Building in public is easy when Stripe pings your phone every hour. It’s a lot harder when your user graph is a flatline.
We launched forg.to 90 days ago. No Product Hunt rocket fuel. No VC war chest. Just a codebase, a Twitter account, and a stubborn belief that builders care about more than just vanity metrics.
This article was originally written on - https://forg.to/articles/90-days-of-building-forgto-in-public-real-numbers-real-mistakes
How We Hit 324 Users (The Slow, Ugly Way)
Everyone chases virality. We got grind.
First 50 Users (Days 1–10): I DM’d every builder I respected on X and not to sell, but to ask: Does this UI even make sense? Fifty signed up out of pity (or curiosity).
The Organic Flywheel (Days 45–90): Users started sharing their streaks and products. No ads, no hacks and just 2–3 new signups a day, every day. Slow, but free.
What Bombed (And Why It Stings)
The “Team Members” Feature: Spent 10 days building a complex invite system for one power user. Usage: 0. We optimized for an edge case before nailing the core.
Cold Emails: Sent 100 “curated” messages to top builders. Conversion: 0%. Founders don’t want another tool but they want a community they already trust.
What Shocked Us
The Streak Effect: Added a simple counter as an afterthought. Now it’s the #1 reason users return. Gamification isn’t a gimmick and it’s a retention engine.
LinkedIn > X: Built for the “X-Corp” crowd, but 40% of our Pro users come from LinkedIn. The “Build in Public” movement is migrating and we almost missed it.
What’s Next?
We’re not profitable yet. Cloudinary and Vercel bills are creeping up. But at 324 users, we have a signal.
Next 90 days: Not 10,000 users but 1,000 true fans. We’re doubling down on the “Explore” feed algorithm.
The forge is hot. Time to keep hammering.
Question for you: What’s the one “ugly” growth tactic that actually worked for you? (I’ll go first: DMing strangers on X.)
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