Day 19: Soft launch - sharing with the world
Day 19 of 30. Today we stop building and start selling.
Day 19 of 30. Today we stop building and start selling.
We’ve spent 18 days in build mode, and we love it! The product works, the docs exist, and payments are live. We currently have 21 users, of which a large part friends and testers, and zero revenue at this stage.
Time to find some real customers.
The launch plan
We’re not doing a “big launch.” today. For our first attempt, we don’t do Product Hunt, nor a Hacker News front page attempt. We’re doing a soft launch to reduce our chance of doing it wrong the first time.
So, instead we’ll:
- Post in smaller developer communities
- Share on social media
- Direct outreach to potential users
- And see what resonates
This should lower the pressure, while giving us a change to learn
Interactive launch tracker
See the results of our soft launch across different channels:
Where we posted
Indie Hackers
Post title: “I built a screenshot API in 19 days - here’s what I learned”
Not “please use my product.” Instead, a genuine writeup of the journey with a link to the product. Indie Hackers likes building stories, not ads. We feel the same way.
Dev.to
Cross-posted the first few days of this dev log series. You can find our blogs here. Many developers read Dev.to, and some of them need screenshot APIs. Besides that, we hope that someone finds our story at least a little bit interesting to read.
On Reddit we’re posting on several different subreddits, just to see which our best fit, without spamming too much.
- r/webdev: “Show r/webdev: Screenshot API I built for generating social previews”
- r/SideProject: Share with the side project community
- r/Entrepreneur: The business angle
- r/BuildInPublic: The indy side of things
Reddit is hit-or-miss. Some posts get traction, some sink. We posted and we’ll watch what happens
Twitter/X
You can find us on Twitter/X. We use the following thread format:
Built a screenshot API from scratch in 19 days.
Here’s what went into it:
🧵
Then followed by 8-10 tweets covering aspects like why we built it, the tech stack, our challenges, what we learned, etc. Similar to our dev blog here, but shorter.
On LinkedIn, we go for a more professional and business focused angle: “After years of cobbling together screenshot solutions for web apps, we built an API to solve it properly.”
LinkedIn is underrated for B2B tools. “What screenshots taught us about B2B”. Developers are there, they just don’t advertise it.
Direct outreach
We identified 20 potential customers:
- SaaS tools that show preview images (link shorteners, social media tools)
- Testing companies that might need visual regression
- Agencies building client sites
- No-code tools that generate content
We sent personalized emails:
Subject: Quick question about [specific feature on their site]
Hi [Name],
I noticed [their product] generates preview thumbnails for shared links. Currently building a screenshot API and curious how you’re handling this today.
Running headless Chrome yourself? Using a service? Built something custom?
Either way, would love to hear how it’s working. Building [our product] and trying to understand the space better.
Cheers, Erik
We didn’t try to pitch a solution, but we’re just asking questions and trying to learn from this.
The responses
Within 6 hours:
Indie Hackers: 12 upvotes, 8 comments. Mix of “cool project” and technical questions. 3 people clicked through to sign up.
Dev.to: 45 views, 2 reactions. Dev.to is slow burn - posts get traffic over weeks, not hours.
Reddit: r/webdev post removed (self-promotion rules). r/SideProject got 15 upvotes. r/Entrepreneur got 2.
Twitter/X: 23 likes, 4 retweets, 89 impressions. Small but targeted.
LinkedIn: 156 views, 8 reactions, 1 DM asking for details.
Direct emails: 4 responses out of 20 sent. Two “not interested,” one “we use X already,” one “this looks interesting, tell me more.”
Lessons from the responses
What resonated:
- The “build in public” angle - people love following journeys
- Speed/pricing - “2-3 seconds and starts free” got attention
- Simplicity - “just works” beats feature lists
What didn’t resonate:
- Technical details - no one cares about Kotlin vs. Node
- Feature comparisons - no one asked how we compare to competitors
- The product itself - honestly, no one was blown away either :)
Surprising feedback:
- One person asked for PDF export (its on our roadmap, but we want to deliver a great version of it)
- Another asked about scheduled/recurring screenshots
- Multiple people assumed we had an SDK (we don’t, yet)
First real signup!
At 4:47 PM, someone signed up who we don’t know. Not a friend, not from our network. A real stranger found us and created an account.
They captured 3 screenshots. Then nothing.
But still - external validation that strangers can find and use this.
The “tell me more” email
The most promising lead from direct outreach:
Hi Erik,
We’re currently using a self-hosted Puppeteer solution but it’s been painful to maintain. Memory leaks, timeouts, inconsistent results.
What makes your service different? And what’s your uptime been like?
- Sarah, CTO at [startup name]
This is exactly the conversation we wanted. We replied with details and offered a call.
What we learned today
Launching is not a moment, it’s a process. There’s no single “launch day” that makes or breaks you. It’s gradual.
Content marketing works. The dev log series got more engagement than product announcements. People follow stories.
Direct outreach is awkward but effective. 20% response rate on cold emails is decent. One warm lead from 20 emails is worth it.
We’re not special (yet). No one was amazed by our product. We’re one of many screenshot APIs. We need a clearer differentiator.
Tomorrow: our first customer call
On Day 20 we have a call scheduled with someone from the direct outreach. This could be our first real customer conversation. Let’s see how we can help them.
Book of the day
Obviously Awesome by April Dunford
We just learned we don’t have clear positioning. This book is about fixing that.
Dunford’s framework: positioning isn’t about what you are, it’s about what you’re compared to. “Screenshot API” puts us in a crowded category. What if we positioned as “the reliable screenshot API for developers who’ve been burned by self-hosted solutions”?
The book walks through identifying your best customers, understanding competitive alternatives, and crafting positioning that resonates. Exactly what we need right now.
Short, practical, immediately applicable.