Ask HN: Founders, what was the major sourcing channel for your first 100 users?

Reddit.

1. I made an app for the colorblind in 2015 and got my first 100 (and more) users from the r/colorblind subreddit.

2. I made a breathing app in 2017 and got my first users from r/breathing, r/breathwork, and r/meditation subreddits.

3. I recently made a productivity app for the mac and got my first users from r/macapps subreddit.

Reddit is incredibly powerful if you are building something niche and are already a part of the community. Also, the results are compounding because some of my posts get good SEO traffic so I still get a handful of users from Reddit every day.

Key is not getting banned.

I know I'm getting old when I have to stop and check for satire at the mention of "a breathing app". That sounds like an Onion headline, to me. Glad you had success!

How do you avoid getting banned for posting a link to your business?

You have to be a legitimate contributing member of the subreddit first and present something of value to them instead of just a link.

I too launched a business that got a large amount of customers from Reddit. In my case, it was a niche retail product for musicians who are into synthesizers. I was a longtime contributor to a few related subreddits and launched the product by producing a series of tutorials that featured the product, but didn’t really advertise it. Many thousands of people viewed the tutorials, noticed the product, and quickly figured out where to get it in the video description. People then bought the product and started using it in their own videos, so it spread quickly. This led to thousands of units sold on every continent (except Antarctica, of course).

> Reddit is incredibly powerful if you are building something niche and are already a part of the community

I generally agree with this but I will say (at least in my niche) that I’ve been pretty surprised recently with both how 1) anti ‘self-promotion’ some subreddits have become and 2) how brutal people will be if your thing is not fully free and open source. I understand where they’re coming from, but I’d recommend software founders know this when trying to use Reddit as a distribution channel.

I think it depends heavily on the sub. E.g. in some subs it's an instant permaban from the sub for self promotion, and in others they don't really care one way or the other. Either because there's so little promotional spam in that sub, or something else.

The modern smartphone user. Not only incapable of walking down the street without Maps guidance, now breathing requires prompting too.

May fate preserve us all from power outages.

Should be a movie.

You're minimizing this. That's like saying "you have legs that can move, yet you need someone to guide you through yoga!"

Lots of benefits can be gained from practicing disciplined breathing, and some people want an app.

It's funny that your username is the exact name of my app

> I think it depends heavily on the sub

I think you're right. And this is one of the reasons I like HN so much. You're not seen as evil for sharing a software project that is paid and closed-source. It's much more friendly for this kind of stuff.

I second that.

Ironically this post was flagged and got invisible within minutes of postings. However mod team was super helpful to restore it.

Furthermore, you would be surprised at how dysregulated one's breathing can become when using a computer all day, especially for gaming, or communicating using the keyboard, rather than having human conversations.

I have found that my breathing has become quite undisciplined and irregular. Also inadequate support, in terms of coming from the diaphragm and all. I sang in choirs for over 20 years. Well-regulated breathing is essential to our health in all respects.

But dont subreddits have rules against advertising and stuff

Answer is already there in this thread.

> Well-regulated breathing is essential to our health in all respects.

Absolutely. Including mental and spiritual health.

Startup idea to unlock phone/PC by a number of deep breaths as password?