🚀 My First Real Startup: The Rise (and Flatline) of CoLaunchly

I never thought I’d write a post like this. But here we are. This is the story of my first real startup.

It’s called CoLaunchly. A tool I built to help devs like me actually market their apps instead of letting them die in silence.

Let’s rewind a bit.

🤯 Why I Built It

The “aha” moment? I realised I’m not the only dev who sucks at marketing.

We build cool apps. Then they just sit there. No launch. No reach. No traction. Dead before they even breathe.

Sure, GPT can help you write tweets or Reddit posts, but it's messy. It forgets stuff. It doesn't know your app. It’s not... built for launching.

So I thought what if there was a tool just for that?

Something to help solo founders plan, write, and launch with a bit more structure and support?

Boom. CoLaunchly was born.

🔧 The Build

I built the MVP solo. Took about 1–2 weeks. Full-stack.

Next.js 15, Tailwind 4, Drizzle ORM, Neon DB, OpenAI, Kinde auth, Resend, Stripe you name it.

Used every shiny tool I liked. Some overkill? Maybe. But I was vibing.

There were no cofounders. Just me, my laptop, and a fridge full of Red Bulls.

Being solo has pros: no meetings, full focus, total clarity.

But it also means: you do everything. And fast.

Luckily, we live in the AI era.

🚨 Launch Day: Product Hunt

Let me be honest I didn’t really have a launch strategy.

I posted everywhere. Even got a little spammy (sorry internet).

But it worked.

🏆 #4 Product of the Day on Product Hunt

🥈 #2 Marketing Product of the Week

👥 300+ users

💵 $100+ in revenue

I was hyped. It felt like the thing was working.

📉 And Then... People Ghosted

After a couple of months, the signs were clear.

People signed up. Played around. And then… nothing.

No returning users. No community. Crickets.

And it felt weird.

I wanted feedback. I wanted users to stick. But I didn’t really get either.

It’s part of the game, I guess.

💡 What Worked (and What Flopped)

✅ The project creation + content generation felt solid.

✅ The content calendar UI? Clean.

❌ The biggest irony? Marketing. The product was a marketing tool... and still didn’t reach enough people.

❌ I expected too much from passive growth. Didn’t push enough.

🧠 What I Learned

Marketing needs to be louder. Soft launch = silent death.
Building community is hard. Especially from zero.
Being a solo founder is not like being a solo dev. Burnout hits different.

🛑 Burnout

Yeah, I hit a wall. Hard.

12-hour dev days? I could do that.

But solo-founding? It drains you differently.

I took a break. Two months off. Still kinda on break.

I’m now cleaning up my lifestyle:

☕ Cutting down Red Bulls

🛌 Sleeping more

🥗 Eating better

📵 Ordering less junk

📦 So, Is CoLaunchly Dead?

Kind of. For now.

I might revamp it later got some secret ideas. But I’m not forcing it.

I’m focusing on other things. On myself too.

And honestly? That’s okay.

👋 If You’re Thinking of Building Something...

Do it.

Seriously.

Even if it flops. Even if no one comes back. Even if it burns you out a little.

You’ll grow like crazy. You’ll learn more than any course can teach you.

Just… try to validate a bit more. Sell before you build. And don’t expect magic.

Each person has their own style. You’ll find yours.

Thanks for reading.

If you ever launched something and it didn’t go as planned welcome to the club. Let’s keep building. ⚡