Indie founders cannot find users who give real feedback
15 posts across 3 communities in the last 60 days; 53% from r/SideProject.
“I tried it, but I am probably not the target group, even though I spend a lot of time researching flights. So just some random thoughts after trying on a phone: - it doesn’t look like the typical travel platforms. That may be good or bad, but I found it irritating. - the layout…”
“I'd be a little skeptical that reddit or paid ads will do much here unless the app already nails a really specific rider problem, because in my experience niche stuff like this usually grows slower than you want until seo or a couple of very targeted communities start pulling…”
“one issue i run into is importing json source it added 9 sources but nothing shows up it shows says unnamed source”
Several creators are seeking feedback and validation for their side projects, expressing concerns about growth strategies (SEO, paid ads) and the difficulty of getting meaningful user input. They're grappling with how to improve recommendations, explanations, and overall user experience.
SOURCES (34)
“Hey everyone, I’m building a web app for those moments when you want to go outside but have no idea where to go. The idea is to help people find outdoor places like parks, forest spots, lakes, beaches and viewpoints, then do something useful with…”
“Thank you for your feedback, we will include feature that will have “found a legal spot / didn’t find one”, or something similar. This is our next step in the project.”
It'd be great if you could open a github issue with all the details, so we can investigate it. Thank you!
“Thanks for the invite — I’m probably not a fit for a U.S.-Android closed test right now, so I’ll pass for the moment. One thing I’d be curious to hear from testers: after they open the camera-marker explanation, can they start a familiar route immediately, or does that handoff tend to make them pause?”
“I tried it, but I am probably not the target group, even though I spend a lot of time researching flights. So just some random thoughts after trying on a phone: - it doesn’t look like the typical travel platforms. That may be good or bad, but I found it irritating. - the layout is broken when searching flights (too wide) - I miss being able to enter the departure time. For me that’s actually a problem on all sites: they let me enter a date and a time range, but usually for me my requirement is s”
also here's the link so you don't have to dig for it: https://tryflippilot.com no need for a whole writeup either. a couple notes on what helped or annoyed you is perfect. if…
“This is a great concept, but the current app and website design feel like AI Slop. The leaderboard, in particular, needs improvement regarding data hierarchy and typography. For users who are driving, the text must be large and legible at a glance so they don't have to focus on the screen for too long to find guest details. Overall, the map looks good, but each guest should be assigned a distinct color to make them easily recognizable.”
“Hey everyone! I’ve just released PaceLink Go and would love some feedback. The idea is simple: use your map as the main view while staying updated on where your fellow riders are. I wanted to make it easier to keep track of the group during a ride. Example: You travel with 2 friends on a road and wonder how far is the leader / how fast he's driving, get some clue how to catch him and still travel together. You can try it free for 2 rides , and guests are always free , so the people joining y”
“That bug is exactly the kind of thing I'd test before polishing the planner. For the first run, put one example trip in the box and show the expected shape of the answer, then make city lookup tolerant of country, state, and obvious typos. I'd also let the traveler edit the day structure before generating, since a beautiful itinerary is still wrong if the dates or pace are off. For the free tier, the useful cutoff might be saved trips or collaboration rather than safety features, so peop”
Actually, I haven't been affected by them; since I chose to publish to the community, I am open to all criticism and suggestions. Everyone has different preferences—that is perfectly normal—and there is…
“Hi there! Thanks for the reply and comments! I don't have it in the stores yet, I guess I'm just trying to test the waters here a bit as I've sunk quite a bit of time in it and having a hard time putting it down. What I've been doing is calculating grass height based upon last mower deck height, weather, grass type, and fertilizer. It doesn't suggest a mowing direction right now because I just need to get more data in here and right now I'm mowing my house and lake proper”
“Got it, so zip code level rather than frost dates directly. That probably works fine for most yards, but it won't pick up on microclimate pockets like the warm spot I mentioned. Would be cool to see a manual offset someday where you could nudge the schedule by a week or two for specific areas of your garden.”
“nice launch, ride collective looks solid for a niche that's been stuck on old forum threads. if you're looking for more places to get it in front of riders and pick up some backlinks, a startup directory listing might help — i've used launchpact.io/startups for my own side projects, no review queue and the dofollow links are a nice bonus. ymmv but worth a look.”
“Wow. I did not know I needed this. The tool is 100% accurate for my location, just the UI is a little bit buggy. I think it's a pretty cool project, but not something people would pay for. Custom domains can get expensive over time, but if you're passionate about this then I'd say go for it.”
“Thanks for trying it out! The weird temperature swings are actually perfect for testing Sense, so I’d love to hear whether it starts matching how the weather feels to you after a few check-ins.”
“To make personalization maybe , for speicific users who might want to recieve updates on a particular flight path let's say just imagining right now”
How are you going to monetize this idea? Or is it a hobby?
“I bought OsmAnd+ to support them. I like it, but the way they handle addresses is very weird. If you're used to Google maps or apple maps it's really hard to find things sometimes. Also, they don't have all addresses even for some old ones, I'm not sure why. I have the icon right next to Google maps and I still use Google maps 😞”
“Cool idea, would like to try. Quick question, since you said "tap aircraft", is there a requirement on the Garmin watch? I have a Forerunner 935, will it work? Thanks --Jay”
“Yeah - I get that. I started mine to help others with slow travel. It features touristy locations as well but the focus is getting to know places through slow travel. I show a lot non-touristy small villages and historic towns with bucket loads of history. Hiking through mountainous forests, deserted beaches, etc. I really enjoy cruising too - but none of my content is that. I just don’t see the appeal in posting about it.”
Actually, that is a realllllllllly good idea. I could make that happen!
“I have made my own as HortusFox wasn’t wat I was looking for, I did use it as inspiration a bit! What I was missing was good logic and also weather based events, better watering and a catalog to search from(even taking a picture is enough to gather data actually). I’m tweaking it a bit more and will release it, I think people who like HortusFox wil like this as well, the biggest difference is that HortusFox has a great vision regarding AI and the amount of work put into it.”
“I do like the idea of the got caught anyway feed back loop. I will try to figure out how to do that.”
“For now it generates a link that be sent via text/email/WhatsApp etc. Tried to keep it lightweight so far.”
Love this idea, if you dont plan on building it for Android, I might haha.
“Thank you! I like the notification idea about exceptional conditions. There's already an in app feature that shows when the conditions will be exceptional on the Today page, but building a notification integration to that would take it to the next level so that users are consistently reminded to take photos.”
“Hmm yeah, that sounds familiar. We have already put quite a lot of work into ASO, but getting discoverable in the App Store for the right search terms still feels really hard, especially in a niche where there are already a few strong apps. My impression so far is that ASO alone is not enough when you do not yet have many installs, reviews or engagement. You can optimize the title, keywords, screenshots and description, but without traction it still seems difficult to rank for terms people actua”
“I mean if the app is scalable then you must find a way to monetize the app so that way atleast you don’t lose money that’s what am thinking lol”
“I'd be a little skeptical that reddit or paid ads will do much here unless the app already nails a really specific rider problem, because in my experience niche stuff like this usually grows slower than you want until seo or a couple of very targeted communities start pulling their weight, and that's the same kind of thing I've had to think about with redditmaster on the reddit side.”
“Thanks, this is really helpful feedback! You’re actually touching on a few things I’m already working on. I’m improving how recommendations are explained so it’s clearer why each anime was chosen, and I’m also experimenting with making the first questions feel a bit more concrete without losing the mood-first approach I’ll be pushing an update soon based on suggestions like yours. I’d love to hear how accurate the recommendations feel once you’ve had a chance to try it”
“one issue i run into is importing json source it added 9 sources but nothing shows up it shows says unnamed source”
“A few months ago, we started building CURV as a side project. The idea came from a simple frustration: Google Maps is great when you want to get somewhere fast, but not when the road itself is the point. CURV is a motorcycle route planner for Europe that helps riders generate more scenic, curvy routes with fewer boring highways and less manual planning. Right now, riders can: generate round trips create scenic/curvy routes save routes export GPX files use basic navigation We recently launched an”