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u/darkdevu

▲ 1 r/EntrepreneurRideAlong

AntForms check-in: 0 to 306 users. I almost archived the repo twice.

Posting this as a progress update for anyone who wants to follow along. Numbers first, story after.

Where things stand

  • Total users: 306
  • Last 30 days: 164
  • MRR: early, moving
  • Months since launch: 2

January: built it out of frustration

I was paying Typeform $49/month on a product I used twice a month. Built AntForms instead. A lightweight form builder, no AI angle, no clever positioning. Solo, no co-founder, no budget.

February: launched to silence

23 days of zero users. I checked the dashboard every morning. Every morning: zero. I was still using Google Forms out of habit, which tells you everything.

Day 24: one stranger signed up, used it once, left. I screen-recorded the notification. That person never came back.

The two near-deaths

Day 23: I had the repo settings open to archive it. Got distracted. Closed the tab.

Week 7: 40 users. A friend told me the market might be rejecting it. I spent four days considering a pivot. I had nothing better to build, so I kept going.

What actually moved the numbers

A mobile bug was silently breaking conditional logic on forms. I fixed it. Users didn't notice, but forms stopped failing.

I removed one step from onboarding. Sign-up completion went up.

Three separate users mentioned CSV export over six weeks. I built it. Two of them came back.

No launches. No campaigns. Small fixes in the dark.

What I'm watching now

164 users in the last 30 days. I don't know exactly what drove it. My guesses: the mobile fix finally compounded, the homepage rewrite helped SEO, word of mouth from the CSV users. Probably some of each.

8 people asked for Zapier integration in the last two weeks. Building it now.

4 user calls this month pointed at the response dashboard as the main friction point. Working on that next.

Open questions I'm sitting with

At 306 users, how do you decide what to build vs what to market? I've been heads-down on product. I'm starting to think that was right until now but probably isn't right anymore.

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u/darkdevu — 15 hours ago
▲ 2 r/Solopreneur

I built a form builder alone, almost deleted it twice, and hit 306 users.

January. I was paying Typeform $49/month on a product I used twice a month. I spent the month building AntForms instead.

No co-founder. No funding. No plan beyond: make a form, get responses, skip the subscription.

February: I launched to no one. Shared the link with 3 people.

23 days of zeros. Every morning I opened the dashboard. Every morning: zero. I was still using Google Forms out of habit, which tells you something about how confident I was.

Day 24, a stranger signed up. They used it once and left. I've thought about them more than makes sense.

I almost closed it twice.

The first time, day 23: repo settings open, cursor on archive. Got distracted. Closed the tab. That's the gap between AntForms existing and not.

The second time, week 7: 40 users, a friend told me the market might be rejecting it. I spent four days considering a pivot. I had no better idea, so I kept building.

Between 40 and 306 users, I fixed a mobile bug, cut one step from onboarding, and added CSV export because three people mentioned it. None of it was interesting enough to post about. The product got less broken each week.

306 users now. 164 in the last 30 days. More than half my user base arrived in the last month.

I don't have a growth playbook. I kept building because I forgot to stop.

For any solo founder sitting at zero: I was at zero on day 23. I would have quit on day 23. I didn't because I got distracted at the right moment.

reddit.com
u/darkdevu — 15 hours ago
▲ 1 r/buildinpublic

AntForms: 0 to 306 users. Full breakdown, ugly early numbers included.

Sharing the full picture because the early data is the part people skip.

Stats

  • Users: 306
  • Last 30 days: 164 (54% of total)
  • MRR: small, growing
  • Time from launch to first user: 24 days
  • Near-shutdowns: 2

The product

AntForms is a lightweight form builder for devs and small teams. No AI angle. Built in January because I was paying Typeform $49/month on a product I barely used.

Months 1-2: launch and silence

Launched February with no audience. Days 1-23: 0 users. Day 24: one stranger signed up, used it once, left.

Week 7: 40 users. I almost archived the repo. A friend suggested the market might be rejecting it. I took it seriously for four days. I kept going because I had nothing better to build.

What moved the needle

Mobile bug fix: conditional logic was silently breaking on mobile forms. Fixing it didn't make headlines but stopped forms from failing.

Onboarding: removed one step. Sign-up completion went up.

CSV export: three separate users mentioned it in passing over 6 weeks. I built it. Two of them came back.

What's next

  • Zapier integration: 8 requests in the last two weeks
  • Better embed options: top friction point in support messages
  • Improving the response dashboard based on 4 user calls this month

Open questions I'm sitting with

Why did 164 users come in the last 30 days when growth was flat before? I have guesses: the mobile fix, better SEO from an updated homepage, word of mouth from those CSV users. I don't know which one.

u/darkdevu — 15 hours ago
▲ 39 r/microsaas+4 crossposts

I'm a mediocre developer who built something nobody asked for. It has 306 users now.

TL;DR: Idea in January. Launched February. 23 days of zeros. Almost deleted it twice. 306 users in April, 164 in the last 30 days.

The idea was embarrassing. I was paying for a form tool I used twice a month. I thought: build one. I spent January building AntForms, no AI angle, no niche pivot. Make a form, get responses, skip the $49/month.

I told myself it was scratching my own itch. It was also easier than admitting I had no better idea.

February: I launched. The first 23 days: 0 users.

Every day I opened the dashboard. Every day: zero. I was still using Google Forms out of habit.

One stranger signed up. Random, unexplained. I screen-recorded the notification. They never came back. I've thought about that person more than makes sense.

I almost closed it twice.

Late February: I opened the repo settings to archive it. Got distracted. Closed the tab.

Mid-March: A friend told me the market might be rejecting it. I took it seriously for four days. I had no better idea, so I kept going.

What keeping going looked like:

Fixed a mobile bug silently breaking conditional logic. Cleaned up onboarding by one step. Added CSV export because three people mentioned it. Boring, necessary work.

306 users today. 164 in the last 30 days.

More than half my user base arrived in the last month. Growth is compounding and I can't tell you why now and not earlier. I would have archived the repo and never seen it.

If you're staring at a dashboard that won't move: the form builder survived because I kept forgetting to delete it.

What almost made you walk away from yours?

u/darkdevu — 15 hours ago
▲ 33 r/buildinpublic+4 crossposts

Bootstrapped a SaaS from idea to 300 users in 3 months. No funding, no co-founder. The honest version.

TL;DR: Built Ant Forms (a form builder SaaS) as a solo founder. Idea in January, launched in February, 300 users by April. Zero funding. The unfiltered version.

---

January 2026: I had an idea for a better form builder. Not revolutionary. A tool I needed that didn't exist the way I wanted it to.

I didn't write a business plan. Didn't make a pitch deck. Didn't talk to VCs. I opened my code editor and started building.

Sounds romantic. It wasn't.

The reality of building alone:

Week 1 was exciting. Week 2 was productive. Week 3 was "why did I start this." Week 4 was "I should just get a normal job."

I kept going. Not from motivation. I had already invested enough time that quitting felt worse.

February: I launched with a product I wasn't proud of.

The landing page had a typo. The onboarding flow was confusing. Half-built features hidden behind flags. I hit publish anyway.

I'd read enough to know founders who wait for perfect never launch.

The first 100 users came slowly. One by one. I checked analytics every hour.

Then things got real.

Users wanted features I hadn't planned. They found bugs I didn't know existed. Someone emailed me at midnight asking for webhook support. I built it that night because I was scared of losing a user.

That’s not sustainable. But early on, you do what you have to.

March was survival mode. Fixing, shipping, talking to users, fixing again. No weekends.

April 2026: 300 users.

- Revenue: Early, growing
- Funding: Zero
- Team: Just me
- Mental health: Rough

What I'd tell someone starting today:

  1. Your idea doesn’t need to be unique. Execution matters more.
  2. Indian users are forgiving if you're responsive. I reply to everyone.
  3. Bootstrapping is freedom and pressure at the same time.
  4. Talk to users before investors.
  5. The loneliness is the hardest part.

---

I don't know if this becomes a big company. I don't know if it reaches 3,000 users or 30.

Going from zero to something real in 3 months, alone, with no funding: I’m proud of that.

For other bootstrapped founders here: what was your "I almost quit" moment? What made you stay?

u/darkdevu — 1 day ago