-outreach-first approach is the right call — especially for a tool in the Shopify ecosystem where the pain is real but the buyer is skeptical of automation. One thing to instrument before launch day: track exactly which community/channel each waitlist signup came from. Even with 32 people, that cohort data tells you which ICP is most pain-aware. If most came from one specific Shopify Facebook group or subreddit, double down there on launch day rather than spreading across PH, IH, and Twitter simultaneously. 10–20 mins per listing is a strong pain anchor — have you found any pattern in which types of products take longest (high-spec tech vs. apparel vs. general merchandise)?
Mainly, the products that take longer such as those which are specification intensive, which means technology products, but it's not limited to that! Any merchant in an industry that involves writing long descriptions and creating variants, or customer-friendly details can use it.
That tracks exactly with what I've seen — spec-heavy tech products and anything with complex variants or configurables have the most to gain because the manual description work is where the time sink actually lives. Apparel with basic SKUs gets less lift, but the moment you're dealing with size/colour/material matrices the compounding saves become real.
The cohort data angle I mentioned is worth keeping — if you can tag your 32 waitlist signups by vertical at launch, you'll have a clean read on whether the tech-heavy ICP converts faster than the general merchant segment. That data is gold for your first 30-day retrospective.
For anyone here building data-backed launch strategies, I put together a free SQL query toolkit I use with SaaS clients to track exactly these kinds of cohort patterns → https://growthwithshehroz.gumroad.com/l/psmqnx
Pretty good tips for early founder about launching tactics, most of people just try to sell thier product but few understand the core compostion of solving problems
Thanks for the support
Launching with zero customers is honestly more common than people admit.
Are you planning to bring your own traffic on launch day, or relying on Product Hunt discovery?
From what I’ve seen, PH works more as an amplifier than a discovery engine — so curious how you're approaching distribution here.
Love this approach — especially the “no new features until first paying users” rule. That’s harder than it sounds.
I’ve been noticing the same thing — direct conversations seem way more valuable early on than trying to scale anything.
Curious how you’re finding those initial people to talk to — mostly communities, or outreach?
Everyone's praising the 'no new features' rule — I'll say something different.
The $0.99 first 100 users offer is going to hurt you. Not because it's wrong, but because Shopify sellers who spend 10-20 minutes per listing are not price-sensitive — they're time-sensitive. $0.99 signals 'side project' not 'tool I can rely on.' Your first 5 paying users should pay real money, even if it's $9. The ones who pay $0.99 will churn the moment they hit any friction.
The honest build approach you're taking is rare and worth protecting. Don't undercut it with pricing that doesn't match the value.
Think I agree with this comment. 100 users at a next to nothing price is risky. If you really have 52 signed up at that price, I'd cap your offer at 52. Ask: what will 100 users spending $0.99 give you that 52 users can't? Give early/beta users an early discount sure, but it should be a real price otherwise you run a risk of basically giving away your product. And it looks pretty good. I'm not a Shopify user but as Pat above says, cutting 10-20 minutes is worth something more than 99c. Good luck!
the line about wanting people to know your name when you post 'we're live' is the part most launch playbooks skip. relationships > waitlist counts at zero customers. cheering you on.
Really appreciate your support!
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This is truly inspirational, thanks for sharing!
Best wishes for you.
"This resonates a lot — especially the 'no new features until 5 paying users' rule. That's the discipline most founders skip. I'm in a similar spot right now, validating a client vetting tool for freelancers (think Glassdoor but for clients). Zero users, just started talking to people this week. The part about showing up where your users already talk without pushing the product — that's exactly what I'm trying to figure out. What's been the most honest signal so far that the pain is real beyond people saying 'yeah that sounds useful'?"
In my opinion PH is full of bots. Without funding, I feel its near impossible to get growth on there.
The "no new features until 5 paying users" rule is the most honest thing I've read this week.
I'm in a similar spot with EmotifyAI — a Chrome extension that turns dry product descriptions into emotional copy that converts. Different problem, same distribution challenge.
What's working for me: going directly to store owners, showing them a before/after of their own product. Not a demo. Their product. That personal touch changes the conversation completely.
Good luck with the launch — following to see how it goes.
Nice. Showing them their own product transformed vs. a generic demo is so much more compelling. For Filleo, that would mean taking someone's actual messy listing and showing the before/after. Definitely going to try this approach. Thanks for sharing what's working, and following your EmotifyAI journey too!
That's exactly it — generic demos don't create urgency, but seeing your own product transformed does. It makes the value impossible to ignore.
Would love to see how Filleo applies it. Following your launch too — good luck next week!
Good timing — I'm launching on ProductHunt today, not in 7 days.
Your approach of showing up where the community already exists resonates.
I did the same with r/selfhosted for my iOS file manager CoreFiles —
talking to people who already have the problem the app solves works much
better than cold outreach.
Good luck with the launch!
Love this—yeah, cold outreach has been brutal for me too. Finding the right communities where people already have the problem is way more effective. Good luck with your PH launch today!
Interesting product especially for Shopify sellers. Out of curiosity, what’s your main acquisition channel right now? SEO, ads or organic content?
Thanks! Currently pre-launch and building mostly through conversations with merchants to understand their exact pain points with messy product data. Once we're live, planning to focus on organic content around common product data issues Shopify sellers face. What's worked best for you in finding tools?