22 directories, 10 channels, 23 days: 8 signups and zero paying customers
- 0
- Paying customers
- 8
- Signups
- Not disclosed
- Budget
- 23 days
- Duration
Muhammad Haris Zafar pushed ColdCraft across 22 AI directories, about 15 listing sites and daily posts on nine social channels. In 23 days: 8 signups, 0 paying. Directories and social posts produced no traceable signups; community posts and one-on-one conversations produced all of them.
01The problem
Get a new cold-outreach tool its first customers with no audience.
02The experiment
He submitted ColdCraft to 22 AI directories and to AlternativeTo, G2, Capterra, Peerlist, BetaPage and about 15 other listing sites. He posted daily across LinkedIn, Twitter, Quora, Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Threads, wrote two Medium articles, started a LinkedIn newsletter and reached the Indie Hackers front page on day 8.
Separately, he posted a beta-tester call across Skool and Discord communities on one day, and had one-on-one conversations where he ran the product for people on a real prospect.
03Results
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Signupsin 23 days | 8 |
| Paying customers | 0 |
| AI directories submittedplus about 15 other listing sites | 22 |
| Signups from directories“zero signups I can trace” | 0 |
| Spend | Not disclosed |
“Not disclosed” means the source doesn't say. We never estimate or fill in missing numbers.
04What worked — and what didn't
What worked
- A beta-tester post across Skool and Discord communities on the same day (12 people on the site at once)
- One-on-one conversations, offering to run the product on a real prospect
What didn't work
- 22 AI directories and listing sites: zero traceable signups
- Daily Reels, Quora and Twitter posts: zero traceable signups
- Broadcast content with no existing audience
05Lessons
With no audience, skip the content calendar and find 10 people to have real conversations with.
“Posting content daily gives you something to do. It doesn't give you customers.”
06Source & evidence
- View original
Originally shared on Indie Hackers · Aug 7, 2026
23 days of distributing a SaaS. Here's exactly what happened
Public source. Extracted from publicly available content by the founder.
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