I'm trying to get 50 users in 25 days with zero audience. Here's my exact plan

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So i've been doing the exact same thing with SendABrief.

Honestly the biggest lesson so far has been that distribution matters way more than i thought. The product works, people who try it like it, but getting in front of the right people is the actual hard part.

Here's what's working for me so far:

• LinkedIn prospecting. Today alone i found 10 icp-fit prospects, sent 9 connection requests, and commented on 5 relevant posts in my niche. It's manual and slow but the quality of conversation is way higher than cold email.

• Documenting the process publicly. Similar to what you're doing here. Every time i share a real update, someone gives me an insight i wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

• Being really specific about who i'm targeting. Not "anyone who needs sop's" but operations managers at 20-60 person companies who are drowning in undocumented processes.

What i'd suggest for your 50-user sprint: pick one channel and go deep instead of spreading across 5. I tried the multi-channel thing early on and ended up doing everything poorly. Once i focused on linkedin only, things started moving.

Also your Product Hunt launch timing matters a lot. What day did you launch?

Rooting for you. The zero-to-first-customer phase is brutal but it's where you learn the most.

I tried almost this exact sprint after hiding behind the dashboard too long. The thing that finally moved for me was treating complaint threads like discovery calls, then turning the same answer into a LinkedIn post, short email, and follow-up while the pain was still fresh. I still rough stuff out in ChatGPT and queue later in Buffer, but I built PostPilot because the rewrite between those steps kept eating the day, tbh. Which of the 50 are you optimizing for first, conversations, trials, or retained weekly users?

I will definitely be following your story closely since i am neatly in the same spot. After a few days in which channel would you say is actually pulling for you?

Every indie hacker hits the wall. The ones who make it work are the ones who adjust, not quit. What's your next move?

I like the distinction between signups and people actually using the product.

That feels especially important for narrow B2B tools. A signup can be curiosity, but real usage usually means the person already has the pain and was probably solving it manually before.

I’m trying to think about acquisition less as “where can I post?” and more as “where does this problem already show up?”

Search queries, support threads, niche communities, old forum posts, internal tool workarounds — those may be less exciting than a launch post, but probably much closer to real intent.

Cut one channel.

Reddit plus direct outreach probably gives you the fastest learning because both force you to use the freelancer's actual words. PH and IH can help with founder feedback, but they can also make the plan feel busy without moving usage.

Boring question, but useful: which channel produced someone who used it twice?

Did you already have hunters prior to your Product Hunt launch ? Keep us posted and go get it!

Following this closely — I'm in almost the exact same spot with
Melororium (subscription-free workspace for freelancers, pre-launch).

The Reddit warming strategy is real. I learned the hard way that
jumping in too early just gets you shadowbanned.

One thing I'd add to your plan: the "complaint threads" approach
works way better than posting about your product. Find threads
where freelancers are venting about tool costs and just... help
them. No pitch. The profile link does the work.

Rooting for you — will be watching the updates.

Ran almost this exact stack for my own launch, so one honest data point: Product Hunt gave me a spike of curious builders and almost nobody who stuck — much closer to your audience-vs-user gap than to real demand. The two channels that actually produced retained users were warm Reddit replies (not posts) and DMs to people who'd already complained about the problem out loud. Your "real users, not signups" bar is the right one — I wish I'd set it before I spent a week celebrating installs. Track which channel each retained user came from starting day one; by week 3 that single column quietly reorders the whole plan.

For the inbound side, everyone will point you at Reddit/cold email for outbound, rughtly so! But the lever almost nobody mentions is AI-search visibility, and it's the bet I'm making on my own pre-launch tool: comparison-vs-competitor pages + JSON-LD with FAQ mainEntity + IndexNow/Bing set up day one. The "X vs Y" pages map exactly to how people phrase the questions to ChatGPT and they tend to get cited directly.

Honest caveat for your 25-day window, though: on a brand-new domain there's a trust-lag tax. Even genuinely easy comparison terms don't rank or get cited instantly when you've got near-zero authority and no links, pages can be technically perfect and still sit for weeks. So I'd treat AI/SEO as the compounding play that pays off after your sprint, and lean on outbound for the actual 25-day push. A few relevant links EARLY speeds the trust part up.

The "people actually using it, not signups" bar is the right one, and it should change the whole plan. With 22 days, the real risk isn't too few channels, it's spreading across five and never going deep enough on one to learn why people stick. I'd pick the single place freelancers already vent about tool sprawl and live there. Then hand-onboard your first 10 to 15 users yourself, even a 10-minute screen share. Watching where they stall in week one teaches you more than the next 200 signups, and those early users become the testimonials that make Reddit and PH convert later.

I’ve been in a similar spot with a niche Chrome extension targeting SEO folks, so I know how tricky it can be to get those first real users. One thing that worked for me was focusing on people who were already complaining about the exact problem my product solved. For example, I searched Reddit and Twitter for threads where SEOs were frustrated with data delays or retention issues, then chimed in with useful advice before mentioning my tool. It feels slower than blasting posts, but the conversations are much more genuine and tend to convert better.

Another thing that helped: defining a clear “activation moment.” For you, it sounds like sending that first invoice is the key action. I’d recommend tracking the steps leading up to it—like creating a client or drafting the invoice—so you can spot where people drop off and optimize.

Curious, are you finding any patterns in the type of freelancers engaging with your outreach so far?

Really appreciate this — the operating system framing is exactly what I'm going for, not just another bundle. The connected workflow is the whole point. On the name, noted — I'll pressure test it as users come in. For now heads down on getting the first 50. Thanks for engaging with this so closely, genuinely helpful.

about how you're defining 'actually using it.' activation metrics matter a lot here because 50 people who sign up and open the dashboard once is very different from 50 people who complete a workflow. what does a real user look like for Helios specifically and how will you know at day 22 whether you hit the goal or just hit a vanity version of it

Respect for sharing the plan openly — that accountability angle is smart. I’m in a similar spot trying to market my own product, and seeing you break down channels step by step gives me ideas too. One small thing that helped me: instead of just posting in groups, I DM’d a few active members after they commented. Way higher chance they actually try the product.

That seems s good plan, and it will be an impressive milestone to acquire 50 users in 25 days. All the very best to you.

to hit 50 faster, my focus will be on credibility and right positioning of information.
there are lots of freelancing tools out there, why should a freelancer even join your platform? that's part of the questions you will have to answer. what makes you different from every hundreds of freelancing tools created. it is way easier to get freelancers than to get clients who will be there to hire.

you gonna need a unique selling point that will make you stand out from others: just like a pizza vendor said, "i'll deliver in 30 minutes, if not you get the pizza for free"
I hope this is helpful.
if you need help with the unique selling point, i would love to help

Solid plan. A few things from having done similar sprints:

Your Reddit strategy is right but timing matters more than most people think. r/freelance and niche subs have specific "allowed" post windows and certain days where engagement is 2-3x higher. Check each sub's rules and look at the top posts by 'week' to see what format actually gets traction there.

For the cold outreach on LinkedIn — freelancers are more receptive to a message that acknowledges their specific niche ("saw you do UX work for SaaS companies") vs generic "I built a tool for freelancers". It adds maybe 20 seconds per message but conversion goes up a lot.

One thing I'd add: use your first 10-15 users to find out why they signed up, not just that they did. The 'why' shapes everything about how you pitch to the next 50. Most early products find their real ICP is slightly different from what the founder assumed.

Good luck — rooting for you to hit the 50.

This is a really clear plan, especially the focus on “real users” instead of just signups.

We’re a bit further down the funnel with a mobile game and ran into an interesting problem:

we managed to get a solid number of downloads through Google Ads, but retention turned out to be much harder than acquisition. A lot of people try the game once, but only a smaller percentage actually keep playing.

It made us realize that getting users is one challenge, but getting them to stick is a completely different one.

In your case, I’d probably think about the first “real usage moment” early on — what’s the point where a freelancer actually feels the benefit and doesn’t go back to their old tools?

Curious how you're planning to define that for your first 50 users.

With zero audience and a 25-day clock, the trap is spreading across Reddit, LinkedIn, and cold email at once. You end up shallow in three places instead of sharp in one. Pick the single channel where your buyer already complains about this exact problem and go all in there. Second thing: the real goal is not 50 users, it is 50 conversations. At this stage manual and unscalable beats clever and automated, because you are buying learning, not growth. Every time I have started from zero the first 20 customers came from me talking to people one at a time, never from a funnel. What is the one place your ideal user already shows up every day?

Really respect the transparency here. I'm on a similar journey — launched TraderTracking (a free trading journal for forex/crypto/stock traders) about 2 weeks ago as a solo dev. Currently at ~12 users, all organic from Turkey.
Your channel strategy is solid. Reddit and Indie Hackers have been the most genuine communities for me too. Product Hunt gave initial visibility but didn't convert much.
One thing I'd add: blog content for SEO. I published 6 articles targeting trading-related keywords and 2 got indexed by Google within a week. It's slow but compounds over time.
Rooting for you to hit 50! Will follow your updates.

Great plan. One thing I'd test early is a small paid acquisition experiment. Even a modest Meta Ads budget can help validate messaging and identify which freelancer segment responds best. Curious—what's your target CPA or user acquisition goal for the first 50 users?

firstly congrats for the product lauch , looking forward for your growth positioning in public koran

One channel worth considering that tends to get overlooked: regulated industries.

Small business owners in healthcare, food service, and professional services have a specific kind of pain around compliance that generic tools don't solve. They know the problem is real, they're already spending money on it (accountants, lawyers, consultants), and they don't require much convincing once you show them the specific regulatory gap you're closing.

I'm mid-sprint on BillWatch (billwatch-landing.vercel.app) right now — it tracks federal legislation and sends you plain-English alerts when bills relevant to your business move through Congress. The most engaged early users have been dental practice owners and restaurant operators who keep getting blindsided by regulatory changes after they've already passed.

The sales cycle is short because the pain is specific and the "what does this do for me" is immediate. Regulatory niches are underrated for bootstrapped founders.

the biggest thing that helped me with cold outreach was making the first sentence reference something specific about their work. not 'love your product' but 'noticed you switched from X to Y last month'. conversion went from like 2% to 15% just from that. also 25 days is tight, are you counting trial users or paid?

Similar situation — building an Android automation app
with zero audience. A few things I'd add to your plan:

For Reddit, don't just post — find threads where people
already complain about the problem you solve and be
genuinely helpful there first. Takes longer but converts
way better than cold posts.

For cold outreach, LinkedIn response rates are brutal
unless you lead with something specific about their
situation, not your product.

Curious what your day 3-7 numbers look like on Reddit
— that channel is unpredictable in my experience.

One channel I'd add to the inbound side that's underrated at this stage is partnership distribution. Find 3–5 products that serve your exact same buyer but aren't competitors, and see if any of them is interested in mutually showcasing each other's product with the user journey (less ad/invasive approach).
The conversion rate is much higher than cold outreach because there's already trust in the relationship between that product and their audience. The hard part is finding who's actually open to it. Worked on something to make that easier (still early stage), happy to share if useful.

LinkedIn is underrated for this kind of launch. Freelancers are there, they scroll, and a well-framed post about a problem they recognize can travel further than you'd expect — especially if it gets a few early comments.

One tactical note: put the product link in the first comment, not in the post itself. LinkedIn's algorithm buries posts with external links. Same content, better reach.

IH feels like one of the more honest rooms for this kind of accountability post — good place to document the journey regardless of how the numbers land.

the channel list is solid but i'd front-load community comments over cold email. with zero audience, your first 10 users almost always come from people who saw you be helpful somewhere, not from a cold message. find 3-4 threads a day where freelancers are complaining about juggling tools and drop genuinely useful advice. no pitch needed — your profile links to Helios anyway. cold email works better once you can namedrop early users who actually stuck around.

Really interesting to follow along with this — I'm still figuring out a lot of this stuff myself so take this with a grain of salt.
The one thing that stuck out to me is whether the Facebook groups and Reddit subs know who you are yet before you post about Helios. From what I've been learning, showing up and being helpful in those communities first seems to make a big difference.
Good luck with the 22 days — I'll be watching the updates!

The Reddit channel is worth doubling down on once you've found the right niche subs. The shift that's worked for me: instead of top-level posts about your product, search each sub for threads where someone is already asking a question your product knowledge can answer — and just answer it. No product pitch, no "I built a thing for this." Treat it as if the tool doesn't exist and you're just a practitioner sharing methodology.

That's the format that actually gets upvotes and follow-up conversations in niche communities. The warm-up phase you're describing is really about building topic credibility in the sub first — once you've answered 3-4 questions well, the community treats you differently when you do eventually mention what you've built.

Good luck on the 50-user sprint. Following to see how the channels compare.

Following this closely — I'm at literally zero too, just launched. The part I keep relearning: an audience of builders ≠ buyers. Does your plan target people who already have the painful problem, or general reach? That's exactly where I keep going wrong.

I love that you are sharing your journey here. I want to follow along and see what works and what doesn't work to reach the first 50-100 users. I am a solo builder myself and would love any tips and tricks that could help as well. Thank you so much for sharing and letting us joining in on your development journey. Please keep up the good works

The Google Play testing gate gave me an unexpected lesson about this same problem. To unlock public distribution on Play Store you need 12 people to use the app for 14 consecutive days. Getting those 12 was harder than building the app.

What actually moved: being extremely specific about the ask. Instead of 'try my product,' tell people the exact constraint. 'I need 12 Android users to keep the app installed for 14 days - that's what unlocks Play Store access' got real responses where generic launch posts got nothing. Specificity makes it feel like helping someone solve a concrete problem rather than doing a favour.

The 50 users goal works the same way. Telling people exactly what 'using it' means and why that number matters tends to get more genuine engagement than a generic launch post.

Public accountability is underrated — just setting the goal this explicitly probably doubles your follow-through. One thing I'd add: the IH comments you mentioned are gold because they're unsolicited and honest. Reddit and Facebook groups can get noisy fast. I'd weight the channels where people push back, not just cheer.
Also just started building my own audience from zero, so following this thread closely.

Good plan on the outbound side. One thing worth building in parallel as those users land: a way to see where they actually get stuck, not just whether they signed up.

With a tool like Helios that replaces 5-6 workflows, the activation risk is high. A user might connect their first tool, hit a confusing step, quietly abandon the onboarding, and never come back. GA will show a session. Your funnel won't show a drop. But they're gone.

The signals to watch for aren't crashes — it's behavioral: someone who visits the billing page 3 times without converting, a connect-account button that gets clicked but the OAuth flow doesn't complete, a user who reaches step 4 of onboarding and then disappears for 7 days. These don't surface in standard analytics but they're almost always the real reason early retention is low.

Even just adding server-side logging for "user reached X step, did not complete" on your critical flows gives you something actionable before the 25 days are up.

Watching with interest — just launched something similar (free tool, no audience, low Reddit karma blocking the obvious subs). One thing that's been more valuable than I expected: texting 10 actual friends individually beats any broadcast channel I've tried, just for getting honest feedback in week 1. What channels have surprised you so far?

With zero audience and 25 days, the failure mode is not picking the wrong channel. It is picking all of them. Reddit, LinkedIn, and cold email each move on different rhythms, and three half-efforts usually lose to one real one. If I had your constraints I would pick the single channel where your buyer already complains about the problem out loud, go deep for 25 days, and ignore the other two until one is actually working.

I would also reframe the goal. 50 signups is easy to game and tells you almost nothing. 5 users who would be annoyed if you shut the product off tomorrow tells you everything. I would rather finish with 8 real ones than 50 tourists. What does the product do, and who feels the pain hardest?

Following this closely — I'm in almost exactly the same spot right now.

I'm validating a Chrome extension (AI memory backup tool) and set the same rule: 50 waitlist signups before writing a single line of product code. It forces you to prove the pain is real before you invest the time.

One thing I'd add to your plan: the Reddit "warming up" step is more important than it looks. I hit karma walls on r/ChatGPT and r/ClaudeAI as a new account — even with good content, the spam filter killed the posts. Facebook groups and cold outreach are probably your fastest path in week 1.

Good luck, will be watching your updates.

I ran a near-identical zero-audience push for a lightweight iOS memo app I build solo — a Captio replacement. My first 28 installs came from exactly two Reddit comments in one niche sub (comments, not posts), and cold outreach converted close to nothing in week one.

The 25-day clock is the risky part: my Reddit account was new, so the first ~10 days were pure karma warm-up before posts stopped getting auto-removed — exactly what another commenter flagged. If I ran it again I'd front-load one narrow community and ignore breadth until something there compounds, rather than spreading thin across all three channels at once. Of the channels in your plan, which one are you betting carries the most weight in the first 10 days?

Great breakdown of the channels. One I'd add that's been working really well for early-stage SaaS is social listening on Reddit. People literally ask for tool recommendations in r/freelance, r/SaaS, and niche communities — and they're actively looking to buy. The challenge is catching those threads within the first hour. We use Rixly to monitor those conversations automatically so we never miss a high-intent post. Helps turn the "zero audience" problem into a "find the right conversations" one.

same goal for my project and my answer is not about time its about what to do during this time every word here i actually did on my project first dont mention ur project straight up second dont waste more time or money on updates if ur product is an mvp third if ur infrastructure is draining ur money rebuild it for more efficiency i recommend golang cuz why drain ur money on a project thats not profitable yet

Good luck, even giving away a tool for free these days isn't easy. By the way, I'd like to know what tools are integrated into Helios, that would be very helpful. Thank you.

The plan is solid on the outbound side (Reddit, LinkedIn, cold email).
The thing I would add is the inbound layer that almost nobody on IH talks
about: AI search visibility.

I got a project from zero to about 690 sessions a week in 1 month months
with zero audience-building. The breakdown of where that traffic comes
from: ChatGPT and direct AI mobile referrer combined are about 85 percent,
Google organic is 6 percent. The work that moved the needle was not what
the SEO community recommends. It was:

One, publishing an llms context file at the site root. ChatGPT's crawler
reads it and uses it to build a clean mental model of what the site does.
Two files actually, a short one and a long one for engines that prefer
denser context.

Two, comparison pages versus established competitors. For Helios that
would be comparison pages versus HubSpot, Bonsai, Harvest, Notion. AI
engines cite these directly when a freelancer asks "is Helios better
than Bonsai." Took me two days to build five comparison pages and they
outperform every other content piece I have shipped.

Three, JSON-LD structured data on every page, especially mainEntity
Question entries that mirror real user queries. AI retrieval pipelines
weight structured data heavily for factual queries.

Four, Bing Webmaster Tools and IndexNow set up day one. ChatGPT samples
Bing's index more than Google's, and Bing crawls much faster.

On the Reddit side, one practical note. Reddit accounts need about 30 days
of comment karma before posts in active subs stop getting auto-removed.
If the account you plan to post from is new, the warm-up alone eats half
your 25-day window. Worth checking before week 1.

What does your current Direct traffic look like in GA4? If it is above
20 percent, that is hidden ChatGPT mobile referrer and you might already
have AI traffic that you can amplify.

Cold outreach to LinkedIn is probably your fastest path, but I'd go narrower than 'freelancers broadly' — designers, copywriters, and developers each have their own tight-knit Slack communities and Facebook groups where members actually talk to each other daily. r/freelance has a lot of lurkers who won't switch tools based on a post, but a well-placed comment in a niche group where the Bonsai vs Harvest debate is already happening can convert immediately. One thing worth testing: offer a free 20-minute onboarding call as part of the trial. Sounds counterintuitive at scale, but for your first 50 users it's gold — those conversations will tell you exactly which pain point to lead with in cold outreach. What's been the most common response you're getting from LinkedIn so far?

Can you help me?
And I create the website, and me have all-in-one with 5 websites, too😳! But nobody use it. And Google don't index it😢

The accountability angle is underrated honestly. i'm doing something similar with dailyaitools.io not a SaaS but a content/directory site, 6 months in, and the moment i started tracking specific numbers weekly instead of just working on it things shifted mentally at least. for hitting 50 faster from what i've seen the reddit warm up thing takes longer than expected, facebook groups move faster if you find the right niche ones. cold outreach to freelancers directly will probably be your fastest channel if your messaging is sharp curious how the Product Hunt launch went, that's something i'm planning down the road too

In the same boat with Money Me, a personal finance Android app. My user challenge is structural before it's even marketing — Google Play requires 12 testers active for 14 consecutive days before you can go public, so I'm solving a gating constraint, not just a growth problem. What's worked: r/AndroidAppTesters (tester swap subreddit, shockingly high intent), and being hyper-specific on why the app exists. Money Me shows actual spendable balance — bank balance minus upcoming bills and savings commitments — rather than just a bank total. That single clear differentiator converts better in every channel versus "personal finance app". Agree with ruslan_bega: one niche forum where your exact pain is felt beats five broad ones. For Helios, I'd look for the subreddits where freelancers complain about their current tool stack, not the "freelancer general" ones.

Following this closely because I'm in the exact same spot — launching a Windows desktop tool tomorrow with zero audience. What I've found so far: the "zero audience" constraint forces you to be hyper-specific about who the first 10 users are, rather than thinking about 50. One niche forum where your tool solves a specific pain beats broad posting every time. Good luck with the 25 days experiment.

I would add one daily review loop to this: write down the exact sentence users use when they describe the pain before trying the product. Not the feature they ask for, the wording of the pain.

For early channels, that language becomes more valuable than the channel list itself, because it tells you which Reddit posts, LinkedIn searches, cold emails, and landing page sections are actually aligned with how freelancers already think about the problem.

I would make the first 50 less of a channel race and more of a qualification system.

For every user who tries it, capture three things: what tool they were replacing first, what action proved they were actually activated, and what made them hesitate before trusting the product with real client work. That gives you a sharper loop than just source -> signup -> trial.

If one segment activates around the same first job, I would narrow the public pitch around that job for the next few updates. Broad platform positioning can come later; early traction usually gets easier when the promise is painfully specific.

The idea is clear, but the positioning feels broad.

When a landing page tries to speak to “all freelancers,” conversion usually drops because no one feels directly addressed.

I’d test narrowing the hero to one specific type of freelancer first.

Who is currently converting best for you?

This is the right kind of public challenge because your goal is not “get signups,” it is getting freelancers to actually replace part of their daily workflow. That distinction matters.

The biggest friction I’d watch is not the channel mix. It is whether freelancers understand Helios as one clear operating system or just another bundle of tools. If the pitch is “replaces HubSpot, Notion, Bonsai, Harvest, and Mailchimp,” the value is strong, but the category can feel broad unless the brand and positioning make the workflow feel unified.

That is also where I’d pressure-test the name early. Helios is clean, but it is already used in a lot of places and does not immediately carry freelancer workflow, client ops, proposals, time, email, and CRM in one product memory. If this starts working, you may want a brand that feels more ownable before users, content, and launch assets lock in.

Xevoa .com would fit this better as a sharper product shell for a freelancer operating system: workflow, clients, outreach, time, projects, and business admin under one cleaner platform name.

Love the hustle, Koran! I am literally in the exact same boat right now.

I am doing a crazy double launch week. Yesterday, I launched EcomStacks (a curated directory for ecommerce SaaS tools) on Product Hunt. And tomorrow I am doing it again with Aetheris Talisman (an aesthetic cosmic digital art store).

To answer your question on how to hit 50 users faster: Have you tried submitting your tool to micro directories and specialized aggregators? When I launched EcomStacks yesterday, I realized that highly curated, niche directories bring in much higher intent traffic than a random Reddit post, because the people there are actively looking to adopt a new tool to solve their problem.

Also for your cold outreach, try offering a "Founding Member Lifetime Deal" specifically for those first 50 users. It completely removes the friction of a subscription for early adopters.

Rooting for you to hit that 50 mark! You got this.

Consistency beats intensity every time. The 25-day constraint is smart—it forces focus. Make sure you're measuring the right vanity metrics though.

The one-channel-deep advice is the most underrated thing in here. Most founders spray across Reddit, Twitter, IH, Facebook, LinkedIn, and cold email all at once and end up with mediocre signals from everywhere instead of strong signal from one place. Pick the channel where your target user already lives and show up for two weeks before you ever mention the product. The warm-up is the acquisition strategy, not a delay before it starts. Also — accountability works better when it's tied to a specific number and a deadline, not a general intention. 'Ship something this week' is vague. 'Get three signups by Friday' is a bet you can actually win or lose. What is the one channel you are most confident about right now?

Try your best not to be spammy, that's the last thing people like experiencing.

one thing i'd add from doing this recently: pick one channel you can actually sustain and go deep instead of spraying across 6. i spread thin early across every platform and got basically nothing on any of them. cut it down to one automated channel plus one or two manual high-effort pushes and the numbers per post actually went up.

also set up attribution before you start, not after. i ran for weeks at like 89% "direct" traffic with zero idea what was working. boring fix but you can't double down on what you can't see. good luck, 25 days is tight but doable if you don't scatter.

I did this the messy way on a tiny SaaS, the fastest lift came from tightening the trust page before adding another channel. If freelancers hit Helios from Reddit or cold email and cant tell where billing data, client docs, and privacy live, they bounce fast, people usually patch that with TermsFeed or Termly, I built PrivacyForge because those docs drift the second Stripe or analytics changes. I'd make one freelancer-specific trust page and link it in every outbound touch, tbh.

Ran a similar zero-audience push on a browser tool last year. The one thing that actually moved numbers: finding the single subreddit where people were already complaining about the exact friction I solved, then answering questions there for two weeks before ever mentioning the product. Took longer than a launch post, but those users retained. The warm-up isn't a delay — it's the acquisition strategy.

Going through the exact same journey with EarningsScores. One thing that helped me: SEO turned out to be my only real acquisition channel — every scored earnings report becomes an indexed page that people search for organically. Much slower than the channels you're running, but it compounds. Your multi-channel blitz approach makes sense for 25 days though. The accountability post is the right move — IH comments gave me better product feedback in a week than months of Twitter posts. Following this.

Clear plan. I would make the next 22 days about channel-specific pages, not just more posting.

If Reddit clicks, send them to a page built for freelancers replacing 5 tools at once. If LinkedIn or email clicks, send them to a page about replacing Bonsai + Harvest + Notion without juggling tabs. If Product Hunt clicks, send them to a page framed around an all-in-one stack for solo freelancers. Same product, different entry pages. That usually turns qualified traffic into actual product usage much faster than one generic homepage.

I'm giving away free acquisition clusters right now. If you want, drop Helios here and I'll send 5 conversion page ideas within 24h: https://clustra.nanocorp.app/#cluster-gratuit

Respect for putting yourself out there and building in public—most people never get that far. Stay consistent with the outreach and feedback loop; if Helios solves a real pain point, those first 50 users will come.

I just had my app approved and I am doing the same, hoping for just 20

Naming the number is the underrated part. Half the "growth" posts I read are about "getting traction" with no metric attached. The thing I keep getting wrong: the activation moment only becomes obvious in hindsight, weeks after someone either stays or ghosts. Curious what event you are going to commit to as "it stuck."

Btw how was your PH launch? Founders in my network who launched recently all complain that there is no more real audience and early adopters... is that true?

One add from the fundraising side: outbound & investor outreach fail the same way: founders blast a wide list and read low replies as a volume problem, when it's almost always timing and fit. The users who convert fastest are already describing your problem this week - find those, reply like a human, save the cold list for later.

@koranthorne That activation moment is much sharper than a generic “active user” count. First invoice sent through Helios means the freelancer trusted it with real work, not just curiosity. I’d probably track the steps right before it too: invoice created, client/contact added, invoice sent, then whether they come back to check status or send the next one. That sequence will tell you where confidence breaks.

distribution is the hard part after building. reddit is really nice to get people on your site and also x. you can look for specific keywords. read their problems and give them your solution - it really works. at the moment I'm using okara AI (first day so far). it's cool

the direct call approach is underrated for this stage. five calls with real freelancers will teach you more about switching friction and pricing sensitivity than a month of posting. the channel that brings highest quality users is usually whichever one you can actually have a conversation in — LinkedIn cold outreach can work well because you get intent signal in the reply rate. but the real leverage is nailing your "why would you switch" story before you scale anything. what would make a freelancer abandon their current tool stack mid-contract to try something new?

I like that this is a concrete target instead of a vague growth goal. Which acquisition channel are you most confident about right now? Personally, I’m finding distribution much harder than building.

I like the fact that you're focusing on "real users" rather than just signups. A lot of founders celebrate 100 registrations when only a handful actually use the product.

One thing I'd test is spending more time talking directly to freelancers before scaling outreach. If you can get 5-10 users on calls and understand exactly why they would switch from their current tools, your messaging will probably improve faster than posting in multiple channels at once.

Curious: out of all the channels you're testing, which one do you expect to bring the highest quality users?

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Hey, I've checked your site, it looks like a valuable service to me (although I personally don't use many of the offered services) Let me help you out with a small bug report: the amounts to be paid show up weird, like this: £49. It's not the end of the world, but might be easy to fix and would improve consumer trust!

For anyone following this thread — Helios is live at helios.today. Free plan, no card needed, takes 4 minutes to set up. First 200 users get Pro locked at £29/month forever instead of £49. If you're a freelancer or run a small agency and want to be one of the first 50 — now's the time. Would genuinely love the feedback.

Going through something similar right now - trying to get first users for an app with the same zero-to-audience problem.

One thing that's worked better than expected: niche community posts with honest framing. Not 'try my product' but 'I'm building X for people who've had problem Y - does this resonate?' The self-selection is much higher because you're asking people to identify as your target user, not asking everyone to evaluate something cold.

For your freelancer tool specifically, I'd look at threads where freelancers are already complaining about the tools you replace. Someone venting about HubSpot's pricing is already 80% of the way there. Those threads convert better than launch posts because the frustration is live.

Doing something similar right now — building a newsletter from zero audience and tracking every channel.
What's worked best for me in the first 48 hours: personal DMs over everything else. Posted publicly to LinkedIn and got 130 impressions but 0 direct signups. Sent 1 personal DM and got a real conversation going immediately.
For your 50 users goal — I'd double down on the cold outreach over Reddit. Reddit warms up too slowly for a 22-day sprint. LinkedIn DMs to freelancers with a specific pain point you solve will convert faster than any community post.
What's your open rate looking like on the cold email side so far?

This update format is solid — the week-by-week transparency is honest in a way that's hard to fake.

One thing I'm curious about: when you're in that 30-40 range and not moving, do you find yourself going back to the features that already work, or is it more of a "what do I build next" paralysis?

I like how specific the goal is — “50 real users, not signups” is the right framing.
One thing I’d be careful with: running too many channels at once can make the learning messy. If Reddit, Facebook groups, Product Hunt, cold outreach, and IH are all running together, it may be hard to know which signal is real and which is just noise.
If I were in your position, I’d probably pick one high-intent channel for the first 7–10 days and go very deep. For example: search Reddit/Facebook for freelancers already complaining about tool overload, invoicing, client management, or jumping between apps — then reply with useful advice first, not a pitch.
At this stage, I’d rather get 5 users who actively use Helios for a real workflow than 50 curious visitors.
Following this — the “real numbers every few days” part will be very valuable.

One channel missing from your list: the "what are you building" threads on X. Every day there are 5-10 posts specifically asking founders to drop their project and URL - "what did you build this week", "solo builders where you at", "drop what you're working on". The audience has opted in to hear about products, so your reply doesn't read as a pitch. I show up in 3-4 of these a day with a one-liner about what I'm building and a link. The conversations that follow convert better than cold outreach because there's no cold start - they asked first. Fifteen minutes a day, consistent. Worth adding to the stack alongside Reddit.

Following along, I'm in a similar spot with a Chrome extension. 69 installs organic, no promotion, but only ~2 weekly active users. The 50-active vs 50-signups distinction is exactly the gap I'm staring at right now.
I like the @GregoryScottHenson's comment "8 real users beats 50 tourists.". Easy to forget when you're just watching install numbers.
Also +1 on the Reddit karma wall. I'm 4 days in, ~1 karma, account still gated. Going narrow on one sub seems like the right call.

Curious which freelancer pain you're leading with on cold outreach, "tool overload" or something more specific?

50 active users, not signups, is exactly the right goal. Most people measure signups and feel good when the number goes up. You've already skipped that mistake.

One thing worth watching with Facebook groups and Reddit: those channels often attract people who are sympathetic to the problem but aren't ready to change their stack. The signal to look for is someone asking "how do I get started" rather than "what does this do" - the second group is browsing, the first is close to buying.

What's your day-1 retention looked like from the Product Hunt traffic so far?

Doing something similar with RiseNet right now. Same zero-audience start, same pressure to find real users fast. The accountability post format is underrated, it forces you to actually execute.
One thing I'd add to your channel list: go directly to where freelancers are already complaining about the problem. Not to pitch — just to be useful. The conversion rate on helping the right person beats any cold outreach by a mile.
Following this. Good luck with the 22 days.

Following this! The cold outreach approach is underrated. One thing I'd add — make sure your landing page has zero bugs before driving traffic. Broken flows kill conversions silently. Good luck with the 50 user goal!

The accountability angle is what I like most about this. Posting the plan publicly before you hit the numbers is a different kind of pressure. Curious to see how the Facebook groups perform compared to Product Hunt, that's usually where I see the most debate on what actually converts.

I may be completely wrong, but if I were in your position I'd spend less time talking to freelancers and more time understanding which specific freelancers are feeling the pain most acutely.

"All freelancers" is a huge market mate, but a freelance designer doing three projects a month has very different problems from a freelance consultant juggling twenty clients.

I'd be looking for people actively complaining about admin, invoicing, CRM, proposals, project tracking, client communication or tool overload and then positioning Helios as the answer to that specific frustration.

One thing I learned the hard way is that people rarely buy software (or anything) because it has more features. They buy because they're tired of a particular headache.

I also think publicly documenting the journey is a smart move. Even if the first 50 users don't come directly from Product Hunt or Reddit, people tend to rally behind founders who are building in public and sharing the real numbers rather than the polished success story.

Looking forward to seeing the updates. The 50-user challenge is a lot more interesting than another "I launched my SaaS" post.

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Love the “real users, not signups” constraint. I’d make the 22-day plan more diagnostic by splitting the 50 into 3 buckets:

1. 10 users from warm/community channels for feedback
2. 20 from direct outreach where you can learn exact pain + current stack
3. 20 from repeatable acquisition tests (Reddit/Facebook/PH) so you know what scales

The main thing I’d track is not just source, but activation moment: what did they do in the first session that proves Helios replaced one existing tool? If you can name that action, every channel gets easier to judge.