Data Extractio

Hey Indie Hackers 👋

I'm Martin, a Data Engineer who just learned a very expensive lesson.

The current situation

• ✅ Working product (PDF table extraction)

• ✅ Deployed to production

• ✅ Product Hunt launch done (April 14)

• ❌ Real users: 0

• ❌ Revenue: $0

• ❌ Just me talking to myself in PostHog

Classic first-time founder mistake: Built for 6 months in silence. Zero audience building.

What is Data Extractio?

PDF table extraction tool with simpler pricing than competitors:

• Competitors charge per page ($0.02-0.05/page)

• We charge per PDF (one credit = extract ALL tables from one PDF)

Example: 200-page document with 15 tables

• Competitors: $4-10 (pay for every page)

• Data Extractio: $0.19 (extract all 15 tables)

Built with Django, React, Python. Text-based PDFs work great. No OCR yet (scanned documents don't work—this is next).

Product: dataextractio.com

The Product Hunt "launch"

Launched April 14. Strategy: Post at 12:01am and pray.

Hour 17: 0 upvotes. Panic.

Hour 20: Posted on Reddit (r/excel). Got 8 upvotes total.

Conversions: Zero.

Lesson learned: You need an audience BEFORE launching, not after.

What I'm doing now (the pivot)

Completely changing approach:

1. Building in Public

• Twitter: 3+ posts/week (progress, metrics, lessons)

• Weekly updates here on IH (real numbers, even if they're bad)

• Full transparency about what works/doesn't

2. SEO-First Growth

• Blog posts targeting "pdf table extraction", competitor comparisons

• Reddit engagement (r/ProductHunters helped with those 8 upvotes!)

• Provide value first, promote second

3. Ship Missing Features

• OCR integration (Priority #1 - unlock scanned PDFs)

• RESTful API for developers

• Zapier integration (later)

4. Audience > Features

• Answer questions on Reddit daily

• Help others here on IH

• Build relationships, not just features

Current metrics (Day 1 of building in public)

Let's establish the baseline:

• MRR: $0

• Users: 1 (me)

• Real signups: 0

• Traffic: ~10 unique visitors total (mostly from PH/Reddit)

• That PostHog spike? Me testing before launch

• Time to first real user: TBD

This is what "starting from zero" actually looks like.

What I need from this community

1. Strategy check

• Is SEO realistic for a side project (I work full-time as Data Engineer)?

• Should I focus on getting ANY users first, or build OCR first?

• Niche down (e.g., "for accountants") or stay broad?

2. Your zero-to-one story

• How did you get your first 10 REAL users?

• How long from launch to first paying customer?

• What worked better than expected?

3. Pricing validation

• For PDF table extraction, what would you actually pay?

• Is per-PDF pricing confusing or clear?

Questions for you

1. What would you focus on first: OCR or getting users for what exists?

2. How did YOU get your first real user (not friends/family)?

Thanks for reading. Excited to document this journey from 0 → something (or fail spectacularly trying).

Following along = watching someone build an audience from literally nothing. Should be educational either way. 🚀

Product: dataextractio.com

Twitter: @MartCervt

Tech stack: Django, React, Python, Supabase, Paddle

Working on: OCR integration this week

P.S. If you process PDFs and want to be my first real user, DM me. I'll give you unlimited credits just to get honest feedback.