Mark Whooley | building Upthread

SDR by day. Building Upthread, which finds customers for founders on Reddit. Posting every number on the road to 100 customers.

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

@Visaals haha caught me. codex + writing the reply yourself is honestly the right split, the reply has to be real. the part i'm trying to kill is the searching every day so you don't miss the fresh ones. what do you prompt it with to find them?

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

$800 mrr from the app plus $350 in trials is close to the $1k you want. founders who already wish they posted more, but don't want another ghostwriter, complain about that in founder communities, and helping there is a cleaner path for sera than another free-credit push. what's converting the trials so far?

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

the first customer for lociros is the hard one, so take the win. language learners already look for short, level-matched reading in japanese, arabic, italian, or russian, with a way to tap a word and actually understand why it's there, and showing up in those conversations is how the second customer usually arrives. how did the first one find you?

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

one paying subscriber is enough to know take pro is a real product. before the banner in your other apps has to do all the work, people already ask how to improve composition and light while they're shooting, in photography communities, and showing up there won't feel like a cross-sell. is most of the attention still coming from your other apps so far?

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

five paying businesses, all from referrals, is the warmest start you can get. before paid acquisition, i'd hang out where african sme owners already complain about running inventory, invoices, and books across too many tools, and just be useful there. have the five told you where they hang out online?

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

$2k mrr and 2000 users is a real base for poko. the jump to $10k is often in conversations where founders already ask how to turn a repo, a deck, or a landing page into a motion video without opening after effects, not in another weekly numbers post. do you know which channel brought most of the $2k?

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

@AbdullahArab101 first paying customer through aso, with no other marketing, is a clean start. the jump from $2 usually comes from hanging out where people already complain about the problem the app solves, not from another store-listing tweak. what's the app actually helping with?

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

the 22x gap is a real warning, because a lot of that weekly mrr may never show up next month. the people who actually stick on a yearly plan are usually the ones who already felt the problem in a community conversation, not the ones who tapped a weekly paywall. which app is the $14.99 plan on?

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

first paying customers from a tiktok account you never touched is a strong start for uisdom. i'd still get into conversations where local business owners already admit their blog died after two posts, because right now the whole thing sits on one channel. is tiktok still the only place new customers are coming from?

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

congrats on $6497, and asking for a card at the start of the trial is clearly doing the job, so i wouldn't keep pouring into ads until they actually click. creators already asking how to let chatgpt or claude run their instagram and tiktok accounts show up in agent and creator communities, which is a warmer path than another ad test. is instagram organic still bringing in most of the new trials?

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

45 paying users and $645 is close enough to the hoodie goal that i wouldn't wait on a celebration post to find the last five. instagram creators already ask how to grow reels without guessing, and hanging out in those creator conversations is how reeldrop usually picks up the next ones. which channel brought most of the 45?

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

two paying users after a traffic spike is worth learning from before you spend the $200 on meta ads. parents and teachers already ask for custom coloring pages they can print, and a helpful reply in those conversations is a cheaper test for colori than an ad experiment. what actually brought the spike?

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

£5 from a first paying user is the hard part, and "how do i get the next one" is the right question. if it was foldr, people already complain about losing saved tiktoks and reels, and if it was muna, uk sole traders are already stressing about quarterly digital filing, both in communities that were already talking about the problem. which of the two was it?

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

$19 mrr and four people who stay is a real signal, especially for privacy-first apps like dew and moss. the next users are usually already in conversations where people don't trust period trackers or journals with their data, and helping there compounds the app store and reddit discovery you already have. which of the two is carrying more of the four?

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

launching elfie and getting a paying customer the same day, with no promotion outside x, is a strong signal. people already looking for a simple way to make their mac feel more festive for christmas ask about that in existing mac and setup threads, and a genuine reply there can sit next to the x launch. have you asked that first customer how they found you?

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

$130 from 10 paying users with no paid marketing is the right kind of early base. wordpress and woocommerce shop owners already ask how to make a heavy site feel instant, especially on mobile, in web-perf communities, and showing up there is usually how the next 10 arrive. is any of the $130 coming from those conversations yet, or has it all been inbound?

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

first paying customer plus a post that actually moved is a real start for pindeleter. pinterest power users already complain in boards and forums about messy accounts and wanting to mass-delete pins they no longer want, and helping there will probably do more than another launch post. where did that first customer actually come from, the viral post or somewhere else?

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

building upthread in public.

paste your site url, and in ~20 seconds it finds real reddit threads where people are already asking for what you sell, scored by match.

first 30 users keep $99/mo forever.

reply "upthread" and i'll dm you an invite.

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

testflight is a weird distribution window because strangers can't just find the app yet. the move is to spend it in the threads where the people the app is actually for are already asking for help, so the testers you invite aren't only other builders. what kind of app is on testflight right now?

[Mark Whooley | building Upthread @Mark83491256]

1300 followers in 11 days is attention, not users. i'd pick one app and go where those people already ask for help: instagram creators trying to turn comments into dms for linkbounce, or planner threads where apple calendar isn't enough for daysway. which one are you pushing first?