r/Entrepreneur by u/HappyHippo95 9mo ago I scraped 25K comments to find which AI tools actually make people money or save time My last post here about side hustles absolutely blew up and is the 2nd top post in r/entrepreneur this year! Thanks guys!!!
After that post blew up, my DMs got flooded with questions specifically about making money with AI.
given the interest, i scraped another 25K+ comments across social media to see which AI tools are actually making people money or saving time.
This time grok and gpt 5 deep research were used to analyze the data. Scraped from YouTube, Facebook Groups, Instagram, TikTok, X and Reddit.
Here’s the list:
1. Beautiful AI - make professional slideshows in just a few clicks. People report saving tons of time and there are even those who sell a service of redesigning ugly slideshows and are using this to do the work.
2. Suno AI - make insane quality music in just seconds. People are making jingles for companies. Others are making songs, releasing them through DistroKid, then earning royalties from Spotify and streamers.
3. Vubo AI - make viral worthy vertical videos in under a minute. People run faceless channels and earn through Adsense and sponsorships. Others use the video templates to make viral videos to promote their digital products or affiliate offers.
4
Open on Reddit r/SaaS by u/multi_mind 3mo ago Is there an AI tool that finds leads on Reddit and writes personalized replies/DMs? WILL NOT PROMOTE I’m curious if something like this exists yet.
The idea would be an AI that:
• monitors specific subreddits for posts that match keywords or buying intent
• identifies users who might be potential customers
• suggests or writes a helpful comment on the post
• drafts a personalized DM based on the user’s post history
Basically something like a **Reddit-native lead generation tool** instead of manually searching for posts.
For example: if someone posts *“Does anyone know a good tool for X?”* the AI would flag it and help craft a relevant reply.
I’m not talking about spam bots blasting everyone. More like identifying relevant conversations and helping write thoughtful responses.
Does anything like this exist already, or are people just doing this manually with keyword searches?
And yes, I have tried a few of the reddit keyword and monitoring tools like DMdad, parsestream, readleads etc. But I did not like any of them.
Open on Reddit r/SideProject by u/SohamXYZDev 2mo ago I built a tool that found 172 Reddit leads in 2 days — because I kept losing clients to people faster than me When I was freelancing, I had a routine that was quietly killing my business.
Every morning: open Reddit, manually search for people asking about web design, discord bots, anything I could help with. Spend 45 minutes scrolling. Find 2-3 posts. Half of them already had someone in the comments. The other half — I'd DM, and get ignored because I wasn't first.
I wasn't losing to better freelancers. I was losing to faster ones.
The frustrating part is Reddit is genuinely one of the best places to find clients. People post there in real-time saying things like "I need someone to build me a landing page" or "my SaaS is struggling to get users, any advice?" — that's a warm lead. Way warmer than cold email.
But you can't monitor Reddit manually. It's impossible at scale.
So I built [ReddLeads](https://reddleads.com).
You put in your website URL. The AI scans it, figures out what you do and who your customers are, then automatically identifies the subreddits your ideal clients hang out in. After that it monitors 24/7, scores every post by buying intent, and alerts you the moment someone is actively looking for what you offer.
One of our beta users ([Craig](https://youtu.be/vGyvi8U6Vgg
Open on Reddit r/SaaS by u/trd_andrew 9mo ago Tool to find clients on Reddit; useful or pointless? I’m thinking about a tool that uses Reddit’s API to flag posts/comments with relevant keywords (e.g. people asking for a software or a service).
Would this be useful for lead generation?
Would you pay a subscription for it, or is it just pointless?
Open on Reddit r/SideProject by u/Virtual_Clothes2547 3mo ago I built a tool that finds Reddit posts where people are looking for your product One thing I noticed about Reddit:
People constantly ask things like
“What tool should I use for X?”
But finding those posts manually is painful.
You either:
* search constantly
* or scroll for hours.
So I built a tool that monitors Reddit for keywords and shows posts where people are actively looking for a solution.
It also scores the posts and draft replies you can edit before posting.
The goal is simple:
help founders find their first customers without ads.
Just launched it recently and would love honest feedback.
[https://indiepilot.app](https://indiepilot.app) \- 2$/m
Open on Reddit r/SaaS by u/No-Common1466 4mo ago I'm pivoting my SaaS after realizing Reddit lead gen tools (including mine) are all lying to you So I built Ralix as a Reddit lead generation tool. You know the pitch: "Find qualified leads on Reddit! Unlimited leads per month! 30% reply rates!" I saw a dozen other tools making these claims and thought there was something there.
I tested it with 4 real paying clients for 90 days. Tracked everything. Here's what actually happened:
The initial search was great. We'd find 50-100 posts where people mentioned problems our clients could solve. Felt amazing. Then reality hit.
First problem: most "qualified leads" weren't qualified at all. The AI would tag someone as qualified because they mentioned a keyword, but when you actually read the post they were asking something completely different or already had a solution or were just venting.
Second problem: Reddit is anonymous. You find someone who genuinely needs your product and then what? You can't email them. You can't find them on LinkedIn. Your only option is a cold DM on Reddit.
Third problem: Reddit DMs are where outreach goes to die. We sent hundreds of personalized DMs. Not templates, actually personalized messages. Reply rate was under 1%. Sometimes we'd go weeks without a single reply.
The math was supposed to be: unli
Open on Reddit r/smallbusiness by u/KapiteinBalzak 2mo ago Does anyone use Reddit to find customer questions in their niche? I’ve been experimenting with Reddit as a way to find what people are actually asking in different niches.
Not in a spammy way, more as:
* market research
* finding repeated questions
* spotting common frustrations
* seeing which discussions already have demand behind them
I ended up building a small internal tool for myself because manually searching across subreddits was taking forever.
It made me realize Reddit is actually pretty useful if you’re trying to understand demand before building content, offers, or products.
Curious whether any small business owners here use Reddit for this, or if most people stick to Google, Facebook groups, and keyword tools.
Open on Reddit r/SaaS by u/Exotic-Ad-1573 5mo ago I stopped burning cash on FB Ads. Instead, I wrote a script to find my clients on Reddit and X Hi everyone,
Like many of you here, when I launched my SaaS, I made the rookie mistake of thinking a few Facebook and Google Ads would be enough to bring in customers.
The reality? I burned through my budget with a ridiculous CAC.
When I analyzed my actual sales, I realized something interesting: my best, most loyal customers all came from the same source. They were people who had asked a specific question on Reddit or X (Twitter), to whom I had simply replied with value (and mentioned my product as a solution).
**The problem?** To do this effectively, you have to spend your life scrolling, searching for keywords, filtering through the noise... It’s impossible to scale manually.
So, being a dev, I decided to automate the "boring" part to focus only on the human part.
I built a little internal tool that does this:
1. **The Radar 📡:** It listens in real-time for specific keywords (e.g., "alternative to \[Competitor\]", "how to fix X", "struggling with Y") across multiple platforms.
2. **The Smart Filter 🧠:** It uses AI to analyze intent. Is the person looking to *buy/solve* something, or are they just sharing an article? (This eliminates 90% of the noise).
3. **The Drafting As
Open on Reddit r/SaaS by u/Lucky-One12020 6mo ago The 10 Best Reddit Marketing Tools for SaaS Growth in 2025 I’ve been marketing my B2B SaaS on Reddit for over a year now. The traffic quality is excellent, but the learning curve is steep—accounts getting banned, content being deleted, and general inefficiency.
Many people DM me asking about my tech stack, so I decided to write a comprehensive list of **10 tools** that I use to help you avoid the pitfalls.
Successful Reddit marketing requires four stages of tool synergy: **1. Market Research**, **2. Social Listening**, **3. Safe Execution**, and **4. Content & Analysis**.
**1. Market Research & Discovery Tools (3 Tools)**
* **1. GummySearch**
* **Primary Focus:** Advanced Community Filtering, Pain Point Mining
* **Rationale:** The gold standard for finding customer **pain points** and discovering niche communities.
* **2. Keyworddit**
* **Primary Focus:** Reddit Keyword Density Analysis
* **Rationale:** Identifies the most popular keywords and content types within a specific Subreddit.
* **3. Reddit Metrics**
* **Primary Focus:** Subreddit Growth Trend Tracking
* **Rationale:** Helps you avoid investing time in communities that are declining in activity.
**2. Social Listening & Alerts (2 Tools)**
* **4. F5Bot**
*
Open on Reddit r/SaaS by u/Original_Mortgage484 4mo ago I manually searched Reddit for leads for 2 months. Then I automated it. I'm a solo dev. No marketing budget. No audience.
So I did what made sense: I went where my customers already hang out. Reddit.
The manual grind (Month 1-2):
Every morning, 1-2 hours of searching:
* "looking for a tool that..."
* "alternative to \[competitor\]"
* "anyone recommend..."
* Competitor complaint threads
I'd save the good ones in a spreadsheet. Reply when I had something helpful to add. Sometimes mention my product, sometimes not.
What I learned:
* Not all mentions are equal. Someone saying "I hate X" is 10x more valuable than "I use X"
* Timing matters. Reply within 2-3 hours or you're buried
* Subreddit culture varies wildly. What works in r/SaaS gets you banned in r/smallbusiness
The results:
* \~60 hrs of searching
* 23 quality conversations
* 6 paying customers
Not bad. But not scalable.
So I built a tool to automate the painful parts:
* Intent detection — Separates "ready to buy" from "just browsing." Scores each post so I know where to focus.
* Competitor tracking — Alerts me when someone complains about a rival or asks for alternatives.
* Reddit Opinion — Tells you how reddit thinks about you and your competitors
Now I spend 10 minutes a day instead
Open on Reddit r/SaaS by u/Original_Mortgage484 4mo ago I made 50+ paying customers only using my own tool I see a lot of posts here about the 'cold start' problem, how to get those first 10, 20, or 50 users without spending $2k/month on Google Ads, or Facebook Ads.
I hit my first 50 paying customers recently, and I did it almost entirely through manual (but targeted) Reddit outreach. I didn’t just spam links; I focused on high-intent conversations.
Here is the process I used:
1. Skip the 'Big' Threads: Most people jump into the 1k+ upvote threads. By then, it’s too late. The gold is in the small, 5-comment threads where someone is asking for a specific recommendation.
2. Monitor Pain Points, Not Just Keywords: I stopped searching for 'marketing tool' and started looking for 'how do I find customers' or 'help with leads.'
3. The 80/20 Rule: 80% of my reply is actual advice (how to format their landing page, etc.), and 20% is mentioning that I actually built a tool called Leeddit specifically to solve the problem of finding these exact types of threads manually.
4. Speed is Everything: If you reply to a request for help within 30 minutes, you have a 10x higher chance of them clicking through to your profile than if you wait 6 hours.
Building [Leeddit](https://le
Open on Reddit r/SaaS by u/Tricky-Adeptness-95 3mo ago How do you guys get Customers from Reddit without getting banned and being spammy? I’m curious how founders are using Reddit to get users.
I tried using F5bot, but its not efficient, I end up going through like 40–50 posts and maybe 2 or 3 are actually relevant.
It takes way more time than I expected.
Are there any good tools which are not expensive af
Open on Reddit r/SaaS by u/Original_Mortgage484 4mo ago How to get your first 10~100 SaaS customers I spent 3 months getting my first 10 customers. Then 3 weeks getting the next 90.
Here's what changed.
**The mistake I made (and you're probably making too)**
I thought building a great product was enough. Classic "if you build it, they will come" delusion.
**They don't come. Obviously**
I tried:
* ❌ Cold emails (1% reply rate, 0 conversions)
* ❌ Twitter/X threads (some likes from other founders, zero customers)
* ❌ Product Hunt launch (got #150 of the day, 0 signups, 0 paying customers)
* ❌ facebook ads, used $500 only got visitors not buyers
What finally worked was embarrassingly simple.
# The channel nobody talks about: Reddit
Reddit is the biggest community
Not posting "Check out my SaaS!"
Instead:
**1. Find people actively looking for solutions**
Search Reddit for:
* "I hate \[competitor name\] share me some alternatives"
* "looking for a tool that..."
* "frustrated with \[problem your product solves\]"
These people have buying intent RIGHT NOW.
**2. Actually help first**
Don't pitch. Answer their question thoroughly. Share what you've learned. Be genuinely useful.
If your product is relevant, mention it naturally: *"I actually built something for this exact
Open on Reddit r/SideProject by u/nerdbackpack 7mo ago Spent 3 months manually searching Reddit for customers - here's what I learned Hey everyone!
So I had this really frustrating experience recently and wanted to see if anyone else has dealt with this.
3 months ago I was launching my first SaaS product (Wandio.org) and desperately needed to find customers. Like most of you, I turned to Reddit - but man, I was doing it completely wrong.
I was just posting in random subreddits hoping someone would notice. Meanwhile I'd see competitors engaging in threads where people were literally asking for exactly what I offered. Felt like I was playing a game where everyone else knew the rules except me.
So I started manually searching Reddit every day. I'd:
- Browse through like 20+ subreddits
- Search for keywords related to my product
- Read through hundreds of posts looking for pain points
- Try to find the right communities where my audience hung out
This took me 2-3 hours daily. I was exhausted.
After 2 months of this I was ready to give up. I was spending more time searching for customers than building my product.
I spent the next 6 weeks building a tool that could do this automatically. The hardest part was getting the AI to understand context, not just keywords. I had to train it to recognize when someone was
Open on Reddit r/SideProject by u/lamacorn_ 2mo ago I built a tool to find Reddit communities that actually want your product Hey everyone, sharing what we've learned running a SaaS that helps founders find Reddit communities for real customer traction.
The problem we started with: founder friends kept getting banned for spamming or spending weeks manually searching for the right communities.
Our approach:
\- Use semantic search to identify communities where your product actually solves a real problem (not just "any tech community")
\- Get specific member insights: pain points, discussions, what they're actually asking for
\- 20-40 relevant communities in about 2 minutes (instead of the usual "let me check 100 subreddits" approach)
Key insight from running this: The communities that get you customers are rarely the "obvious" ones. The best opportunities are mid-size communities (5k-50k members) having specific conversations about your problem space.
Reddit users are some of the most honest feedback you can get - if your product solves a real need, they'll tell you. If it doesn't, they'll tell you that too.
We're not here to spam, we're here to help you find where your actual customers are already hanging out and already talking about your problem.
Happy to answer questions about what we've learne
Open on Reddit r/SaaS by u/mayank25may 7mo ago What Reddit monitoring tools are you actually using in 2025? (founder doing research) Building a few micro SaaS and realized I'm probably missing tons of Reddit mentions manually checking 20+ subreddits.
Curious what tools other founders are using for Reddit monitoring/alerting?
Specifically interested in:
\- Brand mention tracking
\- Keyword alerts
\- Lead generation from Reddit
\- Competitor monitoring
What's working for you? What's not?
(Doing research for a few micro SaaS project I'm building, so genuinely curious about real experiences vs. marketing claims)
Open on Reddit r/socialmedia by u/TheGreatPatriarch 9mo ago What is everyone using to find customers on reddit? Linkedin DM outreach seems to be fairly dead I'm looking for automation tools that directly capture pinpoints from comments and notify me that those comments exist?
Open on Reddit r/SaaS by u/Own_Wonder_6569 4mo ago Launched a month ago, zero free customers. What's missing? We launched an HRMS about a month ago, built specifically for the MENA/GCC region. 9 countries, labor law compliant, payroll, time-offs, attendance, all in one system.
Quick background: We've spent 8 years building HR software in the MENA/GCC region. We were the founding engineers of another HRMS, built it from the ground up. Payroll engines, leave management, attendance systems, labor law compliance across multiple countries, biometric device integrations, the whole thing.
During that time, we saw firsthand why customers churned, what they actually needed, and where existing systems kept falling short. So we went and built something that solves those exact problems. The system onboards a client in about 5 minutes if they have a ZKTeco machine. Not exaggerating, that's what 8 years of building this stuff gets you.
We're not here to validate the product. We've lived in this space long enough to know it works and where it adds value.
The problem is getting it in front of people.
We're not trying to sell anything. We're not even looking for paying customers right now. Genuinely, we don't care about money at this stage. We're looking for \*\***5 companies**\*\* to onboard \*\*
Open on Reddit r/marketing by u/AchillesFirstStand 9mo ago Any tips on getting more customers? - Developer who has got paying customer through direct outreach, but it is not a time-effective. Built a product for businesses, I came up with the idea, saw some interest from potential customers, implemented features that they requested, now I am trying to get more customers. I currently make some money, but I am trying to get to a point where I can make $2,000/month where my income is stable, it's a subscription product.
There are similar products on the market, but I made a feature that is better than what exists already. I also am aiming my product as smaller businesses as currently they're priced out of existing solutions. Also, my product does not do everything that the existing solutions do, but it does the core functionality, which is the most important part. On top of this, I've found that most potential customers that I speak to aren't even aware of existing solutions, so there's no benefit in comparing my product.
My current sales process has been posting on LinkedIn, I have about 3,000 connections, but they are mostly from my sales job in construction, previously. I also add relevant contacts and cold reach out to them, that is how I have gotten my customer meetings (video calls) and paying users. I also post/comment on Reddit, but that's not as effective.
What
Open on Reddit r/SideProject by u/Any_Ease_1401 6mo ago Best Reddit Marketing Tools 2025 I’ve been experimenting with Reddit marketing and wanted to share some tools that can make the process more efficient. These are practical for workflow and audience research, not for spamming.
1、Leadmore AI
Leadmore AI is an AI-powered tool for Reddit marketing. It helps you discover relevant subreddits and track discussions.
Why it’s useful:
* Automates subreddit research and lead tracking.
* Allows safe posting without worrying about your Reddit account getting banned.
* Saves time for small teams or solo marketers.
2、F5Bot
F5Bot is a free tool for monitoring keywords across Reddit in real time.
Key features:
* Tracks keywords and phrases across multiple subreddits.
* Alerts you when relevant discussions appear.
* Helps identify trending topics.
**Use:** Great for jumping into conversations early and discovering what topics are hot in your niche.
3、Subreddit Stats / Anvaka Graph
Analyze subreddit activity, growth trends, and related communities.
Key features:
* Tracks subscriber growth and activity metrics.
* Identifies high-engagement or under-served niche subreddits.
* Visual graphs for community connections
Open on Reddit r/SideProject by u/Virtual_Clothes2547 3mo ago I built a small tool to turn Reddit into a consistent customer acquisition channel “Reddit is a goldmine for customers”
But every time I tried it
* I spent hours searching subreddits
* Missed good threads
* Posted too late
* Sounded salesy
* Got ignored
So I built a tiny internal tool for myself.
What it does:
* Monitors Reddit for keywords related to my product
* Scores each post based on how well it matches my solution
* Suggests an engaging, non-salesy reply I can tweak
Basically, it tells me **where to comment, when to comment, and what to say**.
It’s been working well enough that I’m turning it into a small SaaS.
If you rely on Reddit for growth, I’d love feedback from other builders.
[Link](https://indiepilot.app/)
20% OFF: LAUNCH
Open on Reddit r/SaaS by u/AlbusPotter7 2mo ago Why Your Reddit Marketing Tool Will Fail We tracked every Reddit marketing/monitoring tool mentioned across \~44k threads and their comments in 400+ subreddits. We found 30 tools. Most of them are just one person talking to themselves. This data is a few days out of date so we missed about 5 more tools that sprung up (leadmatically, redlurk, etc.).
# Tier 1: Actually Has Users
|Tool|Posts|Comments|Total|Organic?|Notes|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|**Reoogle**|156|4|160|No (1 person, 156 posts)|Subreddit discovery. Posted 81 times in one week.|
|**F5Bot**|13|62|75|Yes (52 unique recommenders)|Free keyword alerts. The only tool people recommend without being paid to.|
|**ReddInbox**|4|45|49|No (93% from 1 account)|Reddit lead monitoring. 42 of 45 comments from one person.|
|**PeerPush**|5|40|45|No (98% from 1 account)|Reddit distribution/directory. 39 of 40 comments from one guy.|
|**GummySearch**|4|36|40|Yes (29 unique recommenders)|Audience research. **Closing down.** The biggest name in the category and it's dying.|
|**Listnr**|2|28|30|No (100% from 1 account)|Reddit alerts via SMS/Discord/Slack. All 28 comments from one account. 12 are the same copy-pasted message.|
|**Reddit Pro**|13|12|25|Mixed|Reddit's own official tool. R
Open on Reddit r/SaaS by u/zikzikkh 2mo ago Built a tool that finds Reddit threads where people are asking for exactly what your SaaS does Hello builders,
One thing that's eaten up ridiculous amounts of my time as a solo founder: manually hunting for pain-point threads across 5–10 subreddits every week. I'd search keywords, sort by new, skim hundreds of posts, miss most relevant ones anyway, and then agonize over writing replies that sound helpful instead of salesy.
So I built a small internal tool to automate the tedious parts: feed it a short description of the problem your product solves (or your landing page URL), it suggests targeted subreddits, scans the last 7 days, pulls the handful of threads where people are clearly asking/complaining about exactly that pain, and even generates editable draft replies framed around being genuinely useful first.
Curious how the rest of you handle this? Do you still do the manual crawl? Use alerts/tools like Google Alerts, Mention, or something custom? Or have you given up on Reddit outbound entirely because of the effort vs. results?
Would love to hear your workflows or any tips/tricks that have worked for you in staying helpful without burning out
Open on Reddit r/startup by u/domino_27 9mo ago 5 habits every start up founder needs to hit $10k MRR in 90 days A few months ago I sold my ecom SaaS after scaling it to $500K ARR in 8 months and after 2 other failed companies.
It was not easy, not AT ALL.
A lot of hours, boring work, tests, failures, missed parties. But I can tell you : it’s worth it.
I’m now building gojiberryAI (we help B2B companies & start ups find warm leads in minutes), and there’s a few things I learned along the way, if you want to go from 0 to $10K MRR in a few weeks.
I made all the mistakes a SaaS founder can make:
* built something absolutely NOBODY wanted, during 6 months
* built something « cool » no one wanted to pay for
* created a waiting list of 2000 people and nobody paid for my product
So now, it’s time to give back and share what I learnt, if it can help a few people here, I’d be happy.
Here is the habits I’d put in place right now, EVERYDAY if I had to start again and go from 0 to $10K MRR in a few weeks.
Just do this EVERYDAY.
Stop being lazy. If your mind tells you to stay confortable : push yourself, do it anyway.
Your mind is a terrible master. It will tell you "don't send this message", "it's better if you go outside, it's sunny today", "don't post on reddit, people will tell you that you
Open on Reddit r/freelance by u/Sea_Vanilla_7402 6mo ago I used to refresh my inbox like something would magically change. Spoiler: nothing changed. So… quick story.
For way too long, I genuinely thought I’d get clients just because I was “good at what I do.”
I kept learning new tools, improving my work, fixing tiny details nobody even asked for.
Meanwhile:
No messages.
No leads.
No “Hey, can we talk?”
Just silence.
It got embarrassing because I’d open my inbox every morning like some sort of ritual… as if overnight the universe would send clients my way.
Eventually, after weeks of this, something clicked and it was honestly uncomfortable to admit:
**It’s not that clients were ignoring me…**
**It’s that they didn’t even know I existed.**
That one hit hard.
So I finally tried outreach.
The first messages I sent were awful.
Too formal.
Too “professional.”
I sounded like an AI pretending to be a LinkedIn coach.
People ignored me — and honestly, I would’ve ignored me too.
But then I stopped trying to sound smart and started sounding normal.
Like:
“Hey, I saw what you’re working on — looks cool. If you ever need help with X, let me know.”
That’s it. Nothing fancy.
And weirdly… people replied.
Not a lot.
Not instantly.
But enough to prove outreach isn’t begging — it’s just saying “hey, I noticed.”
Open on Reddit r/freelance by u/Euphoric_Trouble_238 2mo ago Spent $200+ on Instagram ads, got 8 DMs, zero clients. What am I doing wrong? I'm a freelance graphic designer specializing in concert posters, album covers, event flyers, and promotional visuals for small businesses. I've been trying to get my first few paying clients through Instagram ads for the past couple months and I'm hitting a wall.
Here's what happened:
I set up campaigns through Meta Ads Manager — not just boosting posts, actually building targeted audiences. Musicians, band pages, event organizers, small restaurant owners. People who should genuinely need what I offer. I spent over $200 on the first round of ads. The result: 8 people DM'd me. Most of them ghosted the second I replied. One or two seemed genuinely interested, asked about pricing, seemed ready to move forward — then vanished. Never heard from them again.
I thought maybe the problem was response time. People lose interest fast on Instagram. So I tried setting up an automated bot through n8n to handle initial replies instantly. Found a YouTube tutorial, started connecting it through Meta's developer tools, and somehow in the process my entire Facebook account got restricted from running ads. Just like that — my main account with 130 followers, gone from ads.
So I started fresh. New
Open on Reddit r/Entrepreneur by u/Patient-Airline-8150 3mo ago Which Social Networks Convert Best for Early Paid Users? I'm launching a block of paid web apps and trying to figure out which social networks actually convert into the paying users, not just traffic or signups.
Especially interested in real experiences from founders/indies who used social platforms to get their first customers.
Questions I’d love insight on:
Which social network brought your first paying users?
Which platforms gave you traffic but no conversions?
Did organic posts work, or did you need paid ads?
How long did it take to get the first sale from social media?
If you started again, which one platform would you focus on first?
For context, I'm considering platforms like Reddit, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube.
Curious to hear what actually worked in practice rather than theory.
Open on Reddit r/SaaS by u/PickSubstantial2008 3mo ago I Analyses 200 posts and 17,946 comments from r/SaaS and r/Entrepreneur. Here's the deep-dive on lead generation — The #1 pain point nobody's actually solved. I scraped 200 posts and 17,946 comments from r/SaaS and r/Entrepreneur. Here's the deep-dive on lead generation, the #1 pain point nobody's actually solved.
A few days ago I posted an analysis of 100 posts and 10,169 comments from r/SaaS. Lead generation was the #1 pain point. 43 out of 100 threads were about it. Several of you asked for a deeper breakdown.
So I ran the same analysis on r/Entrepreneur (100 more posts, 7,777 more comments) and got the same result. Customer acquisition was the 2nd biggest pain there too (20+ threads), right behind idea validation.
Here's what 200 posts and 17,946 comments actually reveal about the lead gen problem and the gaps that keep showing up when founders talk about the tools they've tried.
The Problem Isn't "Finding Leads." The Problem Is Everything Else.
Let me start with what founders are actually saying:
*"I've poured so much into building this thing and I refuse to let it die because I can't figure out distribution."*
*"I am very new to all of this and do not know how to find leads, approach them, or schedule a demo."*
*"I was the entire growth engine and when I stopped, everything stopped."*
"Reddit keeps removing my posts l
Open on Reddit r/smallbusiness by u/Friendly-Tomorrow497 1mo ago How to get small clients for web development? (Beginner trying to start) Hi everyone,
I’m a Laravel/PHP developer with around 2.5 years of experience, and I’m planning to start my own small web development business.
I’m mainly looking for **small clients**, such as:
* Local businesses (shops, coaching centers, clinics)
* Portfolio websites
* Small e-commerce sites
* Basic landing pages
The problem is, I’m not sure:
* Where to find clients?
* How to approach them without sounding like spam?
* Do platforms like Reddit or other online platforms actually bring real clients?
If anyone has started in a similar way, I’d really appreciate your guidance:
* Which platforms are best? (Reddit, Fiverr, Instagram, etc.)
* How did you get your first 5 clients?
* Is it a good idea to work for free or at a low cost initially to build a portfolio?
Any tips, strategies, or real experiences would be really helpful 🙏
Thanks in advance!
Open on Reddit r/SaaS by u/Bright_Iron736 2mo ago How to get first 10 paying customers withing 14 days of the launch. I recently launched my first saas. Launched on product hunt and 3-4 other platforms. Actively posting on X and in the replies. Got 1 person to use it and he gave me a feedback. Basically, the app is a competitor monitoring app that tracks, alerts and gives weekly reports of the competitors.
The user who used it said that it was good, but I should give at least 1 free report to the first time users so that they can see what they'll get. Implemented that withing a day. Today I have sent a few free reports to existing founders in my followers list. Someone suggested me to post in reddit as people are often active here.
Just wanted to ask experienced founders: Am I doing the right thing or should I do something more. My goal is to get at least 10 paying customers by the end of March. If there are any more techniques I would really appreciate that.
Open on Reddit r/SaaS by u/tommymags 2mo ago If you were to restart your marketing for your Saas what would you do I'm trying to figure out what's the best way to get my product in front of the right eyes. I've been looking at Reddit ads a little bit. I've been looking at YouTube videos, pretty much any resource that I can get to actually find people that would actually want to use my product.
It's a lead generation for people who are looking for small businesses that don't have websites or low reviews and then ranks them, so it is a city-wide trade search to help people save time looking for clients.
What do you guys think the best way to go about this is?
Open on Reddit r/smallbusiness by u/Easy_Mud1254 3mo ago how to generate leads as a small business? When I was running a small business the biggest shift for me was realizing that lead generation is not about doing more it is about doing fewer things with extreme clarity and consistency, because in the beginning I was trying a bit of everything like posting on social media running small paid ads messaging random business owners and hoping something would stick, but the results were scattered and inconsistent because I had no clear definition of who I was actually trying to attract, and once I forced myself to define my ideal customer in extremely specific terms everything changed, for example instead of saying I help companies grow I narrowed it down to US B2B SaaS founders between 25 and 75 employees who were actively hiring sales reps and had not raised funding recently, because hiring sales usually means they care about pipeline and not raising funding often means they need revenue growth instead of vanity metrics, and that level of clarity allowed me to speak directly to a situation rather than a vague audience.
After defining that segment I focused on one primary acquisition channel instead of spreading my attention across five, and for me that was targeted cold outreach be
Open on Reddit r/SideProject by u/FounderArcs 1mo ago “Why Does Getting the First 10 SaaS Users Feel Harder Than Building the Product?” ​
Something I’ve been noticing recently:
Building the product (at least an MVP) feels relatively straightforward compared to getting the first few users.
You can follow tutorials, use existing tools, and slowly piece things together. There’s a clear path.
But when it comes to user acquisition, especially early on, everything feels uncertain.
Where do you find the right people?
What do you even say without sounding like you’re selling?
How do you know if no response means no interest… or just wrong timing?
I’ve seen people suggest channels like Reddit, cold outreach, or communities, but results seem very inconsistent.
Some get traction quickly, others spend weeks with nothing to show.
It makes me wonder if the real challenge isn’t building the product — it’s understanding distribution early enough.
Curious how others approached this stage:
What actually worked for you when you were trying to get your first few users?
Open on Reddit r/marketing by u/roselinlin00 11mo ago New grad here, helping a startup grow, but struggling to market to software engineers Hi everyone, I’m a recent marketing grad working with a small team to help grow a new product. The target audience is mainly software engineers who are preparing for coding interviews.
The challenge is... I don’t come from a tech background, and I’m realizing that I don’t fully understand how to speak to this audience. I’m trying to create content and build engagement across social platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit, but I feel like I’m missing the mark.
I’d love advice on things like:
* Where do developers usually find new tools or communities?
* What kind of content actually resonates with them?
* Are there any big "don’ts" when trying to market to this audience?
I’m here to learn and figure this out without being spammy or out of touch. Any feedback or tips would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance! 🙏
Open on Reddit r/SaaS by u/Powerful-Software850 1mo ago Sharing my journey, just passed a year First this isn’t AI or a quiet plug waiting at the end. My story is I started a SAAS secretly hoping to get rich quick, like everyone else. Even though I had legitimate need for my clients, I deep down thought I was a mad scientist cooking up a millionaire dollar business lol. Got hit with reality a few months in that it wasn’t that easy. I should have known better given I am a longstanding business owner. But I was desperate to shake things up from industry burnout. Here’s how my year went:
May - June 2025: built a tool that solves a major need. Didn’t blow up like I’d imagine. Talked to well over 100 people on the phone and spread the word on Reddit. It was gaining some traction but not like I’d imagine. It was just one and done users not people wanting to stick around. Realized I didn’t have enough to keep them so I kept building.
July - October 2025 - built a suite of tools that could help solve needs all over Reddit per what I was reading every day. Showed up on Reddit every single day engaging and listening to pain points. This gained much more traffic, as high as a couple thousand in one month. Still no stickiness and no repeat usage.
November 2025 - Started losing hop
Open on Reddit r/Entrepreneur by u/Janithper9 7mo ago How effective are Reddit ads for a dev/software agency? For context: We are a small team (a bunch of CS grads & friends) that build custom software: websites, mobile apps, ERPs, CRMs, and dashboards. We do quality work (even if I say so myself) but are always figuring out the best way to find new clients.
I've actually met some of our best clients organically right here on Reddit, especially on this sub r/entrepreneur. It seems like the audience here gets what we do.
On the flip side, our Meta ads have been pretty underwhelming (and very disappointing, lost a lot of money).
So, I'm considering trying official Reddit ads. For those who've had success:
* What's a good, non-cringy pitch for the ad? I was thinking something straightforward like: "Tired of off-the-shelf software that doesn't fit? We build custom ERPs, CRMs, and dashboards tailored to your business." (will this work? or does sound like some cheap ai slop generating company?)
* Besides ads, what else has worked for you to find clients on Reddit? Just genuine engagement in subs?
Any advice is appreciated :)
Open on Reddit r/smallbusiness by u/Happy_Tie_457 1mo ago How did you get your first clients when starting a writing service? I’m starting a small writing service focused on helping people with things like social media posts, professional messages, and resumes.
I’m trying to figure out the best way to get my first consistent clients without coming across as spammy or getting posts removed in different communities.
For those of you who have started service-based businesses:
• What actually worked for getting your first few paying clients?
• Did you rely more on platforms like Reddit, word of mouth, or something else?
• How did you balance promoting your work without violating community rules?
I’m not looking for shortcuts—just trying to understand what strategies genuinely worked for others starting from scratch.
Any advice or insight would be appreciated.
Open on Reddit r/SaaS by u/AgencyVader 8mo ago Getting your first 10 beta testers (what actually works vs what doesn't) I see questions about getting beta users to try your product all the time here, so figured I'd share what I learned after completely screwing this up a few times at first:
What doesn't work:
* Friends and family - they'll tell you it's great even when it sucks
* Posting "looking for beta testers!" in random groups - you get people who sign up and never use it
* Building the whole thing first, then trying to find people to test it
What actually works:
* Find 50 people: LinkedIn search for job titles you’re targeting or commenters in subreddits. Email/DM them to validate an idea, not sell anything.
* Ask "would you actually pay for this?" not "what do you think?"
* Find people who are already complaining about this exact problem. I love Reddit for this, especially paired up with GummySearch (great tool btw. Not mine though 🙁)
* Help them with their current situation first, then mention what you're working on
* Go back to the people who said they'd pay - 5 out of 20 will actually try it
* Repeat until you have 10 beta testers
We (I run a SaaS MVP agency now) make our clients validate ideas with real conversations before building anything. Saves everyone time and money.
Anything
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