Signal Hunt
Find real user problems before you build
Almost all the advice around engaging with users is unanimous:
"Just talk to your users."
I thought that was a good place to start.
Started leaving comments on Reddit.
Answered the questions of founders on Indie Hackers.
Joined conversations where it was clear that the people were struggling with the same problem as me.
The outcome that I expected:
→ Conversations.
→ Feedback.
→ Maybe some initial users.
Actual Outcome:
→ Leave insightful comments.
→ … and they never reply.
Zero follow-ups. Zero conversations.
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Now I'm starting to second-guess myself and my sources of advice.
Is the problem not talking to users?
Maybe it's:
→ Finding the right people to talk to.
→ At the right time.
→ When they care enough to reply.
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Currently, my mission is to figure out:
* What really means that someone will engage with you?
* How can I distinguish high-intent founders from politely replying commentators?
* Where can I find these people hanging around?
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It feels like there's an extra step that I'm missing between:
"Be valuable in conversations."
and
"Have conversations."
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Out of curiosity,
have you tried something similar?
How did you find the people that would actually reply?
Most founders don’t fail because they can’t build.
They fail because they build without real users.
I kept running into the same problem - I could ship products, but I had no idea if anyone actually had the problem I was solving. Every launch felt like guessing.
Signal Hunt is built to fix that.
It helps founders find real conversations where people are already expressing frustration, needs, and problems - so you can validate ideas before building.
Instead of asking “will people use this?”, you start seeing “people are already asking for this”.
It’s built for solo founders, indie hackers, and early-stage builders who are tired of building into silence.
If you’ve ever shipped something and heard nothing back — you’re exactly who this is for.
I kept running into the same problem while building side projects - I could build products, but I struggled to find early users who actually had the problem I was solving.
Most of my launches felt like guessing. I would build something, publish it, and then try to “find an audience” afterward - which usually didn’t work.
Signal Hunt started as a small internal experiment to flip this process.
Instead of building first and hoping someone cares, I wanted a way to surface real conversations where people are already expressing frustration or needs around a topic.
The goal is simple: help founders validate ideas earlier by finding real signals of demand instead of assumptions.
I’m building it because I personally needed it - and I suspect other solo builders and early founders face the same problem.
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This is exactly the right order — find the frustrated people first, then build. I'm doing manual version of this right now for a client vetting tool for freelancers: spending a week in communities where freelancers complain about bad clients before writing a single line of code. It's slow but the signal quality is way higher than a survey. Curious what sources Signal Hunt pulls from — is it mainly Reddit or broader than that?
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Right now I’m mostly focused on Reddit, yeah.
Mostly because of the volume + activity. Big communities, constant stream of new posts, and real discussions happening all the time.
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This is the real problem nobody talks about enough. You can build anything in days now with AI but distribution is still as hard as it's always been. What's worked best for you so far for finding those first users?
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Honestly? Still figuring it out.
So far the only thing that kind of works is exactly this jumping into threads where people are already talking about the problem and trying to start real conversations.But it’s super manual and inconsistent. Some threads feel like gold, others just die with no replies.
That’s actually why I started digging into this deeper-
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Same boat — doing exactly this right now for a client vetting tool for freelancers. The threads that convert seem to share one thing: the person posting has active pain, not just curiosity. Someone venting about a bad client converts better than someone asking theoretical questions. Have you noticed the same pattern?
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