Hey everyone. I'm a software engineer with 13 years of experience, mostly backend and architecture work. But honestly, I feel like my career might be ending.
My company is struggling, the economy where I live isn't great, and at 37 I've found that finding a new job is... not realistic anymore. Companies here want younger and cheaper.
So lately I've been trying to build my own thing to get out of this situation. I'm working on a small tool site (planning to launch it on Hypership Day, actually), and experimenting with ad networks for monetization. Small steps.
But I'll be honest: most days I can't see any hope in this. I don't know if I'm on the right path, or just wasting my runway. I don't know what I should do next.
To improve our day 7 and day 30 retention, we set up a automated re engagement email sequence highlighting key features users hadn't tried yet. While a tiny percentage opened and clicked back into the app, the unsubscribe rate was surprisingly high.
It pushed us to question whether email drips are still effective for bringing dormant users back, or if they just remind people to cancel/unsubscribe.
What channel or trigger has actually worked for you to re-engage inactive users without feeling spammy?
After launching, I noticed a big increase in inbound messages - agencies, tools, consultants, AI assistants, and more. Some of it is genuinely useful, some of it is unexpected, but I'm curious how other Makers approach this!
Do you have a system for prioritizing what to respond to? Do you categorize outreach, set filters, or use any tools to manage it?
Thanks to all the interactions and tips I got from the discussion page, we managet to lauch our product and get product of the day AND week. https://www.producthunt.com/post... I am so excited and grateful to everyone who gave me tips and feedabck along the way. Now I just need to figure out a way to beat OpenAI for product of the month
Everyone has a hobby or passion that they love. What s yours? How do you like to spend your free time, and why does it bring you joy? Share your hobbies and maybe you ll inspire someone else to try something new!
We spent weeks obsessing over reducing our signup steps. We removed email verifications, cut down profile setup, and made everything a single click experience certain that drop offs wese happening due to friction.
Retention barely budged. But when we actually looked at the users who completed the quick signup, they churned within 48 hours because they had no idea how to set up their workspace. Adding a bit of purposeful friction (like a quick setup wizard) actually improved our long-term retention.
It made me realize that fast onboarding isn't always better onboarding if it skips user education.
How do you strike the balance between a frictionless signup and making sure users actually understand the product's value?
Before I let a model build something now, I ask myself one question. If this tool disappeared tomorrow, could I rebuild this myself?
The answer does not have to be yes. Some things I build are genuinely throwaway, and that is fine. But I need to know which kind I am building before I start, because the two projects need completely different decisions.
