I launched solo — and made it to the Top 5 today 🚀
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Hey Product Hunt! 👋
This morning I launched my first solo product ever: Controol — a minimalist finance app built around one idea:
Know how much you can spend, not just what you already did.
No team. No paid ads. No launch list. Just late nights and building something I personally needed.
I honestly didn’t expect much… but hours later, it made it to the Top 5 of the day 😳
The feeling? Wild.
Strangers are connecting with the mindset behind it, and it's been amazing to read their comments.
So if you’re:
Working on your first solo product
Launching without an audience
Wondering if it’s even worth it…
Here’s your sign: Do it anyway.
💬 I’d love to hear from others launching alone.
What was your first solo launch like?
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Replies
Trangram
Congrats on reaching the top 5! I'm launching @Mathstick today too – the hardest puzzle game ever 😱. It’s actually my second launch here. I remember having super high hopes for my first one. Just like you, I had no team, no launch list, no promotions, no marketing outside PH – I didn’t notify registered users either. I learned a lot from that experience, but honestly, doing a pure launch like that still feels rewarding to me, no matter the outcome, so I still keep it this way and posted my story behind it :)
Big congrats again on your successful launch – you did great!
Controol App
@derek_liu_dev Hey!
Huge respect for doing it all solo again — and yeah, I feel the same. There’s something really special about launching raw, without overthinking the promotion side. Just putting it out there and seeing how people connect with it.
I’ll definitely check out Mathstick, sounds intense already 😅
Trangram
@maxi_carreras ⚠️ Heads up! These matchstick puzzles aren’t just hard — they’re “even-ChatGPT-gave-up” hard. But if you ever solve one puzzle, congrats: you’ve officially outsmarted an AI trained on everything.
Milestone Content Studio
Controol App
@siddharthpereira Thank you so much 🙌
Honestly, it already felt like a huge win seeing people resonate with the idea. Now it’s time to push further and help more people take control of their money (without the usual guilt).
Let’s go 🚀
Wow, welldone!
I'd love to know how you did it.
My team and I are looking to launch a product soon.
I am totally new here too!
Controol App
Congratulations on the top 5 @maxi_carreras ! It's an amazing product with real value behind it, which is far more important than building a cash grab!
You should be super proud! Hopefully, I'll be able to follow your footsteps with my launch on Tuesday. 🤞🏼
Controol App
@maxi_carreras Love it! Thanks for the support!
minimalist phone: creating folders
Hey Maxi, have you been doing anything like documenting your building journey on Social media?
Or is it just pure traffic from PH?
Controol App
@busmark_w_nika Hey! I haven’t really documented the journey much on social media — it was mostly just building quietly and then launching on PH.
I did share it on a few Reddit communities and X after it went live, but honestly, it was all very improvised 😅
Thinking now it might be worth sharing more of the behind-the-scenes moving forward!
minimalist phone: creating folders
@maxi_carreras Gotcha, so stealth then :) Exactly, recommend documenting this journey. Maybe posting this exact text on socials would be a good experiment and start :)
Product Hunt
@maxi_carreras - share more behind the scenes on the Controol forum!
Controol App
Congratulations! It must be truly a great feeling! Wishing you the best!
Controol App
Highlights.Email
Congratulations! Controol looks amazing and making it to the Top 5 is no easy feat so fair play!
My first solo launch was today as well and my story is very similar to yours - just me building something I personally needed: Highlights.Email — a solution to export book highlights from a Kobo wirelessly. And similar to yourself, I didn't expect much from the launch today so I'm very happy to have made it to the Top 10 of the day! :)
Controol App
Kalyxa
Huge kudos on the launch and making it to the Top 5 — that’s incredible, especially as a solo builder 👏
I’m actually planning to launch my own project on Product Hunt soon, and to be honest, it’s a bit overwhelming with all the advice floating around online. Since you just went through it, I’d really appreciate any tips or things you wish you knew before launching. Would love to learn from your experience!
Controol App
@parth_ahir Thanks so much — really appreciate the kind words!
Totally get what you’re feeling. There’s a lot of advice out there, and it can be overwhelming, especially when you’re launching solo.
Here are 3 quick things I’d keep in mind:
Don’t overthink the prep — I launched without a list, audience or plan. Just made sure the product was clear and useful.
Engage early — replying to every comment and being present throughout the day helped a lot.
It’s not about the votes — the real win is the feedback and the connections you make.
Kalyxa
This looks like a really easy to use expense tracker, congrats on your launch will try it out soon!
Controol App
@rince Thanks so much! That’s exactly what I was aiming for — something simple and stress-free.
Would love to hear your thoughts once you try it!
Congratulations on your successful launch @maxi_carreras! I am also excited on my upcoming launch.
What I believe is, if you want to go fast then go alone, but if you want to go away then you will need a team.
Controol App