DEV Community: Clarence Odaro

How I increased DocPilot's conversion rate by removing the signup wall

Clarence Odaro — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 19:53:47 +0000

The Problem

DocPilot had 240 visitors in 30 days and only 8 signups.

That's a 3.3% conversion rate. Not terrible, but with 0 paying users it was clear something was wrong.

I dug into the data and found the issue immediately.

People were landing on the app, seeing a signup wall before experiencing anything, and leaving.

232 out of 240 visitors decided DocPilot wasn't worth the friction of creating an account before they'd seen a single result.

They were right.

The Fix

I removed the signup wall from the Resume Score page.

Now anyone can:

Paste their resume
Get a score out of 100
See one strength and their overall rating

All without creating an account.

Then — and only then — do I ask them to sign up to see their full breakdown including ATS score, impact score, clarity score, 3 improvements and 3 quick wins.

Why This Works

The score number creates emotional investment.

"Your resume scored 61/100" is a powerful hook.

People want to know what's wrong. They want the full breakdown. They want the quick wins.

But they only want it AFTER they've seen that the tool actually works and gives real, specific feedback.

Asking for an email before that moment is asking people to trust you before you've earned it.

The Technical Implementation

The guest flow works like this:

Unauthenticated user visits /resume-score
They see the full input form — no signin overlay
They click Score My Resume
The API call goes through normally
Results come back with full data
We show them the overall score and one strength
Everything else is blurred behind a signup wall
They create an account
sessionStorage preserves their score result
After signup they see their FULL results immediately

That last step is important. The moment they sign up they instantly see the value they were promised.
No need to score again. No friction. Just reward.

What I Learned

Value before registration is not just a nice idea. For tools like DocPilot it's the difference between 3% and 30% signup conversion.

Let people experience the magic first.
Ask for the account second.

The trust is earned in that moment between seeing their score and wanting to know more.

Try It

If you want to see this in action — paste your own resume and see what score you get.

No signup needed 👉 https://doc-pilot-c.vercel.app/

And if you're building something similar I'd love
to hear how you handle the signup conversion problem
in the comments.

— Clarry, Solo Founder

buildinpublic #showdev #indiehacker

[Boost]

Clarence Odaro — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 19:29:05 +0000

Clarence Odaro

Jun 13

Why 75% of Resumes Get Rejected by ATS (And How to Fix Yours in 2026)

#showdev #ai #programming #productivity

3 min read

What's the worst resume advice you've ever received? I'll go first: "Keep it to one page no matter what" even if you have 15 years of experience 🙃 Your turn 👇

Clarence Odaro — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 14:24:39 +0000

Unpopular opinion: your resume isn't bad. It's just invisible to the software reading it first. Agree or disagree? 👇

Clarence Odaro — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 18:14:49 +0000

Why 75% of Resumes Get Rejected by ATS (And How to Fix Yours in 2026)

Clarence Odaro — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 18:10:59 +0000

The Silent Resume Killer Nobody Talks About

You've applied to 50 jobs. Heard back from 2.

It's not because you're unqualified. It's because your resume never made it past the first filter — a piece of software called an ATS (Applicant Tracking System).

Here's what's actually happening, and how to fix it.

What Is an ATS?

An Applicant Tracking System is software companies use to manage job applications. Before any human reads your resume, the ATS scans it, scores it, and ranks it against other applicants.

If your resume doesn't score well, it never reaches a recruiter's inbox. You get an automatic rejection email days or weeks later — or sometimes nothing at all.

Studies estimate roughly 75% of resumes are filtered out at this stage before a human ever sees them.

The 5 Most Common ATS Killers

1. Passive Language

ATS systems and recruiters both favor action-oriented language. Compare:

❌ "Was responsible for managing the marketing team"
✅ "Led a 5-person marketing team, increasing campaign output by 35%"

The second version uses an action verb (Led) and includes a measurable result. The first reads passively and gives no indication of impact.

2. Missing Keywords from the Job Description

ATS software often scans for specific keywords that match
the job posting. If the job description says "project management" and your resume says "managing projects," some systems may not recognize them as equivalent.

Fix: Read the job description carefully and mirror the exact terminology used, where it's honest to do so.

3. Complex Formatting

Tables, columns, text boxes, headers/footers, and graphics
can confuse ATS parsers. Your beautifully designed resume might look like garbled text to the software reading it.

Fix: Use simple, single-column layouts with standard section headers (Experience, Education, Skills).

4. No Quantified Results

"Helped increase sales" tells the reader nothing.
"Increased sales by 40% over 6 months" tells them
everything.

Numbers are scannable, memorable, and credible. Every bullet point should answer: how much, how many, or by what percentage?

5. Generic Skills Sections

Listing "Microsoft Office, Communication, Teamwork" doesn't differentiate you from anyone else. Be specific to your field and the role you're targeting.

How to Actually Check Your Resume

Most advice online tells you WHAT to fix but not HOW to check if your specific resume has these issues.

I built a free tool called DocPilot that does exactly this.
Paste your resume text and it gives you:

An overall score out of 100
ATS Compatibility score
Impact score (how action-oriented and quantified your language is)
Clarity & Readability score
3 specific strengths
3 specific improvements
3 quick wins you can implement immediately

It's free to try — no signup required to use the basic
features.

👉 https://doc-pilot-c.vercel.app/

The Bottom Line

Your skills and experience are probably fine. The problem is almost always how they're communicated on paper.

Fix the 5 issues above, run your resume through an ATS checker, and you'll likely see your response rate improve significantly.

Job hunting is hard enough without an invisible filter working against you. Make sure your resume is working FOR you.

If you've struggled with ATS rejections before, I'd love
to hear your story in the comments. And if you try DocPilot
let me know what your score was 👀

New article is up 📝

Clarence Odaro — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 17:59:17 +0000

"Why 75% of Resumes Get Rejected by ATS
(And How to Fix Yours in 2026)"

The 5 most common ATS killers + how to
check if your resume has them.

Read it 👉 https://dev.to/clarrydaro/i-built-an-ai-resume-scorer-as-a-22-year-old-solo-founder-from-lagos-nigeria-46o8

buildinpublic #career

I built an AI resume scorer as a 22-year-old solo founder from Nigeria

Clarence Odaro — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 10:00:51 +0000

The Problem I Was Trying to Solve

Most resumes never get read by a human.

Before a recruiter ever sees your application, it goes through ATS (Applicant Tracking System)
software that automatically filters out candidates based on keywords, formatting, and structure.

75% of resumes get rejected at this stage.

The frustrating part? Most people have no idea this is happening. They apply to 50 jobs, hear nothing back, and assume they're not good enough.

They are good enough. Their resume just isn't optimized for how hiring actually works in 2026.

I wanted to fix that.

What I Built

DocPilot is an AI tool for job seekers.

Here's what it does:

Resume Builder
ATS-compliant templates with live preview and
one-click PDF export. Three templates — Modern,
Minimalist, and Executive.

Resume Score
Paste your resume and get an instant score out
of 100. Breaks down into:

ATS Compatibility score
Impact score
Clarity & Readability score
3 Strengths
3 Improvements
3 Quick Wins

This is the feature I'm most proud of. It gives specific, actionable feedback — not generic tips.

Cover Letter Generator
Fill in your details and AI writes a tailored, professional cover letter in seconds. The output is fully editable so you can personalize it.

LinkedIn Summary Writer
Generates a compelling About section based on your experience, industry, and tone preference.

My Documents
All your work saved automatically. Download anytime, re-edit anytime.

The entire app was built using AI-assisted development. I wrote prompts, reviewed the output, tested, and iterated. No traditional line-by-line coding.

The Challenges

PDF Export
Getting pixel-perfect PDFs was the hardest part. html2canvas kept throwing "Illegal invocation" errors in production. Switched to @react-pdf/renderer and
rebuilt all three resume templates as proper PDF components. Much better output.

What I Learned

Ship fast, fix later.
I spent too long trying to perfect features before launching. The routing bug, the PDF issue, the API key exposure — none of these would have been found without real deployment.

Distribution is harder than building.
The app took weeks to build. Getting people to use
it is taking longer. Building is the easy part.

Price lower than you think.
Started at ₦6,500/month. Dropped to ₦3,500 lifetime
after thinking about the Nigerian market. Lower
barrier = more conversions.

The vibe coding workflow is real.
Google AI Studio + well-written prompts can build
production-ready features fast. The key is knowing
what to ask for and reviewing everything it outputs.

Current Status

✅ Live at doc-pilot-c.vercel.app
✅ Launched on Product Hunt
⬜ First paying customer (coming soon 🙏)
⬜ $1k MRR (the goal)

Try It

DocPilot is completely free to start.

The AI features (Cover Letter, Resume Score, LinkedIn Summary) give you 3 free uses before asking you to upgrade.

Founding Member lifetime access is ₦3,500 — price goes up when we hit 100 users.

https://doc-pilot-c.vercel.app/

If you're a developer who's built something similar
or a job seeker who's struggled with ATS — I'd love to hear from you in the comments.

And if you find any bugs, please tell me.
I read every response. 🙏

— Clarence Odaro, Solo Founder at CDT TECH
Twitter handle: https://x.com/clarry_d_trader?s=21
Nigeria 🇳🇬