u/DexTer__77

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Ciao a tutti 🙂

Sono Maitreya dall’India e lavoro da circa 4 anni nello sviluppo software, principalmente nel settore app, prodotti digitali e strumenti AI.

In passato ho collaborato anche con una startup europea su un progetto mobile e ho imparato molto sulla collaborazione internazionale e sullo sviluppo prodotto.

Ultimamente mi sto dedicando molto a idee personali, startup e nuove tecnologie, e ho trovato molto interessante il confronto qui nel subreddit.

Mi farebbe piacere conoscere nuove persone, scambiare esperienze e imparare da altri freelance, founder e imprenditori 🙂

E sì, parlo anche un po’ di tedesco 😄

Hey everyone 👋

I’m Maitreya, a software developer from India with around 4 years of experience building apps, digital products and AI-based tools.

Over the past few years I’ve worked with international teams, including a European startup where I helped on a mobile app project. Most of my experience has been around MVP development, product iteration and turning early-stage ideas into working products.

Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time building my own projects while also learning more about the startup ecosystem across Europe and the UK.

I joined this community mainly to connect with founders, developers and people building interesting things. Always happy to exchange experiences around startups, product building, AI or tech in general.

Would love to hear what everyone here is currently working on 🙂

Hey zusammen 🙂

Ich bin Maitreya aus Indien und arbeite seit ungefähr 4 Jahren in der Softwareentwicklung, hauptsächlich im Bereich Apps, digitale Produkte und AI-Tools.

In der Vergangenheit habe ich unter anderem mit einem europäischen Startup an einer Mobile-App gearbeitet und dabei viel über internationale Zusammenarbeit und Produktentwicklung gelernt.

Aktuell beschäftige ich mich viel mit eigenen Ideen, Startups und neuen Technologien und fand den Austausch hier im Subreddit sehr spannend.

Ich freue mich darauf, neue Leute kennenzulernen, Erfahrungen auszutauschen und von anderen Selbständigen und Gründern zu lernen 🙂

Und ja, ein bisschen Deutsch spreche ich auch 😄

Recently worked on an MVP with a Europe-based team and it got me thinking a bit about how different teams approach early-stage builds.

What stood out to me wasn’t really the tech side, but more the way decisions were made. There was a lot more time spent getting alignment before anything was built, especially around product direction and UX. At first it felt a bit slow, but as things progressed, there were noticeably fewer changes and less backtracking.

It kind of shifted how I think about the whole “move fast” mindset. Speed still matters, but clarity early on seemed to save time later in ways I didn’t fully appreciate before.

Now I’m wondering if this is something more common across EU startups, or if it just depends on the team.

How do you usually approach MVPs? Do you prefer moving quickly and iterating, or spending more time upfront getting things right?

I used to rely on the usual email tools most SaaS founders use.

You know how it goes. Starts simple, pricing feels fine… then your list grows and suddenly you’re paying way more for something that still sends pretty average emails.

It felt like I had very little control over what actually goes out. So I scrapped the whole thing and built my own setup. It’s honestly much simpler than it sounds.

No dashboards. No heavy tools. Just AI + a tiny bit of code doing exactly what I need.

Here’s what I’m doing now:

1. First, I cleaned up my user data. Nothing fancy. Just a CSV or JSON with basic context like name, last interaction, what they care about.
2. This part made a bigger difference than anything else.
3. Then I pass that data + my intent into an AI coding agent and have it generate emails that actually sound like they were written for that one person.
4. Not templates. Not generic blasts.
5. Then I use the same AI to write a small script to send those emails. Basic logic, handles failures, includes unsubscribe, and I always test it on myself first.
6. After that, I deploy it on Cloudflare Workers.

Took a few minutes. No servers. No maintenance.

What surprised me most is that, the emails perform better. They feel human. Replies went up. And I’m not locked into someone else’s pricing or system anymore.

That said, I learned this the hard way that If you don’t warm up your domain, respect consent, and start small… none of this matters. You’ll just land in spam.

Now I’m curious how others here are handling email. Are you sticking with tools or building your own stack?

Also thinking of turning this into a small service if more people are dealing with the same problem.

Most SaaS founders I know are quietly overpaying for email tools.

They start cheap, then as your list grows, pricing creeps up. And even after paying more, the emails still feel… generic. Like you’re blasting everyone with the same thing.

That never sat right with me. So I tried something different.

I stopped using traditional email platforms and built a simple system using AI + a bit of code. Nothing crazy. No dashboards. No complex setup.

Here’s roughly what I did:

1. First, I cleaned up my data. Just a basic CSV with things like name, last interaction, what they actually care about. This part matters way more than people think.
2. Then I fed that data along with my email intent into an AI coding agent and asked it to generate emails that actually sound human and personal. Not marketing fluff. Not templates.
3. Then I used the same AI to write a small script to send those emails using Resend. Just simple logic, handling errors, making sure unsubscribe works, and testing it on myself first.
4. Finally, I deployed it using Cloudflare Workers. Took a few minutes. No servers, nothing to maintain.
5. What surprised me the most wasn’t just the cost savings.

The emails actually perform better. They feel like they were written for one person, not a list. And I’m not locked into someone else’s system or pricing anymore.

That said, this isn’t something to rush. You still need to warm up your domain properly. Respect consent. Make unsubscribing easy. Start small before scaling.

Otherwise even good emails will end up in spam. Curious how others here are handling email. What’s been the hardest part for you so far?

A little bit of background to myself: I am not an AI (just to answer the comments that will be coming asjkf). In the last 3 years, I have unvoluntarily become a professional in scaling products from 0 to 1 - meaning to a scale where some kind of demand is proven and a constant revenue is flowing. Not that I have built a massively successful tool with 100k + users but i have had my fair share of micro exits (8k, 7k, 4k, 16k USD).

From my last exit I have started to notice a pattern of how i super easily reach 100 users each time and get important feedback early on to decide if I keep going or abandon the project. Majority of projects have been in B2C edtech but it worked also for other B2C nisches. I have got no idea about B2B.

Also worth mentioning, before even starting distribution, I usually spend time understanding what people are already looking for or building around. Even simple things like browising Google or browsing libraries like startup-ideas db (you can find it on google) helps ground the idea in some kind of demand before I push it out.

1. Write 10 Reddit comments per day under competitors posts: "traffic hijacking". just google company X "reddit"
2. In the first week, publish in 50 startup directories or Github, etc. to have an initial backlink profile. It will be our basis for the SEO for the following month. There are services out there that do it for you in case you got money to spend
3. Engage on 5 X posts per day of your competitors founders posts or company posts. Post 1x on X yourself.
4. Write 10 Tiktok comments each day with different accounts under your competitors posts. They will most likely run UGC campaigns that target your audience already. mention your brand there but without a link.
5. Write 5 Instagram comments each day with different accounts under your competitors posts. Follow 10 people of these likers each day with your company instagram account. It will give you visibility - maybe not users but definitely brand awareness.
6. Make sure your landing page is SEO optimized - proper keywords, blog article structure, internal linking from day 1. In case that is already achieved, start writing blog articles and publish free tools on your target keywords. Include external links as well as internal links. From now, start publishing and indexing 5 new pages per day for the first week. Then wait. This SEO will compound throughout the next month.

This is how I grew and sold my previous platform in just 4 months at 10k organic clicks per month. and this is also how i got my first 100 users in 7 days again.

System just works. Do not automate it with ai at least not in the beginning. its too risky getting your accounts banned.