Linkeme

This resonates. I think most founders feel the signal way before they act on it. Out of curiosity, how long between "huh that's weird" and "ok I'm rebuilding the whole thing"? And what finally tipped you over?

This is a strong signal because the roast tool did more than bring traffic. It exposed the real buying emotion.

The risk now is assuming the same emotion that makes people share the roast will also make them pay for ongoing personal branding.

Those are close, but not identical.

The key bridge is probably the moment after the roast: when the user feels exposed enough to want a fix, but before the whole thing becomes just entertainment.

That transition is where I’d be careful.

Happy to put the tighter roast-to-paid-conversion angle in writing if useful. This is exactly the kind of funnel where attention is already proven, but the paid conversion story has to be handled carefully.

This is the most underrated pivot pattern there is. I've seen it across the companies I back: the free tool you build for distribution quietly tells you what people actually value, and it is almost never what you set out to sell. The behavior-over-stated-intent point is the whole lesson. People lie in surveys and tell the truth with their clicks. The one thing I'd pressure test before betting the company on it: a viral roast pulls in people who want to fix their brand for free, which is a huge top of funnel, but free self-improvement and paid self-improvement are different markets. Figure out fast whether "fix my personal brand" is a painkiller people pay for or a vitamin they enjoy once and forget. The traffic is real. The willingness to pay is the part the roast tool hasn't tested yet.

The "growth hack as research instrument" framing is sharp. Reading behavior over stated intent is right — NPS surveys lie, clicks don't.

Worth pressure-testing the pivot interpretation. User behavior pointed to personal branding interest. Mapping that to "automated post generator" is one interpretation, not only one.

Alternative readings: people wanted branding advice or coaching, not automation. Profile optimization (headline, bio), not ongoing content generation. Clear positioning framework, not "AI posts in your voice."

Personal branding resists automation. "Automated posts" is somewhat contradictory — personal brand built by showing up as person. Taplio works because it helps craft content, not auto-publish.

LinkedIn anti-automation enforcement tightened 2025-2026. AI-generated content gets reduced reach. Users accumulate account restrictions.

The roast worked because it gave specific personal feedback. Product winning from that signal might be "AI branding coach" not "automated content engine."

Worth running same behavior-not-stated-intent test on current paid users. What do they actually use? Where do they spend time? That might point to sharper wedge.

It's a very interresting move !!

Clean execution on the core concept. The challenge with link-in-bio tools is standing out in a crowded space — curious what your main differentiator is for users who've already tried the big players.

What's your current primary acquisition channel?

the personal branding versus company promotion split in user behavior is interesting but i'd push on one thing. the people who showed up for the roast and wanted to fix themselves are they also the people who convert to paid or are they a different cohort from your actual buyers. viral tools attract broad curious audiences and paying customers are usually a specific subset. curious whether the people obsessing over their headline are also the ones willing to pay for the ongoing solution or whether there's a conversion gap between the top of funnel enthusiasm and the checkout

This resonates a lot.

I had a similar experience today, although on a much smaller scale.

I launched a Cyblux GDPR Generator on Product Hunt expecting people to care about the product itself. Instead, the biggest lesson so far has been watching what people actually react to versus what I thought they would react to.

Your point about "behavior over stated intent" is probably one of the most valuable lessons for founders. Users will spend 10 seconds telling you what they want and months showing you what they actually want.

Curious to see how Linkeme evolves from here.

I loved the idea! Can I ask you that how did you do build in public ?

"Accidental viral hits that turn into the actual business—this is the peak Indie Hacker dream. What a brilliant pivot based on raw data. Thanks for sharing this inspire piece!"

Answer to your direct question: yes. I shipped a tiny WhatsApp script that auto-replied to my own number for testing. Friends saw it, wanted one for their shop, and that ended up being the actual product (Worvi). The test fixture became the company. Behavior > stated intent is the real lesson - people will tell you they want X and click on Y all day long.

Very fascinating absolutely interesting. So one has to have a certain level of courage Mess with your tool. I'd probably pray to the Lord before I go in take a deep breath and get ready for raw unadulterated brass tacks feedback on the good the bad and the ugly! very fascinating I appreciate your service.

what a great solution, I am a user now. i will try to implement a similar strategy to hook users to my solution CashPylot

The roast mechanic works because it reframes an audit as entertainment. What I find interesting is the pivot: you built it for traffic, but the usage data showed people cared about their own profile more than their company. That's a cleaner signal than most founders get in a year. The users who kept coming back to fix their headline aren't accidents. They're your real market.

This really resonates. "Read behavior instead of stated intent" sounds obvious but almost nobody actually does it.

To your question: yeah, same thing happened to me. My front door is a free landing-page roast/audit, you paste a URL and get a brutal conversion score. I assumed people would run it once and bounce. The funnel said otherwise. The moment that actually mattered wasn't the score, it was "here's exactly what's leaking and how to fix it." Same pattern as yours: they didn't want to hear they're fine, they wanted the gap + the fix.

It also killed an assumption I was attached to. I gated it behind payment at first, sure the demand was strong enough. Behavior said no, people needed to see the value before paying. Flipped to a free teaser and it finally clicked.

LinkedInScope → Linkeme is a clean arc. Curious whether the roast still pulls most of your traffic, or if the branding tool has started spreading on its own yet ?

This is a strong example of a feature turning into the actual product because it touches a sharper pain than the original idea.

A “roast” works well as a marketing hook because it gives people immediate feedback and a small emotional reaction. But the deeper value is not the roast itself — it is helping people see what is unclear, generic, or weak in their positioning.

For LinkedIn especially, that matters a lot. Most people don’t need more content advice in theory. They need someone or something to point out what their profile or posts fail to communicate clearly.

The best products often start as a simple diagnostic tool that makes the problem obvious.

Yippee! Now with AI we have the world in the palm of our hands, so let's take advantage of it and unlock all the potential it has to offer. Can the tool be used by anyone, anywhere in the world, or are there restrictions? Congratulations on the execution and GOOD LUCK for the journey ahead,

The "read behavior, not stated intent" line is the whole post and it's so underrated. People will tell you in a survey what they think they want, then their clicks say something completely different, and the clicks are always right. Wild that your throwaway funnel turned into cleaner research than any user interview. To your question: not yet for us, but you've got me eyeing our own "side" features differently now.

The interesting part here is that the pivot came from user behavior, not feedback. People often say one thing and do another, and the clicks usually tell the real story.

This one hit close. I built something called Basket first — a content creation OS. Big vision, real pain for creators. But it wasn't an immediate painkiller for most people.

Then my own past caught up with me. Years in IT sales, drowning in email every morning, missing deals because the wrong email got read first. That pain never left.

So I stopped and built Slash it — an Email Decision OS. Not because users pushed me. Because I finally stopped ignoring a problem I'd lived myself.

Behavior data doesn't lie. Neither does old pain.

Nice work! I like seeing founders focus on a simple, clear use case first rather than adding dozens of features.

HI Julien, This is a masterclass in listening to data over assumptions, Julian. I’m curious about the transition phase once you realized people wanted the personal branding tool rather than the company promotion, how did you handle the users who were using your original B2B product? Did you kill it entirely, or did you find a way to merge them?

I agree

Me building a Saas product 👀😅

Absolutely love how you’ve highlighted the 'invisible work' that often goes unnoticed when building a SaaS. I can totally relate to how much time gets absorbed by tasks like customer support, compliance, and, of course, marketing! One thing that really helped me in my own journey was automating as much of the repetitive tasks as possible. For example, I developed a brat generator that helps with content creation, saving hours each week on social media posts and other repetitive tasks. It's such a game-changer to streamline the 'boring' parts, so you can focus on what really matters—building the product. Anyone else using tools to automate these non-coding tasks?

I completely relate to your experience. When I was developing my app, I assumed that having a project manager, delivery team, and designer would streamline the process. However, I found myself not only managing developers and making design choices but also handling social media and content creation—an essential part of growing the SaaS alongside the product itself. It felt like I was juggling everything, even with a team in place. The invisible work can be exhausting!

That’s why what you’ve created with Likeme SaaS is so impactful. It’s designed to save founders valuable time and keep them visible online, all without the risk of burnout that many of us faced. You’re addressing a common challenge, and trust me, it’s a game changer!

That’s seriously impressive — both the concept and the traction! Linkeme solves a very real pain point for founders who want to stay visible but can’t afford to spend hours crafting posts or chasing trends.

The fact that you’re getting 40–60 daily visitors organically, with zero ad spend or pre-built audience, really proves the value of the problem you're solving. No fluff — just practical content automation. Looking forward to seeing how Linkeme grows from here!

Ok this sounds cool. Will check it out. Thanks for sharing.

Thats what i've found. Messaging and positioning is EVERYTHING. It is all about really honing in on your audience and furfilling exactly what they need. Relieving those pain points pretty much

I'm really interested to know the Main channels where your users and customers come from plz

Would love to know what you did with the email subscribers!

That's great, Thanks for the insight sharing.
Biggest lesson I learned:
Users don’t fail we fail to guide them.
It’s not about reducing features, it’s about reducing friction.

What helped:

• Added microcopy at key moments

• Replaced dropdowns with simpler selections

• Watched real sessions like you painful but eye-opening

Really like how clearly you broke this down.
one thing that helped was rewriting the onboarding flow like a landing page headline, subtext, 1 CTA per screen. surprisingly effective.
also used Hotjar to spot rage clicks on dead zones goldmine for quick UX wins.

After testing the tool, I noticed some inconsistencies in the language. Certain sections of the analysis are generated in French.

Woah, I hopped on the site to scan my LinkedIn account, I got no reviews

Love the mindset shift...

Completely agree, I always tell my team it's better to have complaints than hear nothing at all. Complaints you can fix :-)

Looks awesome — tackling the content pipeline end-to-end is smart. Huge potential here, congrats on the momentum!

This looks really impressive! Automating the entire workflow from idea to publishing is a huge time saver. I agree that manual posting and using agencies can be very inefficient, so Linkeme seems like a much-needed solution. Congrats on your progress so far and wishing you even more growth!

This is such a relatable post, Julien! I totally get what you mean about inertia being the real competitor. It's not about other products; it's about the comfort of "doing nothing."

Your pivot from feature wars to reducing friction is brilliant. I'm facing the same challenge. What's been your most effective change in Linkeme or your messaging to get people past that initial hurdle?

For me, it's about showing tiny wins really fast.

Thanks for sharing, this is super insightful!

Building the onboarding experience is an art... I know what you feel. I tried your app, some feedback:

1. After I gave you my website, you tell me "We analyse your website..." But TBH I don't know if I should wait or scroll? I user needs to wait show him the loading bar or spinning wheel.

2. You have chosen probably the worse signups method, verification code on email. It's such a pain to rewrite the code from an email - why I can't just paste the code, man?! It's just mean... Better, just send a link to click on it. Btw. I would prefer magic link or Google oauth for the signups.

3. My business summary got outputted in french for some reason 😅

4. After login i see the page where I should fill the info, connect socials and define the strategy. These should be 3 steps with breadcrumbs not one page.

Keep grinding 💪

This resonates a lot. Had a similar experience with an onboarding flow that felt too simple, yet confused users.

For me, adding a short walkthrough (3 steps max) + one inline video helped a lot.

Keep going Julien — Linkeme sounds promising!

Hey Julien, I really felt this.

I had a similar problem with the Marketing Starter Kit I made for early-stage founders.

It’s full of useful templates and marketing ideas, but if people don’t open the Notion page or try a few things, they don’t see the value.

Here’s what helped me:

• I showed a short video before they got started, so they knew what to expect

• I gave them quick wins — like templates they could use in 30 seconds

• I sent a few short emails over 5 days with simple action steps

• I added a checklist that said: “Do these 3 things first” — and that actually helped a lot
  

  Sometimes making it clear is better than making it minimal.
  
  P.S: Here's the link to sign up to marketing starter kit: https://wirehaired-protest-b61.notion.site/1e97648c55c880ddb946c598bdeda50f

Still learning, still improving thanks for sharing your story!

Hey Julien,

just a quick bit of feedback:

1. Your main CTA (Free Trial in pink) doesn’t actually work.

2. There are too many elements that look clickable but aren’t.

Not saying this will change everything, but it’s probably a good place to start.

Totally feel this. I ran into similar friction while helping users onboard in a 3D printing tool — even small UI missteps caused drop-offs. Simplifying the flow and guiding attention really helped. Might be worth checking how Orca Slicer handles setup: theorcaslicer

Love this line: “Maybe forgetting is okay… as long as it keeps delivering.” That’s Apple Notes in a nutshell.

I think there are two kinds of SaaS:

The tools you forget (infra, backend, automations) — utility first.

The tools you identify with (public-facing, daily touchpoints) — brand matters more.

Linkeme feels like it’s in the middle — functional but also tied to public visibility. That’s where light branding can help build trust and habit.

TL;DR: If your product’s value shows up in the user’s public life, then having a recognizable presence helps them talk about you, too.

You're worrying about emotional connection, but also asking why brand?

Brand is how you connect people to you emotionally.
It’s the personality they remember when they’re not using the tool.

No one connects with something which don't have any personality
People love faces, not rocks.
That’s why even simple, quiet products need branding, not to be loud, but to be human.

will you give your emotions to someone who feels like a generic robot? it's not how human nature works..

i think it's not always a black-and-white thing, more a question of how much brand you need. i would say your existing users remembering the name of your product is basic hygiene.

It's not that it's impossible to work just based on utility... but that's hard. In a "previous life" I learned how important marketing and sales can be. Of course, you can get lucky and have people sharing your services but SaaS is even harder for that. Network effects are great, but sometimes that doesn't even work. There are some cases where you can link your network effect to using the service and if you are actually providing something valuable that users want you can get growth.

I've seen countless (mostly developers, and including my past self) just think that technology should stand up by itself. That would be nice, but it rarely works that way. Brands are often important especially for service-based software because it helps with recognition and trust.

Brand is just one of many deployment strategies for driving uptake of your idea . The question is not whether Indie SaaS needs brands in general. The questions are:
a) Would your particular service benefit from branding right now?
b) If so, is brand the cheapest/fastest/best way to drive engagement vs. the alternatives?

For example, brand-building is expensive in terms of time and dollars... which is extra scarce for an early stage company.

Branding also takes a huge critical mass of effort and promotion before you're "known".

Alternatively, you might have easier/more powerful ways to spread that fit your exact situation.

For example: make the free tier include a "Posted by Linkeme.ai" line at the bottom of all posts. This spreads engagement in a way that fits your product, customers, and life stage.

I checked it out and honestly it's really good. The Ai is amazing and it needs to get out to the world.

I'll share the link to my community on telegram and I'll like to talk to you and see how I can be helpful to you.

I believe it is important to look at what has worked in the past and take a cue from it. Overall I believe it is good to build a brand to strengthen your SaaS perceived value.

Your post really resonates with me. I’ve been working on a tool where users practice interviews by answering out loud and get quick AI feedback. It’s been easy to fall into the trap of adding more and more features, but some of the best experiences actually come from doing less.

I haven’t lost trust from over-marketing, but I think people have lost attention. People seem to tune out fast when things sound too magical or abstract.

I’m curious how you think about measuring success when lower activity can mean things are going well?

It's refreshing to see someone lead with outcomes instead of AI buzzwords! We’ve had the same dilemma building our own tools anwering to how do you showcase the power of AI without making it the headline?
For us, it’s been about clarity: help people solve real problems. It’ is..... knowing what problem you’re trying to solve.

Hi. I feel your pain. We are building with AI (or I'd say leveraging AI to help us), and it's hard to not sound like everyone else. The market is flooded with stories of AI. I'm trying to position my company by using plain language (as much as I can) about the problem we're solving and the benefits we provide. The AI is "there" but I'm trying to position it as an afterthought. Noone actually cares about the AI itself (at least that's what I think). They care about having their pains solved and positive outcomes. But yeah it's hard....