Built an AI tool for Indian jewellers with ₹0 budget — 0 paying customers yet. Here's what I learned in week 1.
Hi r/IndiaStartups 👋 I'm Suhail, solo founder from Saharanpur, UP. Built JewelViz — converts 1 mobile photo into 3 professional jewelry showcase images with Indian models and cultural settings. Honest numbers this week: — Jewellers personally visited: 20 — Instagram outreach: 15 — Website logins: 2 — Paying customers: 0 — Budget spent on marketing: ₹0 Biggest lesson: I was solving the wrong problem. I thought jewellers needed better photos. They actually need confidence — to not look fake in front of a customer sitting right in front of them. Same product. Completely different positioning. What actually worked: Specific personal messages on Instagram. Not copy paste. Told each jeweller something specific about their own jewelry — 13% login rate. Generic messages — zero response. Question for this community: Anyone here who has sold a digital tool to offline Indian businesses — how did you get your first paying customer? — Suhail