Recommended reading for early founders: how to get your first 300+ users with $0
I’m building HandyPay, a payments app for Jamaican and Caribbean service businesses. We crossed 300+ downloads in about 30 days with no ads, and I wanted to share the exact approach I used in a way other indie devs can copy.
This is early traction, not scale, but it works.
Step 1: Talk to people before you write anything
Before posting anywhere, I talked to:
• My barber
• Spa and salon owners
• Airbnb hosts
• Other founders
I asked:
• How do you take payments today?
• What breaks or feels annoying?
• When do customers flake or dispute payments?
Those answers shaped both the product and the messaging.
Step 2: Solve one problem and stop building
I didn’t try to build a super app.
The entire pitch became:
"Send a payment link and get paid directly to your bank."
That’s it.
The product is called HandyPay. It lets small service businesses accept card and Apple Pay payments using payment links, with payouts going directly to local bank accounts.
Links:
• Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.handypay.mobile&hl=en
• iOS: https://apps.apple.com/jm/app/handypay/id6751820310
• Web: https://tryhndypay.com
Once the message was clear, I stopped adding features and focused on distribution.
Step 3: Post where trust already exists
Instead of “launching,” I:
• Wrote honestly on Reddit
• Shared progress on LinkedIn
• Answered questions instead of pitching
No hype. No growth hacks.
People downloaded because they trusted the intent.
Step 4: Make proof obvious
I shared:
• A simple demo video
• How payouts work
• Install graphs, not marketing stats
That removed most objections.
Step 5: Reply to everything
Every comment and DM turned into:
• Feedback
• Better positioning
• Word of mouth installs
At this stage, distribution is manual.
Results so far
• 300+ downloads in ~30 days
• 5–6 installs per day organically
• $0 spent on ads
If you’re launching early:
• Talk to users first
• Explain one pain clearly
• Treat distribution as a daily habit
Happy to answer questions.
did you work with a software company or have any background creating payment apps or did you learn as you go along ?
I’m a software engineer, but I didn’t come from a payments company.
A lot of it was learned by doing: talking to businesses, reading docs, shipping small, and fixing what broke.
Payments especially force you to learn fast because mistakes show up immediately.
Love the "reply to everything" strategy - that's exactly where organic traction compounds.
One channel I've found most founders overlook: YouTube comments on industry videos. Same logic as your Reddit approach - trust already exists, people are actively discussing the problem, and thoughtful replies stand out.
The challenge is scale. You can manually reply to 20-30 comments/day, but there are thousands of relevant conversations happening on videos about your problem space. Some founders are starting to use AI to monitor and surface the best opportunities (people asking questions, expressing frustration, looking for solutions).
Your "make proof obvious" step applies here too - instead of pitching in comments, link to a demo video or case study. Let the proof do the selling.
300 downloads in 30 days with $0 is solid execution. The "explain one pain clearly" lesson is something most SaaS founders ignore for way too long.
This is a great point - YouTube comments feels very similar to Reddit but with even stronger intent.
I’ve been keeping things manual so far to really understand which conversations convert, but I can see AI becoming useful once those patterns are clear.
“Proof over pitch” has been huge for me too. Linking to something concrete consistently beats explaining.
And agreed on the “one pain” lesson - painfully underrated
exactly - the intent signal on youtube is way higher than most channels. someone watching a "how to accept payments for my small business" video is already looking for a solution.
manual first to understand patterns, then scale what works. you're doing it right. good luck with handypay!
Exactly. People already searching for “how to accept payments” aren’t browsing, they’re trying to fix a problem.
Thank you for the kind words!
This is a masterclass in early traction. The "Send a payment link and get paid directly to your bank" pitch is perfect - no jargon, no feature bloat, just the exact outcome the user wants.
What I love about your approach: you forced yourself to stop building once the message was clear. Most founders do the opposite - they keep adding features hoping clarity will emerge from complexity. It doesn't.
Your "make proof obvious" step is especially smart. Demo video + how payouts work + install graphs = removing the three biggest objections (does it work, can I trust it, is anyone else using it). That's the barrier between curiosity and download.
One gap I see constantly at this stage: you've nailed the distribution and clear messaging, but once users download, there's often a "wait, what do I do first?" moment. The gap between install and first successful payment link can kill momentum if users have to read docs or figure it out alone.
That's why we built Demogod (demogod.me) - AI voice agents that guide users through interactive product demos in real-time. Imagine users landing on your site, instantly understanding how to create their first payment link with voice guidance, before they even download. Turns "sounds useful" into "I know exactly how this works."
Your talk-first + reply-to-everything strategy + instant product clarity = compounding word-of-mouth. Congrats on the traction!
Really appreciate this - you nailed the thinking behind it.
You’re absolutely right about the install to first action gap. Getting users to their first successful payment link as fast as possible is the real activation moment, and it’s something I’m actively watching and iterating on.
The “proof before pitch” lesson was learned the hard way, so glad that resonated. Thanks for taking the time to write this up.