Founders publish their own breakdowns: what they earned or lost, over what period, and what actually worked. We extract four things from such posts — the number, the period, the channel and the takeaway — and keep the link so every number can be re-read at the source. Failure is just as useful here: if three teams shut down for the same reason, that is knowledge normally bought with years.
An AI-powered platform that helps startups find their ideal customer, build a profile, write emails, and book the first meeting.
Startup founders prefer product development over sales, leading to failure even if the product is good.
Provided mobile intravenous therapy services for individuals.
Mobile IV therapy is a very profitable niche that requires time and persistence.
A product that solved a non-critical problem for clients.
Don't confuse interest in a product with a real need; don't spend money before finding a sustainable business model.
An AI-powered SaaS product for onboarding and automation, initially targeting self-service users.
Despite AI automation capabilities, human interaction and collaboration remain key for customer retention and growth.
A screen recording app for Mac that helps users record app changes and share them on social media.
Validating the product before building it and consistently sharing updates and achievements publicly helps attract customers.
The author's current co-founded startup reached $5M ARR.
The author is a serial founder who has successfully launched several startups with a combined valuation of over $1 billion.
This app helps users research and plan their product.
Creator sponsorships are cheaper but take more time than paid ads.
A portfolio of AI tools that generate revenue.
A successful product launch requires building demand before the official release, focusing on a specific target audience, and constantly communicating with potential customers.
A SaaS product that reached a peak MRR of $18,000 but was shut down due to a small market and slow growth.
The market proved too small and growth too slow, leading to the project's closure despite reaching peak MRR.
The product helped SaaS founders with analytics.
Building in public, targeted outreach, and consistent interaction across multiple channels are key for SaaS growth.
The product provided a service to users, some of whom used the free tier.
A free tier with poor communication doesn't lead to conversion; it only increases support load.
Askie is a voice-enabled, safe AI chat and image app for kids aged 4-15.
Organic ASO and Apple Search Ads proved to be effective growth channels, while Meta Ads were ineffective.
Famewall helps collect testimonials and use them for marketing.
Analyzing user data and optimizing payments helped restore MRR growth.
eSIMPal is an eSIM service that lets travelers buy eSIMs for their trips.
Use personal experiences and photos to build trust, and actively engage with users to find and fix issues.
It provided a collection of interview questions for users preparing for job interviews.
Even if you're burned out and abandon a project, organic traffic can continue to generate income, which might motivate a relaunch.
A web app competing with one of the largest applications in the industry.
Meta and TikTok ads didn't work; UGC videos require many creators and consistent posting for success.
A platform where app developers can upload their apps, and others can leave feedback in exchange for credits.
Slow but steady growth, based on user feedback, allows for a more valuable product, and developing SEO provides independence from constant posting.
Askie AI is a voice-enabled AI chat and image generation app designed specifically for children aged 4-15.
The app creator achieved significant MRR and high App Store rankings despite a lack of effective paid acquisition channels and high user churn in the first month.
A platform where small app developers can upload their apps, and others can leave feedback in exchange for credits.
Slow but steady growth, based on user feedback, allows you to create a more valuable product.
IndieAppCircle is a platform where small app developers can upload their apps, and others can leave feedback in exchange for credits.
Slow but steady growth, based on user feedback, allows you to create a truly valuable product.
PaywallPro is a SaaS product that helps users monetize their content.
Organic traffic through SEO, viral content, and word-of-mouth can drive rapid initial growth without a budget.
A LinkedIn tool that helps automate outbound messaging.
Frequent changes to pricing and offers without proper synchronization across all systems led to customer loss and reduced effectiveness.
This product gives developers a starter kit/template to build and launch mobile apps.
Social media posts and SEO improvements helped reach the first thousand dollars in revenue.
This tool simplifies creating landing pages, collecting feedback, and managing early users for founders and developers.
Posting on Reddit can quickly attract a significant number of interested early-stage product users.
Who Goes is an iOS party app that combines popular games like Headbands, Charades, and Truth or Dare with a modern interface.
Despite skepticism and high competition, persistent product work and organic social media promotion led to reaching the first significant milestone of 1000 users.
A mobile app that generates revenue from subscriptions and one-time purchases.
Aggressively reinvesting all revenue into advertising and growth allows for rapid scaling.
The app combines popular party games like Headbands, Charades, and Truth or Dare with a modern interface.
Even in a crowded market, you can succeed by offering a fresh perspective and actively engaging with the community.
LaunchPact tracks product launches on Product Hunt to help other projects launch more successfully.
Launching on Product Hunt on weekends can be more effective for getting the 'Product of the Day' badge due to less competition, even if overall traffic is lower.
A platform for Bol and Amazon sellers that helps manage orders, multi-channel inventory, and pricing.
The product failed due to a lack of marketing and sales, despite continuous feature improvements.
Helped other founders overcome user acquisition challenges for their products.
Free posts on Reddit, YouTube, and Instagram proved more effective than paid advertising, especially once the message was refined and suitable platforms were found.
FetchSandbox helps developers debug code by reproducing errors in an isolated environment and verifying fixes.
When relaunching on Product Hunt, it's important to choose the 'New launch under existing product' option to avoid losing your accumulated subscriber base.
ChatSEO is a ChatGPT-like tool that helps uncover hidden SEO opportunities.
Validating an idea by creating a simple landing page and collecting email addresses before starting product development allows for quick demand testing and acquiring early users.
Videoreplicate.com was an AI-powered tool that helped content creators analyze viral videos and plan their own.
You need to validate product demand and willingness to pay before building, and also analyze traffic acquisition channels.
An offer to help startups acquire their first 1000 users.
Posting a free help offer on a niche subreddit led to significant responses from startup founders.
This app helped ambitious professionals turn their ideas into a business.
Helping others and building trust led to unexpected monetization.
An AI tool that lets you publish posts to 13 social networks from a single chat.
Focus on the user's outcome in the headline and show the product in action with a demo video.
Apps for people with ADHD, helping them with daily life.
Actively engaging with your target audience's communities and building your own community leads to long-term growth, unlike the short-term effects of paid advertising.
A habit-tracking app that gives users a 'true' sense of progress.
Even a small success like 100 users can be a significant achievement for a first app, especially if it started as a side project for learning.
The author created various applications (mobile, web, SaaS) and tried to understand the nuances of selling digital services.
It's crucial to clearly demonstrate product value and solve a customer's problem, and to focus on organic SEO from the start.
The author tried to create something meaningful for the industry they wanted to work in.
Personal circumstances and lack of funding can lead to a startup's closure, even with a first client.
The author created a project but doesn't describe what it does.
Even after abandoning a project, users might still come and pay, indicating potential product value.
Launched a lifestyle app on Google Play.
Starting from scratch is very hard; without a distribution plan, there will be no organic growth.
The product helped companies process incoming inquiries, answer questions, follow up with silent leads, and guide interested clients toward a sale or booking.
The author got confused between 'this makes economic sense' and 'people urgently want this'.
Pluribus is an open-source CLI for sharing and auditing context between AI coding tools.
Product distribution didn't generate expected interest, and the product's taxonomy expanded faster than consumers were found.
The author tried to create a product but couldn't find customers.
You need to talk to potential customers before starting product development.
A cloud security platform that unifies all cloud storage in one place and encrypts all data client-side for businesses.
Incorrectly defining the problem and its scope led to the closure of the first product version and a complete rebuild.
Called It is an iOS app where groups of friends make predictions on anything using virtual currency.
Paid user acquisition for a new app is nearly impossible when conversion is 0% and the app page lacks reviews and social proof.
The author launched a startup that became known to large language models like Gemini and ChatGPT.
For quick indexing by large language models, use llms.txt, build backlinks, and have detailed FAQ and blog sections on your website.
Shunbox helps Gmail users make their email experience less annoying.
Lack of consistent promotion, premature spending, development without feedback, and an unprepared Product Hunt launch led to no customers.
This app helps women track chronic illnesses.
Validating a real problem and building a solution for it led to initial growth.
PerfectVector converts images, especially AI-generated ones, into clean, editable vector files for illustrations, logos, and stickers.
The product garnered significant interest on Reddit but faced scaling issues due to limited GPU resources.
Elementle is a daily puzzle game, similar to Wordle, but with numbers and guessing historical events.
The developer failed to attract users despite creating the product, due to a lack of marketing skills and strategy.
A personal finance app that automatically tracks expenses and helps you plan your budget for future months.
Building the product is the easy part; distribution is the real game.
Where the stories come from: founder communities on Reddit (r/startups, r/SaaS, r/SideProject, r/EntrepreneurRideAlong, r/Entrepreneur, r/indiehackers, r/productfails and others) through the official API, plus crowdfunding campaigns. Numbers are taken from the post text — what the author wrote themselves. We do not decode charts or screenshots, so this section only holds numbers you can re-read at the link; unverified ones are marked separately and never feed into idea scores.