Indie10K: 14d since Open Beta, 626 Active Users, 90 Beta Users and 10d to D-Day

Alright, here’s where Indie10k is at. D-Day (Oct 1, 2025) is just 10 days away. Core features are frozen—no more “just one last tweak.” That door’s closed. Bugfixes and little onboarding touch-ups? Still welcome. But big shiny features? Nope.

We’ve got 626 active users. All organic. No ads, no growth hacks, no SEO flywheel. Just me rambling on IndieHackers, a bit of Reddit cold reach, and the general chaos of building in public.

Two weeks after open beta, we hit 90 beta testers. Half created projects. Half of those created arcs. Numbers sound a little leaky? Yeah, but here’s the truth: that drop-off is mostly my fault. I didn’t migrate v1 data to v2, so a bunch of people basically looked like ghosts in the funnel. Fresh v2 users are moving through arcs way smoother. Lesson learned: sometimes analytics lie because your product history is messy.

The Market & the Need

So, what’s the vibe out there?

Turns out indie devs aren’t short on ideas. What we're short on is momentum. Shipping once and stalling forever. Picking random growth tactics until we're dizzy. That’s the pain I’m trying to solve.

Indie10k isn’t another Trello clone. It’s neither a $89 playbook articles gathering dust in your Notion folder. It’s not a Discord server where you feel guilty for lurking. It’s a system. A loop. A growth gym where you don’t just talk about building your SaaS—you actually move, one repeatable week at a time.

Competitors (a.k.a. The Alternatives People Reach For)

Playbook Sellers → Great content, but static. Once you’ve read the PDF, you’re on your own.

AI Coaches → Fun to chat with, sure. But without structure, you’re just bouncing from tip to tip, great for idea validation and building prototypes. But for long term consistent growth? Not sure.

Communities → Solid accountability (if you’re active). But easy to slip into “silent observer” mode.

None of these are bad. In fact, lots of people find value there. But they all miss the thing I think matters most: momentum built inside a structured path.

That’s the Indie10k UVP: 👉 A living, compounding system designed to get you from idea to $10k MRR without losing momentum.

The Stripe Elephant

Here’s my embarrassing confession: I still haven’t tested Stripe integration. Yup. Ten days out. Smirk emoji.

This is the single riskiest part right now. Without payments, I don’t know if people will actually pay for the growth gym. Engagement is promising, activation is decent, but money talks. That’s priority number one before launch day: test Stripe. Even if it’s just a dumb little checkout flow.

What’s Next (10-Day Sprint)

Stripe → test, test, test.

Onboarding polish → smooth out the project → arc flow.

Story prep → explain the migration artifact openly (so it’s not “drop-off” but “messy data”).

Launch posts → IndieHackers, Reddit, maybe Twitter/X if I can stomach it.

Final Take

We’ve validated the need. We’ve got a user base (600+ real humans, not bots). The UVP is clear: structured path to $10k MRR momentum. Competitors exist, but nobody’s doing this exact thing.

Now it’s about one thing: turning momentum into money.

Oct 1 is coming fast. Let’s see if the loop works.