If I’ve learned one thing while attempting to become a successful indie app developer, it’s that I’ve now reached the moment where I fail.

The “fun part” is over. I’ve spent months furiously building out apps for PupperPost, making relatively-polished versions for the Mac and iOS. I’ve both contracted out and contributed myself to the Go-based backend servers, that run the API and the web hosting (this system is super-cool, by the way; maybe I’ll talk about that more someday).

And now we’re at the truly hard part. How in nine hells do I get a single person to actually use this product?

The Crying Game

When my apps have failed, it’s been because they didn’t find market fit. In short, I couldn’t find the users for the product. Usually, I’ve been able to look back on the launch, and the qualities of the app, and come up with a reason why it failed to garner interest.

But now I’m finding myself in the same place, with this very app. It’s been in public beta for weeks, and nominally has nine beta testers. But only one of them has even created a single post.

So what does one do? I still believe this app has value. I don’t know of another app that does what PupperPost does.

So here’s a list of steps I’ve taken so far to garner some interest in this app:

• Tooted on Mastodon (LOL)
• Created a press kit
• Launched a campaign on ProductHunt
• Asked some friends and family to try it out

There’s more to do, clearly. But I really feel like there’s a certain exhaustion about new apps. I watch so many new apps go by in my feed every day, I totally understand. The trick is to figure out a way to break through the noise.

Nowhere to go but up

So that’s my goal. Give me one user who is willing to try this thing out and become a believer. I’ll keep banging this drum, and I won’t stop till I have one user. Only then will I go for two.