Launched a dev utility suite, got my first PR merged into a 1.6k-star awesome-list, and learned my "free tools" pitch wasn't the actual hook
A few weeks ago I shipped TrenTyx — a suite of free developer tools (JSON/CSV/YAML/XML converters, Base64, JWT decoder, cron parser, UUID generator, regex tester, and a few others) that run entirely in the browser. No backend, no signup, no data ever leaves the device.
Wanted to share a few concrete things from the first stretch of getting this in front of people.
## What actually worked
Getting listed in awesome-json (a curated GitHub list with 1.6k stars) turned out to be a much better use of time than I expected. It's a five-minute PR, and unlike a lot of directory submissions, it's the kind of link that actually gets clicked — people browsing an awesome-list are already in "looking for a tool like this" mode.
I also got a comment on the JWT decoder specifically that stuck with me: someone said they liked that they could "paste real JWTs without worrying about leaking them." That wasn't my main pitch going in — I was leading with "free, no signup" — but the privacy/client-side angle turned out to be the thing people actually cared about enough to comment on.
## What I got wrong initially
I assumed "it's free" would be the hook. It's not — free is table stakes for this category, every competitor is also free. The actual differentiator was "your data never leaves your browser," and I almost buried that message instead of leading with it.
## What's next
Still working through submission to a few more curated lists, and trying to get past Hacker News's new-account Show HN restriction (they recently started requiring accounts build up some history before posting — reasonable, but means I'm stuck building karma for now instead of posting there directly).
If anyone's built something similar — privacy-angle positioning for a "boring utility" product — curious what messaging actually landed for you versus what you assumed would land going in.
The privacy angle being discovered through actual user behavior is the interesting part. “Free” explains why someone might try a utility, but “your data never leaves the browser” gives them a concrete reason to prefer yours. That distinction between the assumed hook and the demonstrated hook is easy to miss.