Why this r/SaaS post worked
“Finally got my first paying customer. Took way longer than I expected” by u/HeyDearLea
What the Rankhog extension showed
This is what the free Rankhog extension for Chrome showed on this post: how fast it was getting upvotes and a score out of 100. After you sign in, every post in your Reddit feed gets one next to Share. The best ones get a word.
Why it worked
Someone posted in r/saas that they finally got their first paying customer. The title says it took way longer than they expected. They admit most of their past projects went nowhere, and that a few months ago they stopped chasing new ideas and stuck with one simple tool. The money is small, they say, but someone paying for something they built feels different from signups or nice comments.
This landed because it is a first-person story with no bragging. Almost nobody downvoted it, 97% of votes were up, and it pulled in 75 comments. The ending asks how long your first paying customer took, and what got you from one to ten. That turns a small win into a question people want to answer. The short paragraphs help too, since the whole thing reads in under a minute.
Two moves worth copying. Share a small real win and admit its limits out loud, like they did when they said the money was tiny. Then end with one question that asks others for their own numbers and what worked. That is what fills the comments.
What we measured
- Told in the first person
- Short paragraphs rather than one block of text
- Almost no downvotes (97% upvoted)
Want posts like this for your product?
Rankhog finds people on Reddit asking for what you sell, writes replies in your voice, and helps you not get banned. Grow new accounts and run many at once.
More posts that worked in r/SaaS
I built a cool product, but no one cares
They posted a link to their product with the title "I built a cool product, but no one cares". The post is a few lines. They say it solves a...
Broken down
Don't fall for the "how I hit $10k MRR" posts here
Someone posted a callout in r/saas with the title "Don't fall for the "how I hit $10k MRR" posts here". Lots of success stories on the sub...
Broken down
At what point do you stop building and accept that nobody wants your product? (3 months, 1,400 commits, 0 users)
They asked a hard question about giving up. Someone spent 3 months building a lighter version of Notion, pushed 1,400 commits, and got 0...
Broken down
I spent $6,000 and 7 months building an app. I have 4 paying customers. And somehow, I've never been more excited.
The post was about someone who spent $6,000 and seven months building an app called Hylura. They had four paying customers. They came from...
Broken down