How do you solve the catch-22 of getting feedback without having an audience?
I keep running into this problem as an indie hacker:
I need an audience to get feedback.
I need feedback to grow an audience.
Classic catch-22.
Posting ideas on Reddit or Twitter usually gets me a few replies (2–3 if I’m lucky), but most of the time it’s just silence.
I’m experimenting with an idea for a platform where:
Every founder who posts gets guaranteed feedback within 24h.
It’s free if you engage and give feedback to others.
Or you can go Pro (pay) if you don’t want to bother.
A reputation system makes sure people stay active and helpful.
My question to you:
👉 Would this actually help indie hackers/founders validate faster?
👉 Or would it just end up as another community that fades away?
Curious to hear your thoughts 🙌
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Replies
I think your idea could work if the feedback stays genuine. Many communities die because replies feel forced. If reputation truly rewards quality, this might solve the catch-22 better than random Twitter posts.
CoLaunchly
@mahindra_pasman
That is a huge concern. Forced comments kill a community. The plan is to reward quality feedback. Helpful marks give you more reputation, and low effort replies do not give you any reputation at all. That way people are pushed to be thoughtful, not just fill a quota.
Sounds promising. As someone who struggles with early validation, guaranteed feedback is attractive. The trick: will enough thoughtful people engage long-term? If yes, it could become a go-to for founders starting out.
CoLaunchly
@allison_p_bain
I feel that, early validation is where most of us get stuck. The whole point of First100 is to make sure replies actually happen. Reputation slowly decays if you are inactive, and feedback marked helpful gives you more reputation than low effort comments. That way the system rewards thoughtful people and filters out spammy replies.
Yeah, I’ve felt that same loop, shouting into the void isn’t fun. A setup where feedback is guaranteed sounds like it could actually break that cycle, I'm trying to find something like that myself.
The trick, in my case, has felt like making sure people stick around after the first exchange. Maybe anchoring it around accountability (like tracking updates or follow-ups) could help keep the community alive.
CoLaunchly
@dheerajdotexe
That is exactly the loop I am trying to break. You post, nobody replies, you give up. With First100 replies are guaranteed, but you are right, the long term piece is about keeping people around after the first exchange. I really like the idea of adding accountability, like tracking updates or nudging follow ups, to make feedback part of an ongoing loop instead of a one time shot.
The biggest challenge I see is keeping user active long term, but if you nail that, this could stick.
CoLaunchly
@_vanessa_truman
You are right, that is probably the hardest part. The idea with First100 is that reputation slowly decays if you are inactive so you have to stay engaged. I am also thinking of rotating badges and small perks to make it fun, not just forced. Have you seen other communities that actually kept people engaged long term?
This resonates a lot, Alex. The “feedback without an audience” loop is probably one of the hardest early hurdles. In my experience, the most useful feedback rarely comes from broadcasting into the void, but from creating small circles of people who are building at the same stage and have the same urgency.
I like your idea because it forces reciprocity: if you want thoughtful feedback, you need to give it. That’s exactly how many of the strongest founder communities I’ve seen (Slack groups, niche Discords, even early YC forums) managed to stay alive. The reputation system could be the key, without it, communities slide into silence or low-quality comments.
From a founder’s lens: what I’d look for in something like this is quality over quantity. Even 3–5 pieces of specific, relevant feedback are worth more than 30 generic “good idea” comments. If your system helps filter for that, it could be genuinely useful and stand out from the sea of abandoned groups.
Curious; are you thinking of focusing this on all indie hackers broadly, or starting narrower with a niche (e.g., SaaS founders, AI builders) to seed higher-quality engagement first?
CoLaunchly
@dvlper
This hits exactly what I am aiming for. Reciprocity keeps people active, but the real unlock is making sure the feedback is specific and useful, not just filler. That is why the reputation system is weighted toward quality. Helpful marks give more reputation, low effort comments give none. The goal is 3–5 thoughtful replies that actually move your idea forward, not 30 empty ones.
On your question about niche, I think starting narrower makes sense. My thought is to seed it first with SaaS founders and indie hackers, then expand to other audiences once the system has proven it can keep quality high.
CoLaunchly
Quick update 🚀
Thanks for all the feedback on this thread it really clicked that I’m not the only one stuck in this audience/feedback loop.
Based on the positive response, I decided to build it out as FeedbackHunt: a hub where founders, indie hackers, solopreneurs, and developers trade feedback.
✅ Guaranteed replies within 24h
✅ Free if you give feedback to others
✅ Pro option if you just want to receive feedback
✅ Reputation system to keep the community active + helpful
I’ve now opened the waitlist 👉 feedbackhunt.co
Would love to hear what you think of the waitlist design + the direction so far 🙌