r/EntrepreneurRideAlong by u/bohdan_kh 10mo ago Spent $5,000 on marketing to get my first $17/month customer - my reality check as a solo founder I spent $5,000 on marketing to get my first paying customer at $17/month.
In this post, I’ll share what marketing channels I tried, what worked, and what didn't, with real numbers, and tools I've used.
Maybe sharing what I learned can help you avoid the same mistakes or set better expectations for your journey.
## Backstory
I'm Bohdan, founder of Fomr - a form builder I've been working on for almost a year now. I'm a software engineer with about 15 years of experience in web development. My marketing background consists of playing around with Google Ads back in 2008 for some of my websites (I was still in high school then), as well as working as a developer for some digital agencies for a couple of years early in my career. That's it.
Some raw product numbers:
- **280 days** of building the product full-time
- **118 days** since the product went live
- **37 days** since I added a paid plan and Stripe
- **1,500 signups** in total
- **150 active users** (10% activation rate, users with at least one form and 5 responses collected)
- **1 paying customer** at $17/month
## My Marketing Journey
### Initial traction & SEO (free channels)
The marketing journey of Fomr began at the
Open on Reddit r/smallbusiness by u/Suspicious-Basis-885 6mo ago What are the best methods for conducting market research on my target audience before launching my business? As I prepare to launch my small business, I realize the importance of understanding my target audience. I want to ensure that my products or services meet their needs and preferences.
What are some effective methods for conducting market research?
Should I focus on surveys, interviews, or using social media analytics? Additionally, how do I analyze the data I collect to make informed decisions?
I’m looking for practical tips and tools that have worked for others in similar situations. Any advice on pitfalls to avoid while doing market research would also be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Open on Reddit r/AskMarketing by u/Soft-Dragonfruit6447 4mo ago What AI tools are you actually using for social media marketing and sales in 2025? I'm leading marketing for a small B2B SaaS and drowning in manual work.
Looking for AI tools that actually help with:
* Finding relevant conversations where our ICP is active
* Creating content that doesn't sound robotic
* Lead generation from social platforms
* Tracking engagement and identifying warm prospects
Currently spending 10+ hours/week manually:
* Searching LinkedIn for prospects mentioning pain points
* Reading competitor posts to see what's working
* Trying to figure out who to engage with
* Copy-pasting data into spreadsheets
**What I'm NOT looking for:**
* Generic "AI content generators" that produce garbage
* Tools that just auto-post without strategy
* Expensive enterprise solutions ($500+/month)
**What I AM looking for:**
* Tools that help find buying signals in real-time
* Something that shows which content actually performs in my niche
* Affordable for a small team (under $200/month)
* Actually saves time instead of adding complexity
What's in your stack? What's been worth the money vs. what was overhyped?
Especially curious about tools for LinkedIn and reddit since that's where our audience lives.
Open on Reddit r/productivity by u/MosEntrepreneur 6mo ago Went from anti AI to using it daily for focus and planning I used to juggle Google, a million tabs, and scattered notes everywhere. Thought AI would make me lazy or kill my critical thinking.
No dramatic conversion here. Just got sick of wasting time on basic research and organizing thoughts, so I tested a few tools.
Perplexity and Claude stuck for three reasons:
Research: One question gets me a summary with sources instead of 10 open tabs. I still read the originals when it matters.
Planning: Turns messy notes into rough outlines when I'm stuck. Gives me something to edit rather than staring at a blank page.
Decisions: ""What are the tradeoffs between A and B?"" helps catch blind spots.
I use Claude occasionally for email cleanup or tightening drafts, but it's not core to my workflow.
I still verify anything important. AI's a helper for grunt work, not a replacement for actual thinking.
Anyone else using AI in boring, practical ways? If you were skeptical, what made you stick with it?
Open on Reddit r/AskMarketing by u/mediasearchg 7mo ago what ai tools are SEO people using in 2025? just curious what ai tools you guys using for seo these days
like not the usual chatgpt stuff but tools actually helping in keyword research, content, audits etc
i feel like every month theres a new ai thing dropping and half of them are just hype
what’s actually working for you right now?
Open on Reddit r/productivity by u/Electronic_Resort985 4mo ago Tested 70+ AI tools in 2025, here's what actually improved my workflow Spent 2025 testing AI tools. Kept a spreadsheet tracking what I actually used vs what just sat there collecting dust. 70+ tools later, here's what survived.
Started with coding tools. Cursor replaced VS Code for me completely. The inline suggestions actually understand context instead of just autocompleting random garbage. Also tried ZCode and CodeFlicker but went back to Cursor. Gemini CLI is solid for terminal work when I don't want to leave the command line.
Content creation was messier. Tried probably 20 different tools. Loomi stuck around for social scheduling. Gamma APP for presentations when I can't avoid making slides. AmyMind for quick mind maps but honestly I still prefer pen and paper half the time. X-Design for visual stuff when I need logos or graphics to match across different formats.
Productivity category is where I wasted the most money. Supertonic for text to speech because it runs locally. WiseMindAI for research when I need to dig through papers. Belin Doc translates documents without mangling the formatting which is rare.
What actually worked: AI tools are good when they solve one specific problem. The ones that try to do everything usually suck at everythi
Open on Reddit r/AskMarketing by u/Typical-Animator-457 2mo ago been trying to figure out cold email for 3 weeks now and I think im going in circles. I own a recruitment agency and im trying to set up cold email to reach hiring managers instead of relying on referrals forever. Ive spent way too much time watching youtube videos and reading comparison posts that all feel like secret ads. At this point I know just enough to be confused.
From what I can tell I need separate domains for sending, email accounts that get warmed up before you actually use them, some kind of tool to send sequences, and a database to find the people I want to email. Cool. Makes sense on paper.
The part thats killing me is picking actual tools because theres a million of them and everyone swears by something different. For the inbox and domain setup ive seen PuzzleInbox, Inframail, Maildoso, Mailforge thrown around. For sending its apparently Instantly vs Smartlead and everyone has an opinion. For contact data Apollo seems like the default.
I dont need anything crazy. Im a 4 person agency trying to book maybe 8 to 10 meetings a month with HR directors at mid size companies. Budget is like $400 a month for tools. Thats it. I feel like half the advice out there is for people running massive operations and I cant tell what actually applies to someone at m
Open on Reddit r/productivity by u/Ok_Map7092 9mo ago What AI Tools Do You Use and How? Curious About Your Workflows! Hey r/productivity ,
I’m a 31-year-old entrepreneur and I’m deep into multiple AI tools, each with a specific purpose.
I use ChatGPT for brainstorming business ideas and strategies, Claude for coding, and DeepSeek for quick research dives.
I’m curious: **Which AI tools do you use, and what do you use them for?**
Are you sticking to one platform or juggling multiple like me?
Share your workflow - what’s working for you, and what’s not?
Looking forward to hearing about your setups!
Open on Reddit r/smallbusiness by u/InternationalSet7827 4mo ago How did you reduce admin time as a solo business owner? I'm drowning in repetitive tasks. Running a small consulting business, just me, no employees, and I'm spending way too much time on admin work instead of actual client work or business development.
**My current time drains:**
**1. Email management - 2 hours daily** Client questions, scheduling, follow-ups, invoice reminders. My inbox is a disaster and I'm constantly missing important emails buried under newsletters.
**2. Meeting prep and notes - 1.5 hours daily** Taking notes during calls, organizing them afterward, finding previous meeting notes when clients ask "what did we discuss last time?"
**3. Invoicing and follow-ups - 3 hours weekly** Creating invoices, tracking who paid, sending reminders, updating spreadsheets.
**4. Document management - 2 hours weekly** Client contracts, proposals, SOWs scattered across Google Drive, Dropbox, and my desktop. Finding anything takes forever.
**5. Repetitive client questions - 1 hour daily** What's your pricing? How does onboarding work? Can you send me that template again? Same questions over and over.
**What I've tried so far:**
Notion for organization (helped a bit but I don't maintain it consistently)
FreshBooks for invoicing (better than manual but still requ
Open on Reddit r/productivity by u/NitroManKulfiKat 9mo ago Best Task/Project Management Apps currently? I'm a writer, and I'm trying to handle a bunch of different aspects of the job. I write fiction which means it's not as straight forward as say a copywriter's job or something else. I've got to manage all the logistical aspect of writing: submissions, MFA applications, Fellowships, Writing Group Stuff, Reading Group Stuff, etc.
I've tried using Notion, Anytype, Google Tasks, and Obsidian. I found Notion and Anytype to be quite complex for my purposes, and Obsidian frankly is more of a note-taking app, and I didn't have much use for that.
Currently my needs are as follows:
* Separate categories/projects for the different aspects I wish to stay organized in.
* Task management for each project along with deadlines and integration with calendar to stay on top of it.
* A certain level of recurring tasks for habit-type projects such as writing, ideation, and brainstorming.
* A not-too-complex, minimal level of document and knowledge management.
* The whole app being focused, without too many features; clutter/distraction-free.
I've sort of checked out a lot of the apps people have mentioned on this subreddit, and honestly most of them have way too many features. I tend to get
Open on Reddit r/AskMarketing by u/Specialist_Ride_8072 1mo ago What's the fastest way to marketing on reddit? Actually, I want to promote our product on Reddit, but after several efforts, I found it difficult to achieve the target.
First, I launched reddit ads for two weeks and almost spent me 1.4k dollars, but I only get one sign-up, but my ctr is above industry level. And I'm kinda frustrated about Reddit ads.
I scroll all the posts about Reddit ads subreddits, and almost all people say it is a bad performance platform cause people here only want to have fun and knowledge; few people would want to go to a website and sign up.
I completely understand that, so I give it up and try to cultivate a community and post some questions/content to let more audience know our brand. But on Reddit, if your content concludes a little bit of advertising, your post will be deleted by the platform or mod.
So how could i continue to promote on this platform or I just need to find a new channel?
Open on Reddit r/smallbusiness by u/AmbitiousPromotion80 1mo ago Built something I know solves a real problem. Can’t get anyone to use it I’m honestly stuck and need real advice. I’ve been trying to get a software project off the ground and nothing I’m doing is working the way it should. I’ve run Facebook ads (waste of money), posted in Facebook groups, made Reddit posts, reached out to people directly, and tried explaining the value every way I can think of. I’ve offered free trials, changed the messaging, tested different angles, and still can’t get consistent traction. At this point it feels like I’ve hit a wall and I don’t know what else to try. I’m not here to pitch anything, I just want honest feedback on what I might be doing wrong or what I should be doing differently.
The frustrating part is I know this solves a real problem. I run a service business myself, so this wasn’t some random idea. It came directly from dealing with the same inefficiencies over and over again. But getting other business owners to actually stop, understand it, and try it has been way harder than building the software itself. It feels like I’m missing something on the marketing or positioning side, not the product side.
For context, the software is called Nearby Booker. It’s built specifically for local service businesses like carpe
Open on Reddit r/Entrepreneur by u/Huge-being6969 11mo ago Clickfunnels. Could This Work? Hi all. I am working on a solo project to generate leads for my service company. I tasked myself to retrieve information (name, zip, phone #, and email) from potential leads through online outreach.
I did some research and came across clickfunnels, which could work perfectly for exactly this. Has anyone used this service? Could this work for this specific project? Are there any alternatives?
Any help is much appreciated.
Open on Reddit