Samuel · Midaz.dev

Founder @ Building AI products & tools for indie founders, in public.

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

I built a step-by-step system for getting a product from idea to launch with AI, without "almost shipping" forever.

8 stages. Each one ends in a GO / CHANGE / KILL gate.

How it works 🧵

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

@ahmedelsio True. If changing a value needs a deploy, it's not really a setting, it's code.

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

@pranshoopandey Usage data is great once there are users. Before that, five DMs to people who match the persona will teach you more than a week of guessing.

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

@FirstHelm_owner That timing is the whole play. When an incident post goes up, reply with something useful for that exact problem. Save the pitch for when they ask.

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

@jarrellhibler Second-agent review is underrated. Give it a different prompt than the one that wrote the code, though, or it mostly agrees with itself.

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

A Cursor rule worth stealing:

PLAN: it writes the plan before any code
SCOPE: one MUST item per session
DIFF: small enough to read in one sitting

If you can't review the diff, you didn't ship a feature. You shipped a guess.

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

@AIGryffindor Pick one place your users already hang out and show up there every day for two weeks before you judge it. Silence on day 3 means nothing. Silence on day 14 tells you something.

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

@rudraxx13 That's why the domain always gets bought first. It never tells you the idea is bad.

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

@marrowleaf Quietly slipped is the column people will screenshot. Even better if you catch the ones where the original "coming soon" post gets deleted.

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

@erenasirogludev Most of launch day gets decided before Friday. Line up the people who already showed interest in Tadado and tell them the exact hour it goes live. Who's on that list right now?

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

@JeffHerschy A critic with no data just invents objections. Feed it interview notes and it gets useful fast.

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

@liemdo_ The edge case habit is sneaky because it feels like quality. Most of them only show up once someone actually uses the thing, so ship and let real users find them for you.

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

@valeritech Those 3 ranking questions are a better signal than a leaderboard spot. People asking how something works are already halfway to trying it.

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

We wrote an 80-page PDF for indie founders, the Indie Founder AI Launch System. A bitter pill: validate first, kill weak ideas early.

We sold it to a niche that was already skeptical, and it didn't land. Long PDFs ask for trust before they give anything back.

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

Write your launch-day replies before launch day.

Same questions every time:
PRICE: why this number
FIT: is this for me
VS: how is it different from X

Answer them now, not at midnight.

Reply bank's in my Indie Founder AI Launch System. $39, 30-day refund, link in bio.

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

@sujalg_twt Zero-result days get easier once each one is testing a single specific thing.

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

@prashantmsh Logging every routing decision pays off the first time a cheap model quietly gets something wrong. Without it you're guessing which route did it and why.

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

@Ana_M_Medina At 960 tests, the tests become the thing you maintain. I'd have it prune anything that only checks its own implementation details and keep the ones describing behavior a user would actually notice.

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

I've built 50+ AI apps. Associations and large organizations hire me to build theirs.

None of that prepared me for selling a simple digital product. Client work and getting a stranger to pay for a file are two different skills. I'm learning the second one now.

[Samuel · Midaz.dev @samueldeploys]

Launch discounts only work if they're honest.

END: a real date, and it actually ends
REASON: early buyers take the risk on v1
SAME: the product doesn't shrink when the price goes back up

A countdown that resets every week isn't urgency. It's a tell.