How I'd Get an Indie App's First 100 Users Without Spending a Cent on Ads (opens in new tab)

You shipped the thing. Tests green, manifest valid, listing live. You refresh the install count. Twelve. Eleven of them are you on different machines. This is the part nobody warns you about: building the product is the deterministic step. Distribution is the part with no compiler telling you what's wrong. So you reach for the advice everyone gives — "post on social media," "build an audience," "be where your users are" — do all of it, and the counter still says twelve. Here's the thing that ...