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Gate 04 · Community

How to launch on Indie Hackers

Solo founders who love real numbers and honest stories.

Open Indie Hackers Guide for AI agents
Cost
Free
Goes live
Any time
Effort
Some work
Who reads it
Bootstrapped and solo founders
Checked
3 October 2026

How it works

Indie Hackers is a community of people building their own businesses. It has a main feed of posts, topic groups, and a directory of products.

Plain "buy my thing" posts get ignored or downvoted. Posts that share a real story, with real numbers and lessons, do well. You can mention your product at the end.

You can also create a product page with your link, description and revenue, and post milestones on it, like "Launched", "First customer" or "$1k MRR".

Good fit if

  • Tools for founders, makers and small businesses
  • Sharing your journey, revenue and lessons
  • Building a following over months, not one day

Skip it if

  • You want a big one-day traffic spike
  • You don't want to share any numbers or story

Before you start, get these ready

Tick them off. This page remembers your ticks on this device.

0 of 4 ready

Step by step

  1. 1

    Create your product page

    Add your product to the Indie Hackers products directory with your URL, a short description and, if you are comfortable, your revenue.

  2. 2

    Join in for a few weeks

    Comment on posts, answer questions, share small wins. People are far more likely to read your launch post if they know your name.

  3. 3

    Write a story post

    Lead with something real: a number, a mistake or a lesson. Tell how you built it and what happened. Mention your product in one or two sentences at the end.

  4. 4

    Post a launch milestone

    On your product page, add a "Launch" milestone with a short note. Add more milestones as you grow. Each one is another chance to be seen.

  5. 5

    Reply to comments

    Answer every comment. Ask one or two specific questions in your post so people have something to reply to.

Rules: break these and your launch gets removed

  • No pure ads. Lead with value and story
  • Keep the product mention short, one or two sentences at the end
  • Don't post the same thing again and again

Tips

  • Titles with a real number ("0 to 50 users in 30 days") get read
  • Honest failure stories do as well as success stories here

Template: Story post

Fill in the [brackets]. Keep it in your own voice.

Title: [Real number or lesson], e.g. "How I got my first 20 users for [product] with $0"

Context: I'm [who you are]. I'm building [product], which [what it does] for [who].

What I tried: [2–3 things, including what didn't work]

What worked: [the thing that worked, with numbers]

What I'd do differently: [lesson]

If you're curious, [product] is here: [link]. I'd love feedback on [specific question].

Where this comes from

Checked 3 October 2026. Prices, queues and rules change, so check the site itself before you pay for anything.