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Shakeb
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Shakeb
@shakeb0092
Founder of Index92, the AI that makes the call, sends the email, and hands you proof. Giving operators 10+ hrs/week back. DM “beta” for Wave 1
Toronto Katılım Ekim 2025
21 Takip Edilen12 Takipçiler
I’ve hired marketers from big companies several times.
Almost every time, the advice was the same:
Increase the budget
We need more data
Give the algorithm another week
But I’m bootstrapped. No investors. No endless pile of cash.
When I started digging into it myself, I found the real problems:
- Attribution wasn’t set up properly
- Integrations were missing
- Lots of technical details were broken
The algorithm didn’t need more money. It needed correct data.
Now I know that when I compete with large companies, I’m often competing with money, not execution.
And that’s where a bootstrapper has an advantage.
Big companies chase scale.
I chase opportunities that are too small, weird, or inefficient for them to notice.
Ivan Sparrow@ivesparrowai
meet my competitors. and who are you guys fighting for bids against? imagine if these giants were actually good at performance marketing, on top of the massive reach they already have.
English
Even published apps can start growing again if you invest time into improving them:
- ASO
- Screenshots
- App localization
- Metadata localization
- Pricing optimization
I met @oscar_kotlin at a conference in Chile. He has several interesting apps and I suggested he try refreshing one of them.
He went all in on the improvements, and the result is in the screenshot.
There’s still plenty of room to improve both the onboarding and the in-app experience, but he already proved an important point: The app came back to life.
Impressions are now several times higher than before, downloads are growing, and he recently got his first annual subscription.
Most apps don’t need a miracle. They need consistent iteration.
Oscar@oscar_kotlin
After a major app update: - new onboarding - refreshed screenshots - translations in 31 languages impressions finally started climbing. Downloads are up too. And some days ago, the first annual subscription came in 🙌 Thanks @seraleev for the recommendations!
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Today, asking for a rating during onboarding is one of the most effective ways to collect ratings and reviews.
The whole purpose of onboarding is to demonstrate the app’s value as quickly as possible. If a user already sees that value, prompting for a review during onboarding can be highly effective.
If Apple banned this practice, many apps would likely see a significant drop in both ratings and review volume.
Chad Etzel@jazzychad
Hot take: Apple should instantly reject apps that prompt for rating during onboarding.
English
How do you validate an idea?
The answer is simple: ship it to the App Store.
As app development gets cheaper every day, it’s one of the best ways to test whether an idea has real potential.
Of course, simply publishing an app is no longer enough. You might not get any meaningful traction at all.
I’d spend extra time on:
- ASO
- Screenshots
- App localization
- Metadata localization
- Pricing optimization
Your goal is to maximize your chances of capturing organic traffic from day one.
If money comes in and users don’t cancel their trials, the idea works.
From there, it’s straightforward: improve the product → add more value → scale traffic.
M Rangga@madannn22
@seraleev what do you think sir about validation? before launcing app
English
@eliana_jordan been building AI tools but finding myself drawn back to smaller communities where people actually build things together
English
i’m getting a little tired of the tt game.
it feels like the most impersonal social network i’ve ever used.
people sharing things they didn’t create.
people buying things they didn’t realize were ads.
ai influencers.
ai photos.
today i saw a recipe with a fruit bowl photo and ground beef in the ingredients.
wtf.
sometimes i feel stupid for still not cracking the algorithm or making a dollar from my latest app there.
but maybe that’s the wrong goal.
maybe the answer isn’t making more meaningless content.
maybe it’s creating something worth paying attention to.
English
I ended up learning one of the hardest ad platforms for iOS apps first: Google Ads.
Attribution issues, campaign optimization that often feels almost blind (comparing installs against actual revenue) and plenty of guesswork.
So when I started running Apple Search Ads, my first reaction was: wow, this is cheaper.
Yes, it requires a lot more manual work. And it won’t fit every app – some categories rely heavily on the US market, where ASA can get very expensive.
But for many apps, the strategy of vacuuming up smaller markets is surprisingly effective.
Viktor Seraleev@seraleev
Starting in May, I began reducing my Google Ads spend and increasing my Apple Search Ads budget. ASA is one of the most effective and affordable acquisition channels for iOS apps. But like any advertising platform, it takes time, money, and a lot of experimentation to master. Experience is EXPENSIVE.
English
@vitaliidodonov Honest question: how much of this depends on already having an audience versus starting completely from zero
English
I just finished writing my most valuable PDF yet:
"$0 to $10K MRR in 14 days" (19 pages)
It's everything I wish I knew when starting out.
I might charge for this in the future, but for now…
Reply "MRR" and I’ll DM it to you for free (must follow)
English
This college student, who made $50K in 7 weeks with an app, says any viral trend on social media is a hidden app opportunity if you spot it early enough.
"I would scroll social media, find all these big content creators online and what are they all talking about? Is there something you've never heard of that they're all talking about?"
"If there is, there's a chance that it's something new and no one has done anything with it."
English
I told codex to use sag.sh whenever I'm distracted and it needs my help to be unblocked, and ever once it a while I hear it talking to me, and it's the coolest thing ever. (e.g. for releases, that needs npm and is 1Password-gated)
English
@ycombinator @tryparrotai @pbaek5699 @Parrot_Liam honestly surprised more companies aren't doing this hybrid approach
English
Parrot’s (@tryparrotai) OS provides full context on estimates, parts, customers, insurers, suppliers, and payments, so their agents can physically call and communicate with real people to run the shop on autopilot.
Congrats on the launch, @pbaek5699 & @Parrot_Liam!
ycombinator.com/launches/QdR-p…
English
@ycombinator @gravy_finance @alitabba_ @DevMaxC curious how this handles the trust factor since most people are paranoid about connecting everything financial to one app
English
Gravy is building Agents for your money.
@gravy_finance connects to your banks, investments, email and more to explain your money and automate your financial tasks.
Congrats on the launch, @alitabba_ & @DevMaxC!
ycombinator.com/launches/QdW-g…
English
I just finished writing my most valuable PDF yet:
"From Zero To Launch In 10 Days: How We Beat OpenAI on Producthunt + Got 1,000 signups + $4K MRR" (36 pages).
I might charge for this in the future, but for now…
Reply "MRR" and I’ll DM it to you for free (must follow)
English
Spent the weekend wrestling with OpenClaw.
The ambition is unreal — autonomous agents running on your machine, browser control, memory, the whole stack. But the setup is huge and honestly? It's fragile. Gateway restarts mid-task, browser profile attachment breaks constantly, one wrong config and you're debugging for an hour.
When it works, it's magic. When it doesn't, it's a time sink. Anyone else feeling this?
English
@jamesqquick Not a dumb question at all. Standard playbook: open source the core, sell hosted/enterprise. Works great if the project solves something people actually pay for. The trap is building OSS for devs who are allergic to spending money.
English
Dumb question. How do you make money with an open source project…?
English
@starter_story Love seeing these breakdowns. The "launched with a Reddit post" part is always the kicker. Distribution beats features every time. StageTimer is a great example of solving one clear problem well.
English
This DEAD SIMPLE web app generates $25K/month 🤯
> Subscription pricing
> Solves a useful problem
> Growth: word of mouth and Google search
> Launched with a Reddit post
> Hired his wife to help him run the business!
stagetimer.io
English
@iAmDon_eth @X AI x SaaS x indie hacking is the sweet spot right now. what are you building?
English
@quxiaoyin One person companies are the new normal. tools have gotten so good that you dont need a team to ship anymore. curious to see who comes out of this thread.
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who is starting their own one person company? comment your company below. Let's see how many unicorns we got from this list. 2026 is the year for one person unicorns!
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@averycode @HackerResidency This is wild. 8 months from zero to living with builders globally. What did you do differently in those first few months that made it take off?
English
At the @HackerResidency 👾🔥
The internet is insane, 8 months ago I started posting on x and now I’m living with indie hackers from around the world
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@Saanvi_dhillon Step 1: ship something. Step 2: realize Codex Pro doesnt do it for you. Step 3: build the thing yourself. Thats where the $1M is.
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@hthieblot This is the kind of stuff that makes Twitter worth it. Most investors want a warm intro from a VC they already know, so going the cold DM route takes guts. Love to see it pay off.
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Just gave $175K to a founder who cold DM’d.
He had bellow 200 followers.
Completely unknown to me
Who is next? Hit me up.
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