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.

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!

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.

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.