Get your first paying users by answering Reddit threads

Who pays

This is a way to win the first customers for a product you already have. It is not a business on its own. The posters report paying users, signups and form fills, but not revenue. What each customer is worth depends on your own product's price. Our suggestion is to offer a short free trial in exchange for feedback, then charge. That pricing is a suggestion, not something the sources report.

How to build it

1. Pick subreddits where buyers complain

   Join every subreddit linked to your niche. Before you post anything, note what problems people bring up, which tools they already use, and what they wish those tools did.

2. Help people before you promote

   Spend the first few weeks leaving helpful comments without mentioning your product. Check each subreddit's self-promotion rules and whether it has a weekly thread for promotions.

3. Get alerts for problem threads

   In n8n, pull new posts from each subreddit's RSS feed. Run each one through a decision model (a fast AI that only makes yes/no or sorting calls) that asks, "Does this describe the problem my product solves?" Save the matches to Airtable.

4. Reply with help first

   Answer each matched thread with detailed advice from your own experience, and use Claude only to tighten your draft. Mention your product only when it fits. Offer free access in exchange for honest feedback, and continue the conversation by private message.

5. Write a post about the problem

   Write a post about the pain your product solves, as personal and specific as you can make it. Use it to collect early signups or a short form, even before the product is finished.

6. Tag links and drop weak subreddits

   Give every link you share a tag that names the subreddit, such as ?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=subredditname. Log signups by subreddit in Airtable. Stop posting in subreddits that bring no signups and spend more time in the ones that do.

Sources on X

• rishxtweet · Jul 30, 2026

  The poster says they spent 3 months building their product and had 0 users, then spent 3 weeks on distribution and got 8 paying users, all from Reddit. They say every reply was useful first and mentioned the product second, and they tracked which subreddits converted, cut the rest, and put more effort into the ones that worked. They add that a reply from 3 weeks earlier still brings signups.

• KaluraDeepesh · Aug 5, 2026

  KaluraDeepesh reports getting the first 100 users for Snowpad from Reddit with no ad spend and turning 6 of them into paying customers. These are the poster's own figures. They did not promote at all for the first few weeks. They gave detailed help in the comments, then offered free access in exchange for honest feedback.

• annieqyang · Jun 3, 2026

  By the poster's own account, Reddit posts about a painful problem got 300+ people to fill out a form before the website was built. In another case, they say similar posts got 150+ early-access signups within 24 hours. Their advice is to post or reply with pure value and continue the conversation by private message.

• askOkara · Apr 17, 2026

  askOkara lists these steps: find threads where people discuss the problems your product solves, warm up your account with genuine comments, and give value before promoting. They also say not to post links in comments and to check which subreddits allow self-promotion or have weekly promotion threads.