On September 25, 2026, I launched DEV·TV, a free, open-source "TV channel" for the developer internet. You open it, leave it running in a tab, and flip between channels: GitHub trending, Hacker News, DEV, Hugging Face, AI papers, CVEs, new AI models, agent skills, and a Spotlight channel for indie projects.
No login. No API keys. No backend. The entire app is a single index.html on GitHub Pages. ⚡
📺 Live: shouvik12.github.io/devtv
⭐ Repo: github.com/shouvik12/devtv (Apache-2.0, stars welcome!)
Building it was the fun part. Getting anyone to see it was the real project. I'm a solo dev doing this on the side, so here's an honest breakdown of every platform I tried and what it gave back.
🏆 Product Hunt: the one that put it on the map
I went in with zero audience and low expectations. DEV·TV finished #5 Product of the Day out of roughly 67 launches.
What I think worked:
- A visual product on a visual platform. A retro TV with channel buttons is easy to get in one screenshot.
- "No login, no setup." Trying it takes one click, which lowers the bar for anyone curious.
That badge is now on the app itself, and it's been the most useful credibility signal I have.
🫥 Show HN: buried
My Show HN sank without a trace. No drama, just gone.
Lesson: HN is a timing-and-luck lottery, and a single post isn't a strategy. I'll try again when there's a meaningful new release to talk about, not just "here's my thing."
📈 LinkedIn: good spike, fast plateau
The first posts brought solid traffic, then it flattened. LinkedIn rewards consistent posting, not one-off launches. If you're not posting regularly, expect a spike and nothing after.
🤝 Peerlist: the people who showed up
On October 9, I posted on Peerlist from a brand-new account with zero followers. No network, no history. In the first hour, the post got 21 upvotes.
That's not a big number, but none of it came from an existing audience. People found the post on their own and decided it was worth backing. For a dev tool, that's exactly the crowd I want.
To everyone who showed up: thank you. 🙌
🚀 Uneed: in progress
Launched there too. I skipped the "listed for acquisition" option. DEV·TV isn't for sale, it's a hobby I want to keep growing.
💡 What I'd tell another solo builder
- Make it instantly tryable. Removing every step between "curious" and "using it" is the cheapest growth lever you have.
- Pick platforms where your users already are. Dev-focused communities beat general ones for dev tools.
- One launch isn't distribution. The posts that worked were part of a sequence, not a single shot.
- Turn your users into content. The Spotlight channel features other people's projects. It's free for them, and every featured builder has a reason to share DEV·TV. (Shoutout to Astratide, an AI astrology visualizer by Cat, on air at the time of writing.)
- Know what your metrics can't see. GitHub's repo traffic counts views of the repository and clones, not visits to the live GitHub Pages site. If your app runs on Pages, repo traffic tells you about developer interest in the code, not how many people used the app. You'll need separate analytics for that.
✨ Built something? Get it on TV
If you're an indie builder, I'll feature your project for free. Open DEV·TV, go to Channel 13 (SPOTLIGHT), and use the submission form.
And I'd genuinely love to know: which channel should I add next? Conference talks, changelog streams, live GitHub trending by language? Drop it in the comments 👇
Top comments (8)
Hey Shouvik, I read your post comparing the 5 launch platforms. I'm a solo founder too and stuck on the same problem with my own tool, so I'm curious: where did those first ones come from, if you know?
Hey Kevan, thanks for reading! Honestly, most of my first users came from Product Hunt. Getting Product of the Day put DEV·TV in front of people who had never heard of me, and the GitHub traffic spike that day made it obvious.
After that, smaller wins kept it going. Winning on IndieNeed brought a steady trickle, and DEV.to articles like this one keep sending people over long after they’re posted. Some things didn’t work: my Show HN got buried, and LinkedIn plateaued quickly.
My biggest takeaway: one strong launch day opens the door, but writing about what you built keeps it open.
What’s your tool? If it’s a fit, I’d be happy to put it on DEV·TV’s Spotlight channel. It’s free right now and might help with those first eyeballs 🔦
Thanks, Shouvik! That’s really helpful. I’m building FounderPulse to help founders find relevant prospects, so getting those first users is exactly the challenge I’m working on. I’d love to be featured on DEV.to’s Spotlight channel. What would you need from me to make that happen?
No worries at all Kevan. The spotlight channel is to promoto solo developers.
All you need to do is to submit your idea from within Dev tv shouvik12.github.io/devtv
You can submit from here
Thanks, Shouvik! Just submitted FounderPulse through the form. Really appreciate you pointing me in the right direction! 🙌
Hey Kevan,
There seems to be some kind of issue, your entry didn't come in, can you try again, if not ping me on X
Hi, what’s your handle on X? Mine is FounderPulseHQ.
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