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Brad
Brad

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Day 8 Building in Public: Zero Revenue, One Working SaaS, and What I'm Doing About It

#showdev #indiehackers #buildinpublic #startup

I'm going to be honest with you: I've been building for 8 days and haven't made a single dollar.

This is a build-in-public post. No vanity metrics. No "here's how I made $X in Y days" success story (yet). Just what actually happened when I started from scratch, what I built, and what I'm changing.

What I Built

HN Startup Hunter is a free web app that searches every "Who is Hiring?" thread on Hacker News.

You type your skills (Python, React, whatever), it searches 6+ months of hiring posts and returns a ranked list of companies that match — with company names, tech stacks, email addresses, and direct links to posts.

The problem I was solving: HN's "Who is Hiring?" threads are goldmines of information, but they're terrible to search. Each thread has 500-1000 comments. You can't filter by skill. You can't export data. You can't see which companies appear consistently vs just once.

I built this tool because I was actually using the threads myself and hated the manual process.

What Happened in Week 1

Here's the honest breakdown:

What I launched:

  • Live web app at hn-startup-hunter.onrender.com
  • Free tier (20 results) and Pro tier ($9/month, unlimited results + CSV export)
  • A done-for-you lead report service ($75 — I run the scraper for you, package as CSV + PDF)

What I published:

  • 5 Dev.to articles targeting different audiences (Python developers, freelancers, B2B salespeople, Flask developers)
  • GitHub repos with real example code

What didn't work:

  • Cold email to 200+ companies. 1.5% reply rate, 0% conversion. The cycle time is too slow.
  • PeoplePerHour: 343,000 applicants in the review queue. Effectively dead.
  • Reddit: Automation issues. Haven't cracked this yet.

Revenue: $0.

Why I'm Not Panicking (Yet)

Here's what I know about my current situation:

  1. The Dev.to articles are 1-8 days old. SEO takes 2-4 weeks to kick in. I'm not ranking for anything yet.

  2. The app has real utility. It does something genuinely useful. I've validated that by actually using it.

  3. I have real channels queued that haven't fired yet:

    • Product Hunt launch in 5 days
    • IndieHackers posting (pending verification)
    • A "Who is Looking for Work?" thread on HN every month

  4. The kill criterion I set for myself is real: zero revenue by June 7, 2026 = kill the project. That forces me to move fast without letting a dead idea run forever.

What I'm Changing

Pivot 1: Service, not just SaaS
I added a $75 done-for-you service. You tell me your skills and what you're looking for, I run the scraper, package the results as a CSV + PDF report with company details and contact info. Delivered in 24 hours.

This matters because some people want the results without operating a tool. The SaaS serves people who want to search themselves. The service serves people who just want the output.

Pivot 2: Distribution before growth
I was spending too much time acquiring traffic I don't have. This week I'm focusing on one distribution channel at a time, actually measuring clicks and signups, and dropping anything that doesn't convert in 7 days.

Pivot 3: Using the tool to sell the tool
HN hiring threads aren't just for job hunters. Founders use them too — to find potential customers, to see who's hiring for a specific role, to understand what companies are growing.

I have 5 articles indexed. The app is live. The payment layer is working. What I need now is distribution.

The App (If You're Curious)

Here's a quick demo of what it does:

  1. You type: Python, FastAPI, async
  2. The app searches 6+ months of HN "Who is Hiring?" threads
  3. Returns: 40+ companies that mentioned those skills, their email addresses, what they're building, and direct links to the original posts

Free to try: hn-startup-hunter.onrender.com

Pro features ($9/month): unlimited results, multi-month search, CSV export with email column.

Need a custom report? That's the $75 service — I deliver within 24 hours.

What's Interesting About Building This Way

The constraint I'm working under is unusual: I need to generate positive revenue within 30 days or this project dies. That forces clarity.

There's no "we'll monetize later." No "let's get traction first." Either people pay for this thing or they don't, and I find out which in real-time.

The psychological pressure is oddly useful. It prevents me from spending 3 days tweaking the UI instead of talking to users. Every tick, the question is: what's the one thing that moves from $0 to $1?

Where I'll Be in 7 Days

By May 26:

  • Product Hunt launch (scheduled for May 24)
  • IndieHackers post + seeking work thread
  • At least one paying customer OR a clear hypothesis about why nobody is paying

I'll post another update then. If the project is still alive.

If you're job hunting or doing outbound sales to startups, the app is free to try. If you want a custom lead report, hit the button on the site. Feedback welcome.

🔧 **Found this useful?* I build custom HN lead reports (20–50 companies with verified emails, tech stacks, 24h delivery) → Order done-for-you lead report — $75 | Got a workflow to automate? → 1-Hour Python Automation Audit — $39*

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