Hey, it’s Axel.

This title is a bit pretentious.. because I only have 3,500 followers right now on X. I’m not the best at this, not even close.

But a year in, I’ve learned enough about what works and what doesn’t to be worth sharing.

Why should someone follow you?

It comes down to one question: are you useful to them?

There are two types of content that work on X:

• Educational: you teach something people don’t already know. A specific tactic, a tool, a shortcut.

• Inspirational: you show what’s possible. A revenue milestone, a product shipped, a result other founders wish they had.

Most accounts that grow do one of the two well. Trying to cover everything you’re building, instead of picking one lane, is the fastest way to lose people.

Right now, my lane is RedShip. I’m not posting about MyFeedIn or FreelanceKit at the same time. One account, one focus, so people know exactly what they’re following me for.

If I started over, here’s what I’d do

1/ Update my profile so people understand what I do in 5 seconds: bio, cover, pinned post.

2/ Reply into other people’s threads before trying to post anything original.

3/ Pick one product to talk about, not four.

4/ Post daily, even something small.

That’s the reason I’m launching SquidX

X has quietly become my best source of customers for RedShip.

But finding the right thread to reply to, at the right time, still comes down to luck and scrolling.

SquidX is an AI agent that finds the right posts and signals on X on autopilot, so you spend less time scrolling and more time in the conversations that can turn into customers.

I’m launching it on Product Hunt today: SQUIDX ON PRODUCT HUNT

If you can help me out with an upvote or some feedback, it would mean a lot.

Thank you for reading!

Question for you: what’s your strategy currently on X?

See you soon,
Axel

It means that if I added 10 customers, 4 or 5 would leave the next month. For 3 months, my MRR barely moved and stayed around 500€. I was getting new customers, but almost as many were leaving. I kept improving, talking about the product… and revenue stayed flat.

It felt like filling a bucket with holes.

At some point, more acquisition isn’t the answer. You can bring more people in, but if they leave too fast, you’re just losing your potential growth.

So for the last 2 weeks, I stopped trying to pour more water and worked on the holes.

RedShip helps companies find relevant Reddit conversations where their potential customers are already asking questions. The idea is simple: find Reddit threads, reply where it makes sense, and build a long-term acquisition channel.

It can bring leads in the short term, but the biggest value comes from long-term visibility:

• you show up in the right conversations

• you rank in Google through those Reddit threads

• you become visible in ChatGPT or Claude, as they use them to respond to users.

But there was a mismatch.

A lot of users who signed up were early founders launching new products. They wanted a magic button to get customers. When you launch a product, you want leads now, not in 3 months.

But RedShip isn’t a magic button.

It’s a system. And when people buy a system expecting a magic button, they churn.

Here are 5 things I changed:

#1 Positioning

Churn is not always a product problem.

Sometimes people leave because your product is bad. But sometimes they leave because your marketing attracted the wrong people.

That’s more annoying because it feels like growth. You get signups. You get Stripe notifications. You think things are working. Then 30 days later, they cancel.

The problem started before they even opened the product.

My landing page was too focused on “finding leads on Reddit.” It was true, but it attracted too many people looking for quick wins.

So I changed the promise.

Before: find leads on Reddit.

After: get recommended by AI tools via Reddit.

Your headline is a filter. Your pricing is a filter. Your words are a filter.

If the promise is too broad, you attract everyone. Then everyone leaves.

I’d rather convert fewer people and keep more of them.

#2 Onboarding

RedShip has a hard paywall. Users pay before seeing the dashboard.

This is good because I don’t want free users. But it also means the first session after payment is extremely important.

So I connected PostHog and watched session replays.

It hurt.

People paid, landed inside the app, clicked around, and didn’t know what to do. Not because they were stupid, but because I didn’t make the product obvious enough.

The aha moment for RedShip is when a user sees a Reddit thread and thinks: “My customer is literally asking for help here.”

If they reach that moment, the product makes sense. If they don’t, it’s just another dashboard.

So I added a guided tour. I usually hate guided tours, but sometimes your product needs education more than another feature.

The next step is adding short videos inside the app: how to find good Reddit threads, how to reply without sounding like a spammer, and how to turn Reddit into a weekly acquisition habit.

The goal is simple: get users to the aha moment faster.

Shorter path → less confusion → more value → lower churn.

#3 Pricing

I increased RedShip from $19/month to $29/month.

It sounds like a weird way to reduce churn, but I think cheap pricing can create bad users. At $19/month, people buy without thinking too much. They try the product for 5 minutes. If they don’t get customers instantly, they cancel.

At $29/month, there’s a bit more intent. People take the product more seriously.

Pricing is not just monetization. Pricing is positioning.

It tells people what kind of product this is and who it’s for. I don’t want RedShip to feel like a tiny tool you try on a Sunday night and forget. I want it to feel like an acquisition channel you commit to.

Also, higher pricing means I need fewer customers to reach the same MRR. Fewer customers means I can spend more time understanding them, improving the product, and helping the right users win.

#4 Product

The hardest part of RedShip is invisible.

Users add keywords, RedShip scans Reddit, then it sends alerts when relevant conversations appear.

Sounds simple… but it’s not.

If users get too few alerts, they think the product is useless.
If they get too many alerts, they feel overwhelmed.

The value is in the balance: enough relevant conversations to create opportunities, not so many that it becomes noise.

So I’m improving the algorithm and filters behind the scenes. It’s not a shiny feature. Nobody will tweet “wow, the alert relevance improved by 17%.”

But it matters.

If RedShip sends useful conversations every week, users stay. If it sends nothing, they leave. If it sends garbage, they leave faster.

Retention is often hidden in boring product details.

#5 Outbound

The best RedShip customers won’t probably come by themselves.

They are B2B companies with a clear ICP, a product people ask questions about, and enough patience to build a new acquisition channel.

These people won’t magically find me. So I need to go find them.

This is why I’m starting outbound. Because it lets me choose my customers instead of waiting for random signups.

And for RedShip, that matters a lot.

A bad-fit customer increases churn. A good-fit customer gives feedback, gets value, and stays.

What I learned

I used to think churn was mostly about the product.

Now I think churn has two sides: the promise and the experience.

The promise decides who enters. The experience decides who stays.

If your promise attracts the wrong people, they churn. If your experience is confusing, they churn. If both are wrong, your MRR won’t grow.

RedShip still has too much churn. I haven’t fixed it. But the bucket has fewer holes than 2 weeks ago.

My goal is to get churn closer to 30%.

It won’t be perfect. A lead generation product will always have some month-one churn. Some users will try it, find a few leads, and leave. That’s fine.

But users leaving on day one because they don’t understand the product is not fine. Users leaving because I sold them the wrong promise is not fine. Users leaving because alerts are too noisy is not fine.

So I’ll keep working on it. It’s not an easy task, but you learn so much from it You have to add data, simplify your product, understand your users, and so on.

And in the end, these are lessons you can apply to any product you build next.

Question for you: what helps you the most in terms of retention?

See you soon,
Axel

It started as a LinkedIn product and progressively evolved into a real LinkedIn analytics tool where users can track their posts and comments stats, and engage faster.

In December 2025, I launched RedShip.

A Reddit marketing tool designed to help companies find relevant conversations, engage at the right moment, and get customers from Reddit.

Then in April 2026, I launched Rankr.

An AI visibility tool that helps companies understand why AI tools mention them, which sources are used, and how to improve their chances of being recommended.

Rankr came directly from RedShip.

While building RedShip, I realized something interesting: Reddit marketing is not only about getting customers directly from Reddit.

When your product is mentioned naturally in useful Reddit conversations, people often search for your brand on Google afterward. Those Reddit threads can rank on search engines, branded searches increase, and over time, AI tools can use those same sources to recommend your product.

That insight led me to launch Rankr.

But even though RedShip and Rankr were naturally connected, MyFeedIn still felt more isolated.

Every time you build in a new market, you’re not only building a new product, you’re often rebuilding your entire distribution strategy.

1. Switching distribution is expensive

When I launched MyFeedIn, distribution felt relatively natural.

I was already creating content on LinkedIn, and the product was built for people who were very close to my own use case: creators and people trying to grow on LinkedIn.

Most users came from my content, which made distribution much easier.

RedShip was a completely different story.

The product is more B2B, the target users are companies, and content alone is not enough to grow it. Posting helps, but it doesn’t automatically bring the right customers.

That means I need a very different distribution strategy: SEO, outreach, Reddit itself, and more direct ways to get in front of companies.

Rankr follows the same logic.

It targets a similar type of customer, which is why launching it after RedShip made sense. But it also confirmed something for me: B2B products require a very different go-to-market motion than creator tools.

That’s the real hidden cost.

It’s not only about building a new product. Sometimes, it means learning an entirely new way to acquire customers.

2. I finally found the missing piece: outreach

The thing that was missing to connect all 3 products was outreach.

With RedShip and Rankr, I’m building products for B2B companies and agencies.

That means content alone is usually not enough.

Unlike MyFeedIn, which grew naturally through my LinkedIn audience, these products require a more proactive distribution strategy: SEO, outbound, and finding the right companies directly.

That’s why MyFeedIn felt disconnected for a while.

It was useful, but not helping me grow the other two.

By adding outreach to MyFeedIn, that changes completely.

Now I can use RedShip to find relevant conversations on Reddit, Rankr to understand and improve my visibility in AI tools, and MyFeedIn to identify the right people on LinkedIn, engage with them, and reach out directly.

Each product now helps me grow the others.

Instead of building isolated products, I finally have a small ecosystem where each tool improves a different part of my distribution.

What you can take from this

If you’re early in your journey, building random products is probably fine.

You need to explore, test ideas, and learn what type of problems you actually enjoy solving.

But after a while, it’s worth asking yourself a simple question:

Are you building products that compound, or are you just restarting from zero every time?

Because the hardest part is often not building: it’s distribution. (It’s even more true today with AI)

And when your products are connected, your work starts compounding naturally.

You understand the same market better over time, your content stays relevant across products, and your acquisition channels become stronger instead of being reset.

I don’t want MyFeedIn, RedShip, and Rankr to feel like 3 isolated bets anymore.

I want them to become one system.

The products are different, but they all move in the same direction: helping companies get discovered and start conversations, whether that happens on LinkedIn, Reddit, or through AI search.

That feels much better than chasing random ideas.

See you soon,
Axel

Same revenue, but two completely different stories.

I launched MyFeedIn in June 2024 and RedShip in December 2025. Today, both are around €500 MRR. But the way they got there says a lot about pricing, positioning, retention, and distribution.

At first, RedShip looks like the better business.

It reached the same MRR much faster. The product is more expensive. The promise is easier to understand: find customers on Reddit.

But the chart is also much more chaotic.

Here’s what I learned.

1. Higher pricing is a rollercoaster

RedShip is more expensive than MyFeedIn, so each new customer has a bigger impact on MRR.

That’s why it reached €500 MRR much faster. It doesn’t need many customers to show progress.

The problem is that churn works the same way.

A few new customers can move MRR up quickly, but a few cancellations can move it down just as fast. Higher pricing makes growth more visible, but it also makes every cancellation more painful.

MyFeedIn is different. The price is lower, so growth depends more on volume: more users, more traffic, and more small conversions.

2. The promise sells, the habit retains

RedShip has a strong promise: find customers on Reddit.

That’s easy to understand. People want leads, customers, and growth.

RedShip monitors Reddit in real time, detect relevant posts, and alert users when they should engage. But users still need to reply and spend time engaging.

Some users are interested in the outcome, but not in the process required to get it.

That creates churn.

MyFeedIn had the opposite problem. It started as a nice-to-have product to improve the LinkedIn experience. The promise was less urgent, so growth was slower.

But over time, it became a real LinkedIn analytics product.

Today, MyFeedIn helps users understand what actually works on LinkedIn. They can track the performance of their posts, comments, and activity instead of guessing what gets visibility or engagement.

That shift matters.

A better LinkedIn experience is nice. Knowing which posts and comments bring results is useful.

People don’t keep paying because your product is cool. They keep paying because it helps them make better decisions.

3. Vitamins can become painkillers

When I launched MyFeedIn, it wasn’t a must-have.

It was useful, but not critical.

That’s a hard place to start because people don’t urgently need your product. They may like it, try it, and forget about it.

But a nice-to-have can become a painkiller if you keep improving it around real usage.

For MyFeedIn, the product became more valuable as it moved from “make LinkedIn nicer to use” to “track and improve LinkedIn performance.”

That’s a completely different product in the user’s mind.

The first one is a small productivity upgrade. The second one helps people understand if their content strategy is working.

4. Free users are either distribution or pollution

For RedShip, I added a hard paywall.

It makes sense because the product has real costs. Monitoring Reddit in real time and sending alerts is not something I want to offer to thousands of free users with no intent to pay.

The paywall filters noise and brings revenue faster.

MyFeedIn is different. It needs volume. Free users can help with distribution, usage, and eventually conversion.

So the free-plan question depends on the product.

If free users help you grow, free can be useful. If free users cost money and distract you, free becomes pollution.

I’m not a fan of hard paywalls. As a user myself, i usually like to test the product first. But for RedShip, putting it seems to work.

What’s next

Both products are at the same MRR, but they don’t need the same next step.

Comparing startups only by MRR can be misleading.

It’s like saying two people weigh 80kg: one is an athlete, the other eats kebab at 2am.

So here’s what I’m going to do.

MyFeedIn

The product is already strong.

It started as a better LinkedIn experience, but it became a real analytics tool for LinkedIn. Users can track their posts, comments, and understand what actually drives performance.

The next step I want to try is turning it into an outreach tool.

Not because the product is broken, but because I need to solve a more painful problem if I want to take MyFeedIn further.

Outreach feels like the missing piece: helping users turn insights into conversations, and conversations into opportunities.

Or at least, that’s what I need myself.

RedShip

The promise is clear: find customers on Reddit.

But now I need to get it in front of the right companies.

Not everyone wants to spend time engaging on Reddit, and that’s fine. The product is useful for a specific type of company: teams that already understand community-led growth, social selling, or founder-led distribution.

So the next step is not building more features.

It’s finding the right people.

Distribution is the final boss

In both cases, the real problem is distribution.

More users means more feedback, more patterns, and more obvious things to improve.

At some point, you don’t need to rebuild everything. You need to keep pushing, keep listening, and keep iterating on what you already have.

That’s what I’m going to do.

See you soon,
Axel

“It worked because he has an audience.”

That’s the default explanation people use when a product takes off. It’s convenient because it ends the conversation early. Yes, an audience helps, distribution is real. If you can push traffic on day one, you’re already ahead of most founders.

But there’s a downside nobody mentions: the bigger your audience, the higher the expectations. People don’t want a “nice little side project” from you. They want something that feels polished, useful, and worth their time. An audience doesn’t remove the need to execute; it raises the bar on execution.

And it also hides the real reason why some people keep winning: they ship more than everyone else.

What people miss when they talk about “distribution”

When you reduce success to “audience”, you ignore the part that actually matters: the volume of attempts. The speed of iteration. The willingness to test, kill, rebuild, and keep going.

Most founders don’t lose because they lack ideas. They lose because they don’t run enough loops. They spend weeks in planning mode, polishing the mental version of the product, instead of shipping the ugly first version and letting reality shape it.

The people who win aren’t always smarter. They’re just quicker to turn an idea into something real.

Let’s take an example: TrustMRR

Marc launches TrustMRR and people instantly say the same thing: “of course it works, he has an audience.” And yes, that audience helps to kickstart the first wave.

But TrustMRR is the perfect example of why that explanation is incomplete, because the story of TrustMRR isn’t “Marc posted and it worked.”

The story is: he shipped it into something else.

The original idea was literally in the name

At the beginning, TrustMRR was almost stupidly clear: a directory of startups where founders connect Stripe so their revenue is verified.

That’s it: Trust MRR.

No acquisition platform. Just a simple promise: real revenue, verified.

It didn’t become a marketplace overnight

Here’s the part people miss: TrustMRR didn’t “pivot” into a marketplace in one dramatic move. It slowly morphed into one.

Even Marc probably didn’t expect the end result at the beginning.

But when you keep shipping, the product starts pulling you somewhere. Users ask for things. Opportunities show up. You add one feature, then another, then another… and one day you look back and realize the thing has become bigger than the initial idea.

That’s what happened here: over time, TrustMRR evolved into a place where projects don’t just get discovered.. they can get bought.

The real engine: 200+ shipped features

Marc has mentioned shipping more than 200 features on TrustMRR.

That number is the whole story.

Because audience can bring attention on day one, but it can’t ship 200 features for you. That’s not distribution. That’s output.

TrustMRR became a marketplace because it was constantly being pushed forward, feature after feature, release after release, iteration after iteration.

A simple proof of shipping volume: pricing tests

If you want one concrete example of this “ship like a machine” mindset, look at monetization.

Most founders treat pricing like a one-shot decision. They pick a model, try it once, it doesn’t work, and they conclude the product can’t be monetized.

Marc treated pricing like another surface to ship on.

So he tested a lot:

• Sponsors (the obvious first win, visible immediately)

• Paid filters / extra criteria via subscription

• Paid newsletter-style insights with deeper data

• Pay to list your startup for sale

• Pay for visibility when you want more attention

And the point of this list isn’t “here’s the perfect pricing strategy.”

It’s: look at the number of attempts.

Pricing is just one area where you can see the shipping volume. The real pattern is bigger: he kept trying things until the product naturally found what people would pay for.

The real compounding skill: shrinking the gap

This is what I’m obsessed with lately: the time between “I have an idea” and “it exists.” The smaller this gap is, the more chances you get to be right, because you get feedback faster and you generate momentum.

There’s also a mental side nobody talks about. Unshipped ideas pile up. They sit in the back of your mind like open tabs, eating attention. And when your brain is full of unfinished stuff, you feel less creative. Not because you’re broken, but because you’re cluttered.

Shipping clears the cache. You build one thing, it creates new ideas, you build again. Creativity comes from movement.

My 2026 focus: shipping like it’s a muscle

That’s what I’m training in 2026: noticing ideas, writing them down, and building them quickly. Not every idea needs to become a startup. Some ideas are just small tests that teach you something. The goal is repetition. The goal is becoming the type of person who executes.

This year I’ve already launched three products. Two were simple SEO directories designed to support my main products. BestLinkedInTools took me around five hours and is basically a directory meant to push people toward MyFeedIn, which is my biggest product so far.

Then I shipped BestRedditTools, same concept but for Reddit, to bring traffic to Redship.

And I also built a 3rd product because I had a personal need. I’m not pushing marketing hard yet because I’m not satisfied enough with the product, but it’s alive!

The takeaway

Stop using “audience” as the full explanation. Yes, it helps. But the people who keep winning usually win for a boring reason: they ship a lot, they test a lot, and they iterate until the product becomes inevitable.

So here’s the real question: what idea is currently stuck in your head that could be shipped in 48 hours?

Because the secret isn’t having better ideas. It’s building the habit of turning ideas into reality quickly.

See you soon,
— Axel

Since then, 2.5 months have passed. And I have numbers to share.

RedShip now has:

• 450 users,

• 14 paying customers,

• and is at 318€ MRR.

Today I want to break down exactly how I’ve been growing it, because the strategy is something you can steal for your own product.

I’m using RedShip to grow RedShip

I know, it sounds a bit meta. But hear me out.

Every morning, I open RedShip. It already found the best Reddit threads by monitoring Reddit in real-time, conversations where people are looking for tools, asking for recommendations, or discussing problems that my product solves.

Each post is scored by AI from 0 to 100 based on how relevant it is to my product. I don’t scroll through subreddits. I don’t search manually. I just check my inbox, pick 10 to 20 threads, and start writing helpful comments.

The whole thing takes about 30 minutes. Coffee in hand, every morning.

Here’s the important part: I never drop a link. I just mention “RedShip” by name, naturally, when it fits the conversation. No “check out my tool.” Just genuine help.

And that’s where it gets interesting.

457 SEO clicks in the last 28 days

I checked Google Search Console last week and saw 457 organic clicks in the last 28 days.

Out of those, 377 came from people searching “RedShip” directly on Google.

Think about that. These are people who saw my name in a Reddit comment, got curious, and went to Google to look me up. I didn’t send them a link. They found me on their own.

I repeat: they type RedShip name in Google and found me on their own!!

That’s branded search. And it’s the most powerful type of SEO you can build, because it tells Google that real people are looking for you by name.

The flywheel I didn’t plan

I comment on Reddit. People see the name. They Google it. Branded search goes up. Google starts trusting my site more. My other pages (features, alternatives, free tools) start ranking better. That brings in more traffic. Which brings more users. Who might mention RedShip themselves.

It’s a loop. And it compounds over time.

The crazy part? I never planned this. I just wanted to be helpful on Reddit and see what happened. The main purpose was to promote my product for sure, but it’s way higher than my expectations.

RedShip is a proof that RedShip works !

What I built on the SEO side

From day one, I created three types of pages:

• Features pages: one for each core feature like Reddit monitoring, AI reply generator, SEO opportunities. These target people searching for specific solutions.

• Alternatives pages: “RedShip vs GummySearch”, “RedShip vs F5Bot”, and so on. These pages target people who are already comparing tools. High intent, low competition.

• Free tools: a subreddit finder and a website-to-subreddits tool. These bring in people who aren’t ready to buy yet but are exactly in my target audience.

These pages started picking up impressions within weeks. And instead of adding more, I’m focused on improving the ones that are already ranking. Small tweaks, better titles, tighter copy.. to push them higher.

What you can take from this

1. Build great SEO pages before you have traffic.
Start with alternatives page (”YourProduct vs Competitor”) and 1 or 2 free tools. These rank faster than blog posts because the intent is specific.

2. Show up on Reddit every morning.
Find 5 to 10 subreddits where your audience asks questions. Spend 30 minutes writing helpful comments. Mention your product name naturally. Never drop a link. (with RedShip, it will be easier of course 😏)

3. Let branded search do the work.
If your comments are genuinely helpful, people will Google your name on their own. That’s more powerful than any link you could drop.

4. Optimize what’s already ranking.
Open Google Search Console every two weeks. Find pages with high impressions but low clicks. Improve the title and description. Those are your quick wins.

Do this consistently for two months. The flywheel takes time to start, but once it does, it compounds.

What’s next for RedShip

The goal is still the same: reach €1,000 MRR in 2026.

The focus for the coming weeks is improving onboarding to convert more free users to paid, and doubling down on what’s already working.

It’s still early. But 2.5 months in, with 450 users and a growth loop that runs on 30 minutes a day, I’m more convinced than ever that there’s something here.

If you’re using Reddit as a growth channel (or thinking about it), I’d love to hear how it’s going for you.

See you soon,
— Axel

Last month, I launched RedShip, a tool that lets you monitor Reddit in real time.

The goal: help you join the right conversations the moment they start. If your audience is on Reddit, RedShip gives you a head start to engage, bring value, and grow your visibility without spamming.

But why focus on Reddit in the first place?

Here are two big reasons:

Reason 1: Reddit dominates Google search results

Search for “best X tool” on Google and you’ll likely find one or more Reddit threads in the top results.

That’s because Reddit is full of detailed human conversations. Google trusts that kind of content more than a polished landing page or SEO blog post.

If you consistently show up in high-ranking threads with something useful to say, you build compounding visibility. One good comment can bring traffic for months.

Reason 2: Reddit trains AI models

Reddit is one of the richest sources of data for large language models like ChatGPT.

These models learn from how people actually talk about problems, tools, and solutions. Reddit is packed with long-form, real-life conversations, exactly what these models are hungry for.

By showing up on Reddit, you’re not just talking to people. You’re also increasing your chances of being included in AI-generated answers across the web.

This funnel sums up what happens:

• you publish or comment on community platforms

• your posts rank on search engines

• LLM tools use them to mention you when answering people

How I discovered Reddit’s potential myself

In July 2025, I launched a new project: IsMyWebsiteReddit.

I wanted to see if Reddit could drive traffic to something new, without ads or an audience. I tested a few posts.

In a few weeks, the site had over 10,000 visitors.

That experiment showed me how powerful Reddit can be, but it also taught me it’s not easy. You can’t just drop a link and expect results. You need to contribute to discussions, send DMs when relevant, and play the long game.

It’s about helping first, promoting second.

That mindset completely changed how I used the platform.

That’s why I launched RedShip

Reddit is a massive opportunity, but only if you show up at the right time. The best threads gain visibility fast, and most startups miss the window to join early and add value.

RedShip solves that.

It tracks Reddit in real time based on custom keywords and alerts you the moment a relevant post appears. No more endless scrolling and discovering golden threads three days too late.

It’s already passed $150 MRR in just a few weeks, and I’m only getting started.

Since launching, I’ve started seeing the kind of signals I never got with my previous projects: people reaching out, booking calls, asking questions.

It’s early, but it feels different. Like there’s something here worth doubling down on.

Out of the 8 projects I launched in 2025, RedShip is the one with the clearest potential.

What’s next

In 2026, I’m aiming to grow RedShip to +$1,000 MRR and see how far I can take it.

It’s the first project in a while where I feel everything is aligned: the timing, the need, the product.

Now it’s all about action.

If Reddit is part of your strategy this year, or you think it should be, I’d love to hear what you’re working on.

Let’s make 2026 the year Reddit becomes part of your growth stack.

See you soon,
— Axel

Recently, I shared a few tweets about pricing and people had strong opinions.
Apparently, it’s not such a simple topic. (Spoiler: it’s not simple for me either)

Since launching MyFeedin in June 2024, I’ve changed my pricing a lot.
And after a few projects (including my first one, Optimalt) I’ve started to see a few clear patterns.

Here are the guidelines I follow today 👇

1. Start low

Yes, I know.. a lot of people will disagree with this one.
“Isn’t starting cheap going to reduce the perceived value of your product???”

Maybe. But you’re better off starting lower and raising your price later.

When you launch something new, impostor syndrome hits hard.
You wonder if anyone will even pay for what you’ve built.

Starting low reduces friction. People buy more easily, and you build confidence faster.

And honestly, it’s better to have real users and feedback at $10
than no users at $50 because you’re still “figuring out your value.”

Get people in. Learn, and then raise.

2. Add a one-time payment

Every time I’ve added a lifetime option, it became the most popular plan.

Convincing someone to take out their credit card is already hard.
Convincing them to subscribe to another monthly plan — on top of Netflix, Spotify, and the rest — is 10x harder.

The friction for a subscription is huge.
If your product allows it (no AI bills or recurring costs), offer both.
You’ll be surprised how many people pick the one-time.

3. Use the “decoy” strategy

This one comes from Starbucks.

They make you think you’re choosing freely between a tall, grande, or venti...
but really, they’re guiding you to the large one or middle one, depending on the gap between each.

You can do the same.
Structure your pricing plans to make one of them look obvious.
Most users will take the path you want them to.

4. Let your price evolve with your confidence

Your price should grow with your product and with you.

At first, set a number that feels slightly uncomfortable.
Not cheap. Not bold. Just a little scary.

Because pricing is not only about value: it’s about how much you believe in your work.

As your product improves, raise it.
As your confidence grows, raise it again.

Your price isn’t permanent.
It’s a reflection of where you are right now.

5. Pricing is marketing (yes, that’s the title of the newsletter)

Your price doesn’t just define your revenue.
It defines your positioning.

A higher price says confidence.
A lower price says accessibility.
Both can work, depending on what you’re building.

There’s no formula.
You decide what your product is worth, and your audience adjusts their expectations.

Just make sure the value and the price stay in the same universe.

If I had to summarize it all:

• Start low.

• Add a lifetime option.

• Use a decoy plan.

• Let your price evolve.

• And remember: pricing is never final.

It’s something you test, tweak, and grow: just like your product.

See you soon,
— Axel

Every week, someone asks me:

“Why don’t you focus on one project?”

And honestly, I get it.
It sounds logical. Focus brings results, right?

Except… when you’re building solo, it doesn’t always work like that.

Here’s why 👇

1. The more you focus, the more you expect

When you spend weeks on a single project, you start expecting big results.

And when they don’t come right away (because they never do), you feel disappointed.

That’s exactly how I feel with MyFeedin right now.

I’ve worked like crazy on it these last few weeks, and yet… it feels like nothing’s moving.

(It will, eventually. It just needs time.)

But when your energy depends on one project only.. that waiting time hits harder.

2. Multiple projects keep you sane

Having several things running in parallel helps you detach.

When one slows down, another keeps you moving.

You stay in that “build and ship” flow instead of falling into “overthink and refresh analytics.”

Working on something else gives you perspective.

You come back with new ideas, not burnout.

3. You learn faster

Every new project is like a mini-experiment.

One teaches you design, another marketing, another launching.

Each one sharpens a different skill you’ll reuse later.

That’s how you grow fast as a solo builder, not by grinding the same thing forever, but by repeating the 0→1 cycle over and over.

4. You multiply your chances

Let’s be real: we never know which project will take off.

So instead of waiting six months for one big “maybe,” I prefer to stack small bets.

Each project is a lottery ticket. And sometimes, one pays for all the others.

And since I don’t focus on one project…

…I launched a new one : Marketing Memory 📣

Managing several projects sounds fun.. until you have to market them all.

That’s what I realized recently.

I’ve launched seven products so far, and keeping track of what I’ve done (and what actually worked) became impossible.

Building is easy now. AI makes it faster than ever.
But marketing? That’s where real growth happens.

It’s about consistency. Habits.

So I built Marketing Memory, a tool to help creators grow by making marketing a daily routine.

If you’re building something too, this might help you stay consistent.

Let’s grow together 🥰

👉 marketingmemory.com

Sometimes you have to let things mature. Ideas need space.

So yeah, I don’t focus on one project.
Not because I can’t.
But because it keeps me creative, balanced, and still in love with the game.

See you soon,

— Axel

Apple doesn’t sell phones.
They sell a vision: Think different.

Nike doesn’t sell shoes.
They sell a transformation: Just do it.

And I realized that when I launch my own projects, I often fall into the opposite trap: I talk about the product. The features. The how.

When what really matters is the change it brings.

No matter what you launch:
→ a SaaS
→ a newsletter
→ even a side project

People don’t want a “tool” or “content.” They want a transformation:
Less wasted time. More clients. Better visibility. More freedom.

That’s the rule I want to follow for all my projects:

Stop selling what it does, and start selling what it changes.

So, let’s try the exercise

MyFeedin

Product: Chrome extension to create custom LinkedIn feeds and engage better.

Transformation: a better routine to connect daily and grow faster.

_

IsMyWebsiteReady

Product: Tool to check if your website is ready for launch.

Transformation: confidence before you hit “publish.”

_

PortfolioKit

Product: Tool to create custom portfolios for freelances.

Transformation: a professional image that finally matches your talent.

If you’re building something right now, do the same exercise.

Ask yourself: what transformation am I actually selling?

Because features don’t inspire.
Transformations do.

Let me know if it helps 🫡

See you soon,
— Axel

More features.
More integrations.
More automation.

But 90% of the time, what it really needs… is less friction.

That’s the realization I had with MyFeedIn.

The features worked. The product had traction.
But the experience? Confusing.. and ugly.

You could understand how it worked.. but it didn’t feel good to use.

So I stopped building new features and went back to fix what was already there.

Here’s what changed:
→ A complete redesign of the interface
→ A clearer onboarding flow
→ A simpler, smoother user experience

No new features. But a totally different feeling.

Why I did it

1. The product was already working.

→ 1,800 users
→ 380 paying customers
→ €9,000+ in revenue

That’s not mind-blowing. But it’s something.

If that many people are willing to pay for something that looks like crap, imagine what could happen with a clean, intuitive UI?

Those users deserved better. So I gave it to them.

—
2. Word of mouth is the best growth loop.

My #1 growth channel right now? Happy users talking.

If the product is easier to use → users convert better.
If the UI looks better → people share it.
If the experience is smooth → they stick around longer.

Good UX doesn’t just convert.
It compounds.

What I didn’t do

I didn’t ship new shiny features.
I actually removed a bunch.

I killed deadweight features nobody used.
Improved the ones that mattered.
And refactored a year’s worth of messy code.

It took almost a full week, not to build something new, but to clean up the mess I had accumulated over time.

And honestly? It was worth every hour.

What you can steal from this

If your product isn’t growing, maybe it’s not because it needs more features.

Maybe it just needs to feel better to use.

Fix the layout.
Fix the copy.
Fix the flow.

Simplify until it’s obvious.
Then remove one more thing.

_

See you soon,
Axel

That also meant I was spending a lot of time on the platform. Waaay too much.

One of the problems I wanted to solve was exactly that: spending less time on LinkedIn.

At this period, I had discovered a hidden feature on LinkedIn: you could filter posts in the search bar to see only content from specific people. Since I was already following and engaging on only a handful of creators, I thought it would be useful to build a Chrome extension that made this easier:

• Create lists of people

• Focus only on their posts

• Cut out the noise

So in June 2024, I launched MyFeedIn.

The slow start

I launched it without big expectations. It solved my problem, and I thought maybe a few others would find it useful too.

I had an audience on LinkedIn, so I shared it there. People reacted positively, but growth was slow. VERY SLOW. Honestly, it was frustrating.

Several times, I thought about giving up. I didn’t always know what features to add, or how to make acquisition really take off. And like most indie hackers, I was impatient: every action felt like it should bring instant results. It almost never does.

In 2024, MyFeedIn brought in some revenue: €1,700.
Enough to keep me going, but still not enough to feel like a breakthrough.

The compounding effect

In 2025, something shifted.

Not because I found a magic growth strategy, but because of word of mouth.

Users started talking about MyFeedIn. Some posted about it on LinkedIn, others recommended it to colleagues, and slowly the product spread from user to user.

Today the numbers look like this:

• 1,700+ freemium users

• 350+ premium users

• 20% conversion from free to paid

• Almost €10,000 in total revenue since launch

Conversion is strong.
The bottleneck now is acquisition: getting more people to install the extension in the first place.

What’s next

Right now, I see three levers to grow:

1. Talk more about MyFeedIn on LinkedIn.

2. Personally reach out to new users: offering tips and showing I’m invested makes them more likely to spread the word.

3. Double down on referrals and affiliation to turn users into promoters.

(BONUS: find a way to expand to the US market?)

Crossing €200 MRR might look small compared to big startup milestones, but it’s a turning point for me.

The first €10,000 is the “easy” part. The hard part is pushing beyond that and doing it faster.

That’s the challenge I’m facing with MyFeedIn today.

3 lessons I’ve learned so far with MyFeedIn:

• Don’t expect instant results: compounding always takes more time than you want

• Solve your own problem first: it’s the simplest way to build something others actually need

• Finding your first users is easy: growing a project is the hard part

_

That’s all for me. I hope it was useful and fun to read!

See you soon,
Axel

_

PS: If you have any ideas for MyFeedIn, I’d love to discuss them. You can reach out on LinkedIn or even Twitter. And if you want to test the product, don’t hesitate, your feedback would mean a lot.

Test MyFeedIn

I’ve never really told the full story. The real reason I started launching side projects.

It had nothing to do with wanting freedom, quitting freelancing, or building the next big thing.

It started with a Chrome extension.

Why I Launched OptiMalt

In March 2024, I launched OptiMalt:
A tool to help freelancers perform better on Malt.

At least, that was the official story.

In reality? I just wanted to ship something of my own.

At the time, I was building Chrome extensions for clients and thinking about testing a new offer:

→ deliver a solid MVP

→ then upsell maintenance and updates

Before pitching it, I needed hands-on experience. I wanted to see what really happens after the launch… when bugs pop up, users give feedback, and the product starts to evolve. So I built OptiMalt mostly as a playground.

But what was meant to be a test turned into something I didn’t expect.

That’s when i fell in love 🥰

The launch went way better than expected.

Over 300+ people signed up in the first week.

Freelancers messaged me to say it actually helped them.

It was the first time I built something that felt real, not just “done for a client,” but mine, end-to-end.

So I kept going.

I worked on a better V2.

Then launched other projects, like MyFeedIn.

That’s how I fell into side projects.
Not because I had a perfect plan.
Just because I followed the momentum.

It almost didn’t happen

When I think about it, this whole shift could’ve easily not happened.

• If I hadn’t built extensions for clients, I wouldn’t have had the technical base.

• If OptiMalt had flopped on launch, I probably would’ve moved on and never looked back.

• If I hadn’t started posting on LinkedIn, I doubt it would’ve gotten any traction at all.

And here’s the worst part:

If I had tried to be smart about it… doing market research, asking for feedback, trying to pick the “best” idea → I might’ve talked myself out of it entirely.

That’s the dangerous part of waiting until you feel ready.
Because the “ready” version of you is often too cautious to start.

Just a quick update from me

I launched something new this week: PortfolioKit.

I started coding it end of August and shipped it on August 26.
It’s not finished. It’s not perfect.
But I didn’t want to wait.

Instead of building in my head for weeks, I pushed it live.

Just to see: does it click? Will people sign up, upload their work, build something?

The idea’s simple:
Every client is different.
So your portfolio should adapt.

With PortfolioKit, you can remix blocks from past projects like Legos, and create a custom new portfolio in minutes.

Just a clean way to show your work, tailored to each prospect.

It’s live if you wanna check it out: portfoliokit.io

Alright, back to the main story 👇

So… is “indie hacking” working?

Some people have asked how these side projects are doing financially.

Here’s the honest breakdown:

MyFeedIn (since June 2024)
→ €8,015 revenue
→ €210 MRR currently

OptiMalt (since March 2024)
→ €2,332 revenue

FreelanceKit (since August 2024)
→ Around €600 (via affiliate links)

FormSense (since June 2025)
→ €73 revenue

IsMyWebsiteReady (since June 2025)
→ €144 revenue

FreeToolsLand
→ €0

Let’s be real: it’s not enough to live off (yet).

But I’m learning. I’m getting better at launching, better at getting users, better at selling.

I know how to get the first 100 users now.

The next step is learning how to scale.

If you’re hesitating to start

You don’t need the perfect idea.
You don’t need a monetization plan.
You don’t even need to be that confident.
You just need to hit “publish” on something small.

Because even if your first project doesn’t take off, it’ll open doors you didn’t know existed.

That’s what happened to me.
And it changed everything.

So if you’re on the edge, stuck in planning mode…
Just launch the damn thing.

You’ll thank yourself later 🫡

See you soon,
Axel

I’ve been publishing online for a while now, mainly on LinkedIn and in French. But since the beginning of June, I’ve taken a step that’s more aligned with my goal of living from my projects: i decided to add Twitter to the mix.

Here’s the story (and the 100€ burger bet that comes with it):

I started LinkedIn in January 2023

At first, I didn’t have a big plan in mind. I mostly wanted to find clients.

So I began writing about what I knew best at the time: automation.

I shared tools, workflows, little tips. Honestly, looking back, those posts weren’t that great: mostly tool descriptions without much depth. But something clicked.

I got caught up in the process. I started enjoying it. Not just sharing knowledge, but writing. Putting my ideas into words, trying to structure them, contextualize them. It became a way to think better.

And over time, my content evolved. I moved from automation topics to freelancing, solopreneurship, and the lessons I was learning through my projects, my podcast, and my newsletter.

Since that first post:

• I’ve published more than +600 posts

• I’ve built a community of +8,500 people

• I’ve done it without any real viral moment or massive spike in growth

It’s been a long game. Progress has been slow, sometimes frustrating, but always moving forward. And today, I realize just how useful that audience has become.

Whenever I launch something now, I have people to show it to. People who follow what I do, who give feedback, who sometimes even become customers. And none of that would exist if I hadn’t started back in January 2023.

So yeah, I’m grateful I just started.

And now, Twitter

Today, my real goal is to live off my projects.

Building them is one thing : finding ideas, coding, shipping. But honestly, that’s not even the hardest part. The biggest challenge is getting people to see them. Distribution is everything.

And that’s where Twitter comes in.

It’s the place where indie hackers hang out. People build in public, share behind-the-scenes stuff, give each other feedback, and test ideas in real time. It’s a bit chaotic, but it’s also super dynamic.

Compared to LinkedIn, where most of the feedback sounds like “Congrats 👏” or “Looks great, I’ll test it” (but no one ever does), Twitter feels more real. When people engage there, they actually click, test, comment, ask questions.

So I decided to give it a go.

That means:

• Starting from zero again

• Learning a new tone, a new pace

• Writing in English instead of French

• Figuring out what works and what doesn’t

It’s not easy. But I know what consistent publishing can do, I’ve already seen the results once.

So I’m not expecting magic. I’m just showing up again, this time in a new playground.

The 100€ burger

To stay motivated, I made a deal with my brother: if I don’t hit 500 followers on Twitter by the end of June, I owe him 100€.

He’ll probably spend it on a burger. A big one. And he’ll definitely enjoy reminding me about it.

Right now, we’re halfway through the month. And I’ve still got a long way to go. I don’t know if I’ll make it, but at least I’ve got a reason to push a little harder.

If you want to follow the journey (or just help me avoid paying for that damn burger), you can find me here:

My Twitter

Why not you?

If you hesitate to publish content : do it.

When I started, I wasn’t good. But that’s the beauty of starting: no one’s watching. You’re not being judged. You’ve got room to mess up, try things, and improve.

Even today, with 8,500 followers, I still post things that barely get likes. And honestly? It’s not a big deal.

But now, I’m more comfortable writing and sharing ideas. Not because something clicked overnight, but because I’ve written over 600 posts. You learn by doing. And by repeating.

Building an audience is one of the best assets you can create for your solobusiness. You can reuse it everywhere, to test ideas, get feedback, launch products, or simply share your journey.

Learning to shape and share your thoughts online is a superpower today.

So if you’re still hesitating to post, just start. Publish. You’ll thank yourself later, like I do now.

See you soon,
Axel

Since October 2024, I’ve been working three days a week with the team at lemlist to build free tools.

Not “freemium features” or limited previews of the product.

I’m talking real, standalone tools. The kind that:

• Drive traffic,

• Deliver instant value,

• Turn visitors into users—without needing a signup or a credit card.

They were already working with a freelance dev part-time. The goal with me?

Double down. Ship more. To cover the second half of the week.

By “free tools,” I mean:

• Calculators or generators,

• Google Sheets add-ons,

• Chrome extensions,

• Anything useful that can live on its own

These tools live outside the core product—but they’re built with a very specific goal:

Turn strangers into users.

They do that by:

• Driving qualified traffic (through SEO)

• Delivering instant value tied to the product’s ecosystem

• Creating trust and engagement—without a signup or paywall

• And ultimately, nudging users toward the main product (because the next step just makes sense)

What free tools actually look like

The best way to explain this strategy is to show it in action. So here are a few tools I’ve launched or worked on at lemlist:

1) Pricing Calculator (Web Tool)

A simple way to estimate how much lemlist would cost based on your team size and prospecting volume.

It’s a free tool, built right into the lemlist pricing page, so prospects can project themselves without friction.

They see the actual cost, understand what they’d be paying for, and are one step closer to clicking “start free trial.”

2) Email Finder (Web Tool)

Find anyone’s email using their name, company, or LinkedIn URL.

It lives right on the lemlist site, requires no login, and just gives you what you were looking for. It also shows one of the core feature of lemlist.

3) lemlist for Sheets (Google Sheets Add-on)

Turns Google Sheets into a prospecting command center.

You can enrich, clean, and sync leads to your CRM—with AI insights.

_

👉 These tools live outside the core product, but they create huge value upfront—and they bring people in the lemlist ecosystem.

The best part? You can build a free tool around almost anything.

But to do that, you need a good idea. Or… a little inspiration.

That’s why I launched FreeToolsLand.io

After 6 months building these kinds of tools, I noticed something frustrating:

This strategy works, but it’s wildly under-documented.

There’s no central place to:

• Discover great examples

• Learn what actually works

• See how others use free tools to grow

So I decided to build one.

FreeToolsLand is a library of the best free tools built by indie hackers and startups as a growth strategy.

The plan is simple:

1. Collect examples

2. Reverse-engineer why they work

3. Share learnings others can steal

Right now, I’m still in Phase 1—curating and mapping everything out.

Eventually? It might become a guide, a SaaS product… who knows.

But for now, it’s a passion project. A project I wish existed.

The moral of this story

If you’re stuck overthinking your next project—this part is for you.

I spent the beginning of 2025 trying way too hard to find the “perfect idea.”

One that I could immediately monetize. One that had to become a business.

Guess what happened? Nothing.

I got stuck in my head. Paralysis by analysis.

But the truth is, my two best projects—OptiMalt and MyFeedIn—were born without any plan to make money.

I just built them to solve my own problems.

And they resonated with others. That’s where the magic started.

Same goes for FreeToolsLand (I hope).

No roadmap. No fancy metrics. Just a topic I care about—and a desire to share what I learn along the way.

Stop waiting for the perfect idea. Build the one that excites you today.
Monetization can come later.

👉 Got a tool I should feature?

Know a startup or indie hacker doing cool stuff with free tools?

Reply to this email or shoot me a DM—I’d love to include them on FreeToolsLand.

The more examples I find, the better it gets.

Thanks for reading 🙏

What about you—what are you currently building?

Reply to this email or drop me a DM. I’m always curious to see what others are shipping (and who knows, maybe I’ll feature your project on FreeToolsLand).

See you soon,

Axel

This is my personal newsletter.

Just the raw story of a developer trying to make a living from side-projects.

If you’re here, chances are you signed up to one of my tools or newsletters.
If you're not into behind-the-scenes stories, feel free to unsubscribe. No hard feelings.

Still here? Cool.

So let’s dive into this first edition — and let me tell you why I’m trying to become an indie hacker.

December 2021 — becoming a freelancer

I had just signed up on Malt (a freelancer platform for finding clients).
No portfolio. No real skills. No clue how this world worked.

Three weeks later, I landed my first freelance gig.

Back then, I was still a student.
Freelancing wasn’t a career plan — just a side thing to earn some money.

But after graduation, I decided to give it a real shot.

6 months to make it full-time.
Or move on.

And by January 2023, I was financially independent.
(Thanks to my parents for the early support, while i was still in school 🤍)

Quick recap on my timeline

• 2022 – I taught myself automation (Make / Zapier / n8n) from scratch.
  👉 Annual revenue: €20k

• 2023 – I started building Chrome extensions. 50% of revenue came from that, the other half from automations.
  👉 Annual revenue: €70k

• Early 2024 – I launched my own media: newsletter + podcast. I was trying to become a real “solopreneur”, not only a freelancer.

Sounds like progress, right?

But at some point… something didn’t click anymore.

When freelancing stops feeling like freedom

Don’t get me wrong — freelancing was fun.
But at some point, I realized I didn’t want to keep doing classic freelancing.

I didn’t want to scale an agency.
I didn’t want more client calls.
I wanted to build on my own terms.

So I started asking questions like:

Should I package an offer to increase revenue?
Should I focus more on content — sponsorships, partnerships?

At the beginning of 2024, I was deep in that reflection. I did not know what to do.

Where do I want to take this solobusiness?

March 2024 — my first real indie project

That’s when I launched OptiMalt.
A Chrome extension that helps freelancers improve their Malt profile.

No goal. No ambition behind it. I just wanted to build something useful.

And in under a week, over 300 people signed up.

I wasn’t expecting much — but that small launch changed everything.

Because for the first time, I felt a kind of excitement I’d never felt while freelancing.

Seeing people actually use something I had built? That was next level.

I enjoyed building this tiny tool more than any client project I had ever done — combined.
Even if it didn’t make me rich, it felt way more meaningful.

That’s when it clicked: I wanted more of that.
So I started digging into the indie hacker world.

The shift

After OptiMalt, I couldn’t go back to business as usual.

I kept building:

• June 2024 – MyFeedin: a tool to create personalized feeds on LinkedIn to engage more effectively.

• August 2024 – FreelanceKit: a directory of tools for freelancers.

… and others.

Each new project brought me closer to what I really wanted:

To build my own products. To have full creative freedom. To work solo.

Since then, I’ve been doing everything I can to move from freelance to full indie hacker.

Because for me, this is the dream life:

• Work solo

• Build things I care about

• Total freedom of time and place

Right now, I’m still far from making a full income from this.
But I’m playing the long game.

Let’s talk in a year — maybe things will look very different.

I was lucky enough to appear recently on podcast to talk about Malt Profile optimization. If you’d like to listen to the episode (it’s in french) :

Listen to the episode

Thanks for reading this first edition.

What did you think of it? If you can answer me, it would be cool to know if you received it! Just hit reply — I read every message.

See you soon,
Axel

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