How to Convert
A local universal file converter that keeps files private
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Congrats on the milestone! 🎉 Quick question: do you plan to add support for more niche file formats, like certain image or audio types, in future updates? Keep up the awesome work!
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Yeah, I'm adding file types as my users are suggesting them. It's been great for building a good interaction with my customers
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This is super inspiring — congrats on the early traction! 🚀
I’m in an earlier stage with a tool I’m building (focused on helping people who manage messy Excel files), and right now I’m trying to better define my ICP. The hardest part so far has honestly been getting people to talk — even just short user interviews have been tough to land.
Any tips on how you got those initial users to engage and try the product? Would love to hear what worked for you!
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I'm so happy to inspire someone else. That's very kind of you to say.
I would honestly recommend the build a simple one feature version of it where you users can give it an input and it gives the user the output to solve their problem.
Make a nice demo video with a tool like screen studio and then post it to subreddits like r/SideProject, on threads/X and on hacker news and see if people like it.
I've found people don't really care about just an idea. They want something real to test and if it helps them solve a problem that is a pain, they'll pay for it.
Build a prototype in less than a month, along with a landing page and pay button and just try and test it
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Jake, this is awesome! How has user acquisition been?
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Been quite good, especially on Reddit and Threads. I haven't had much luck on X or other social medias. SEO is starting to kick in now too, which is a great feeling after ~2 months of not ranking well
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Nice, this is very cool! How’d you validate your idea? Did you make any mock ups or talk to any people, or did you just launch?
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I thought of the idea because I have to convert a lot of media files for work and had friends and family always ask me how to convert certain files. I then checked whether people search for this using tools like ahrefs. It was a mix between my need and a need I see a lot of others have too.
I made my app a little different - it does the conversions without your files leaving your computer. And, I built it as fast as possible. I made a nice demo video and posted it to reddit, threads and hacker news. I found if it gets paying users at that point, with a scrappy prototype, then you know it's validated
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It is wild to think how different the internet would be if CERN had chosen to commercialize the web instead of making it free. That one decision shaped the entire digital world. Makes you wonder what other groundbreaking tech might be locked behind paywalls today?
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The key to success is starting with what you are familiar with and focusing on developing a functional product first. Once you have gained traction, you can refine and optimize your stack to facilitate growth.
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This is spot on! Too many developers get caught up in chasing the “perfect” tech stack when the real priority should be execution and validation. 🚀 Choosing a stack you’re comfortable with allows you to build faster, test ideas, and focus on what truly matters—getting users and generating revenue. Congrats on the success, and looking forward to seeing what you build next! 🔥
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This is awesome news! Congratulations on hitting the $1000 milestone so quickly – that's a testament to the usefulness of "How to Convert." The fact that it prioritizes local processing is a huge selling point for privacy-conscious users.
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Congrats on hitting such an amazing milestone so quickly! 🎉 The affiliate program sounds like a great way to reward the community while spreading the word. For those considering joining, what strategies do you find work best for sharing referral links effectively? Let’s help each other maximize earnings!
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thank you! I find writing affiliate style blogs, best of videos and emailing/tweeting to your following. Most of all, telling people how you find the app useful in your experience
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@jakemanger I wish you success. But I couldn't understand the software background that runs locally? It looks like a js html app running in the browser. What is the logic of working locally? What dependencies are required to convert so many files?
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Thanks. Instead of Googling "Convert HEIC to JPG", clicking on the first link you see and then sending your files to some random server, it's an app that you download and run locally. That way, your private files stay on your device.
You can also convert in the browser using the free demo. That runs on the client side (your own machine) but only a limited number of files can be converted with the demo, because local tools are needed to do the others.
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Dude, congrats! $1k from a side project is the dream and only the beginning! The point about not getting bogged down in features before validating the core idea really hits home. Inspiring stuff.
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I'm really glad you liked it. Keep on building, friend!
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Wow, this is such an inspiring story! Build it quick, test if there's demand, then go from there. Your approach of focusing on something actually useful, not just revolutionary, is so refreshing. Anyway, huge congrats on hitting $1,000 in just a month! That feeling of validation is unbeatable. Keep going!
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I really appreciate it. Keep going yourself!
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Great story! The best of luck
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Thank you, friend!
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congrats Jake!!
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Hi, I need some advice, I have an idea to create a website, and I think it can work, I don't know how to code. So, what I've planned is, to open a YouTube channel where I make some content, not specifically related to the site, but to gain an audience to which I can then pitch my idea in order to validate the idea, while building the MVP alongside. What do you think about this method, as gaining an audience on YouTube won't be easy and will take at least 3-6 months, so is it worth building the channel or should I focus on building the MVP and just post on X, reddit, etc for spreading it?
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I think you’re on the right track. I would honestly try each and whatever you get the best response on, focus your efforts there. Be prepared for a lot of failure and hate for some things but just keep learning from what works (and doesn't) and you’ll get better results next time. You’ll find that when you get nice comments (like you’ve just given me) or, better, people buying what you’ve made, you get more motivated to keep doing it.
For me, I’m currently trying to grow my audience on X too (https://x.com/JakeManger). It’s hard but I have had much better success on reddit in my case - posting about what I’ve made.
As for YouTube, I know a lot of people have great success with it, others don’t. You just got to give it a try and keep improving with it.
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I am absolutely not qualified to answer this, but I'm dealing with the same issue - trying to "get an audience" while working on actually building something. I've been doing POSSE (Post On (Your Own) Site Syndicate Everywhere), meaning I post stuff to my website, and then I copy that content to LinkedIn, X, Bluesky, and Mastodon. So far it hasn't "worked," lol, but I'm still trying different things to see if something sticks.
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Congratulations Jake
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Congrats Jake! This is super inspiring man keep at it.
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Keep at it too yourself!
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I know you said 2 years working on your project? but how many hours do you think you've put into it?
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ooh well at least 3-8 hours a week after work/on weekends. Waaayyy too long on something I should have 1) market researched and 2) tested much earlier
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Congrats Jake! Wonderful to see your success! I also launched my product recently with similar motivations, to prevent data being sent to 3rd party servers for cleaning Gmail Inbox.
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Congrats back to you!
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Congrats Jake! Thanks for sharing your learnings and new strategy. I wasn’t aware of the existance of sites like Ahrefs. Brillant for checking out ideas of what people are looking for.
Wish you good fortune with your projects.
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Yeah, ahrefs is great. I didn’t know with my last project too and now that I do, things are working!
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First of all - congrats! Can you share what tech stack did you use?
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Awesome man. love the idea!
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Thank you!
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That's awesome man! Congrats on your new found success. That's also a good idea. I noticed the same thing a year or so ago and thought "I wish I didn't have to send my file to their servers".
Good luck on your journey!
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Thank you haha I'm glad I'm not alone in that thought. Good luck on your journey too!
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Keep going
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You too!
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This is extremely inspiring for me at this point, right now, today. Thank you.
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You got this buddy 🤞 and if your idea isn’t a success, keep improving and get the next idea out. It gets faster each time
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