48 days ago, I launched jo4.io - a URL shortener with analytics, bio pages, and custom domains. Today, I hit 100 users with 5 of them paying customers.
That's a 5% conversion rate. In a market dominated by Bitly, TinyURL, and a dozen other established players.
Here's the raw, unfiltered story of what worked, what spectacularly failed, and what I'd do differently.
The Numbers
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Launch Date | December 13, 2025 |
| Days to 100 Users | 48 |
| Total Users | 100 |
| Paying Customers | 5 |
| Conversion Rate | 5% |
| Google Ads Spend | ~$500 |
| MRR | ~$80 |
Not life-changing money. But proof that strangers will pay for something I built.
What Worked: Google (Paid + Organic)
The screenshot below is from this morning. Search "url shortener" on Google:
jo4.io is right there at the top. Above shorturl.at. Above TinyURL. Above Bitly.
For $500 in ad spend over 48 days (~$10/day), I'm competing with companies that have been around for 15+ years.
Why Google Ads Worked
- High intent traffic - People searching "url shortener" want to shorten a URL right now
- Direct competition - My ad copy directly addresses what users want: "Simple, fast, developer-friendly"
- Free tier available - Low friction to try, high chance to convert later
Organic search is starting to pick up too. Blog posts about technical problems I've solved while building jo4 are ranking for long-tail keywords.
What Absolutely Did Not Work: Reddit
I tried both paid Reddit ads and organic posts.
The results were brutal:
- Paid ads: ~$50 spent, 2 clicks, 0 signups
- Organic posts: Either ignored or downvoted into oblivion
Reddit has this allergic reaction to anything that smells like self-promotion. Even genuinely helpful posts get flagged. The community is fantastic for learning, terrible for customer acquisition.
If you're a solo founder, skip Reddit ads. The targeting is weak, the audience is hostile to marketing, and your money evaporates.
The Struggles (There Were Many)
Building in public means sharing the painful parts too. Here's what almost broke me:
Week 1-3: Zero Paying Users
The first three weeks were brutal. Users signed up, created a few links, and... nothing. No upgrades. No feedback. Just silence.
I kept asking myself: Is this thing even useful? Should I just quit?
The Self-Inflicted DDoS
I accidentally took down my own service. My rate limiting code had a bug - when Redis failed, instead of allowing requests through, it blocked EVERYONE:
} catch (Exception e) {
return false; // <-- Blocked all traffic when Redis was down
}
Every API call returned "Rate limit exceeded: 0 requests/minute." My users couldn't shorten a single URL.
The fix was one line: return true; - fail open, not closed.
Bot Scanners Filling My Logs
Within hours of going live, my server was getting hammered with requests for wp-admin, index.php, and phpmyadmin. Bots scanning for WordPress vulnerabilities on a Java server.
Completely harmless, but the log noise was insane. 12,000+ PHP exploit attempts in the first month.
Stripe Webhooks Returning Empty Objects
Payments started coming in, but my webhook handler couldn't read them. The Stripe SDK silently returned empty objects when the API version didn't match.
The "fix" was using deserializeUnsafe() - a method name that inspires zero confidence. But it works.
The Feature Sprint
To compete with Bitly and TinyURL, I needed feature parity. In 48 days, I shipped:
- Click analytics with geo/device/referrer tracking
- Custom short URLs
- Bio pages (like Linktree)
- QR code generation
- REST API with documentation
- Custom domains
- Password-protected links
- Link expiration
- Team workspaces
- Chrome extension
- Mobile app (React Native)
Each feature was a mini-marathon. Some took 2 hours. Some took 2 days. All of them had bugs that showed up in production.
The Mindset That Kept Me Going
"Ship today, fix tomorrow"
Perfection is the enemy of progress. I shipped features with known bugs, then fixed them based on actual user feedback.
"One paying customer proves the model"
The first $16 payment felt better than any salary I've ever received. A stranger decided my creation was worth their money. That's validation no amount of user signups can match.
"Compete on speed, not features"
Bitly has 100 engineers. I have Claude Code and caffeine. I can't out-feature them, but I can ship faster and be more responsive to individual users.
What Users Actually Said
A few messages that kept me going:
"Finally, a URL shortener that doesn't feel like it was designed in 2010."
"The analytics are exactly what I needed. Switched from Bitly."
"Your API documentation is better than services 10x your size."
These weren't solicited testimonials. Just random messages from users who took the time to write.
The Pricing That Converts
| Plan | Price | What You Get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/month | 30 links/month, analytics, API access |
| Pro | $16/month | 500 links/month, custom slugs, priority support |
| Enterprise | $140/month | Unlimited links, custom domains, dedicated support |
The free tier is generous enough to be useful. The Pro tier is cheap enough to be a no-brainer for anyone who hits the limit.
5% conversion on a freemium model is solid. Industry average is 2-3%.
What I'd Do Differently
Hire (or find) someone for marketing/sales/GTM.
I'm a developer. I can build products all day. But social media? Networking? Sales calls? I'd rather debug a race condition.
The biggest bottleneck isn't the product. It's distribution. Finding someone who actually enjoys the go-to-market grind would 10x the growth.
The Road to 1,000
100 users in 48 days. Can I 10x in the next 100 days?
The playbook:
- Double down on Google Ads - It's working. Scale it.
- SEO content - Technical blog posts that rank
- Integrations - Zapier, Make, Chrome extension are already live
- Word of mouth - Happy users bring more users
If you're building a SaaS and drowning in the same struggles, know this: it gets easier once you have paying customers. That first dollar changes everything.
What's your user acquisition story? I'd love to hear what worked (or didn't) in the comments.
Building jo4.io - URL shortener with analytics for creators and marketers. 100 users and counting.
Top comments (0)