Day 14. Sent the alpha to 4 people. One installed it, hit a clipboard bug, and went quiet after I sent the fix. The other three haven't opened it.
Building something nobody asked for is one thing. Building something and not being able to tell if it even runs on their machine is worse.
I thought I was building a scheduler.
Turns out I was building a boundary ā between writing and posting, between intention and impulse.
The internet has enough tools trying to accelerate you. I wanted to build one that gives a little space back.
Full build story š
https://blog.cahyanudien.site/building-skedoff-a-quieter-way-to-plan-content-offline
Current status:
ā
UI done
ā
Local database done
ā
Core flow working
Not released yet ā because there's a real gap between "technically done" and "honest enough to ship."
Polishing until the experience feels calm. Not just functional.
Every content scheduling tool I tried assumed the same things: create an account, connect your platforms, trust a third party with your drafts, pay monthly, automate everything.
That model works for agencies. But I just wanted a quiet place for unfinished words.
So I started building something different.
Hey Mastodon! I'm TechHQ, an indie dev building privacy-first tools.
Just launched Makro 1.0 - a free text expander for Chrome and Firefox with AES-256 encryption at rest, zero-knowledge cloud sync, and local AI via Ollama.
No account required. No personal data collected. No ads.
#Privacy #Encryption #BrowserExtension #IndieHacker #Productivity
Week 2 of building Pastable starts. Last week: 50 visits, first Google organic traffic, and 2 people actually accepted a LinkedIn connection from a brand new account with zero followers.
The hardest part of building in public isn't the building. It's being nobody and having to earn every single click.
I was spending more time reformatting content than creating it.
Same blog post ā LinkedIn version, email version, X thread, newsletter intro, Substack note. Each one needs different formatting, different hooks, different length.
So I built ContentForge: paste one long-form piece, get platform-native outputs for 8 channels. Not summarized. Not truncated. Actually reformatted.
Free tier: 3 repurposes/month
contentforgehq.com
Week 1 of building in public ā real numbers, no filter:
19 PillPal users (4 paid, 60% conversion)
3 Dev.to articles published
2 Show HN posts (0 comments, 1 point each)
3 new Mastodon followers
$0 marketing spend
Distribution is 10x harder than building. The code ships in days. Getting anyone to see it takes weeks.
Biggest lesson: the internet doesn't owe you attention just because you shipped.
Full reflection: https://mastodon.social/@chadtd1/116202324151840307
Hi everyone š
Iām the creator of an open-source project: https://zoomment.com/
The project already has users and Iām actively maintaining and improving it. I really enjoy working on it and would love to invest much more time into development.
The challenge is that I also need to earn money to make that possible.
Iām curious if anyone here has experience turning an open-source project into something sustainable financially.
What models worked for you? (donations, hosted version, paid features, consulting, sponsorships, etc.)
Any advice, examples, or suggestions would be really appreciated š
#opensource #openSourceSoftware #indieDev #buildInPublic #softwareDevelopment #webdev #programming #developers #coding #javascript #reactjs #nextjs #startups #entrepreneurship #indieHacker #selfhosted #saas #founderLife #techCommunity #foss #mastodonDev
Milestone: 500 MRR (Ā£)
Lunary just crossed Ā£500 MRR (Ā£).
Building in public.
Pastable
Cahyanudien Aziz Saputra
TechHQ
Chad Dyar
tigran
sammii