I launched solo — and made it to the Top 5 today 🚀
Hey Product Hunt! 👋
This morning I launched my first solo product ever: Controol — a minimalist finance app built around one idea:
Know how much you can spend, not just what you already did.
No team. No paid ads. No launch list. Just late nights and building something I personally needed.
I honestly didn’t expect much… but hours later, it made it to the Top 5 of the day 😳
The feeling? Wild.
Strangers are connecting with the mindset behind it, and it's been amazing to read their comments.
So if you’re:
Working on your first solo product
Launching without an audience
Wondering if it’s even worth it…
Here’s your sign: Do it anyway.
💬 I’d love to hear from others launching alone.
What was your first solo launch like?
Replies
Trangram
Congrats on reaching the top 5! I'm launching @Mathstick today too – the hardest puzzle game ever 😱. It’s actually my second launch here. I remember having super high hopes for my first one. Just like you, I had no team, no launch list, no promotions, no marketing outside PH – I didn’t notify registered users either. I learned a lot from that experience, but honestly, doing a pure launch like that still feels rewarding to me, no matter the outcome, so I still keep it this way and posted my story behind it :)
Big congrats again on your successful launch – you did great!
Controol App
@derek_liu_dev Hey!
Huge respect for doing it all solo again — and yeah, I feel the same. There’s something really special about launching raw, without overthinking the promotion side. Just putting it out there and seeing how people connect with it.
I’ll definitely check out Mathstick, sounds intense already 😅
Trangram
@maxi_carreras ⚠️ Heads up! These matchstick puzzles aren’t just hard — they’re “even-ChatGPT-gave-up” hard. But if you ever solve one puzzle, congrats: you’ve officially outsmarted an AI trained on everything.
Milestone Content Studio
Controol App
@siddharthpereira Thank you so much 🙌
Honestly, it already felt like a huge win seeing people resonate with the idea. Now it’s time to push further and help more people take control of their money (without the usual guilt).
Let’s go 🚀
minimalist phone: creating folders
Hey Maxi, have you been doing anything like documenting your building journey on Social media?
Or is it just pure traffic from PH?
Controol App
@busmark_w_nika Hey! I haven’t really documented the journey much on social media — it was mostly just building quietly and then launching on PH.
I did share it on a few Reddit communities and X after it went live, but honestly, it was all very improvised 😅
Thinking now it might be worth sharing more of the behind-the-scenes moving forward!
minimalist phone: creating folders
@maxi_carreras Gotcha, so stealth then :) Exactly, recommend documenting this journey. Maybe posting this exact text on socials would be a good experiment and start :)
@maxi_carreras - share more behind the scenes on the Controol forum!
Controol App
Wow, welldone!
I'd love to know how you did it.
My team and I are looking to launch a product soon.
I am totally new here too!
Controol App
Congratulations on the top 5 @maxi_carreras ! It's an amazing product with real value behind it, which is far more important than building a cash grab!
You should be super proud! Hopefully, I'll be able to follow your footsteps with my launch on Tuesday. 🤞🏼
Controol App
@maxi_carreras Love it! Thanks for the support!
Congratulations on your successful launch @maxi_carreras! I am also excited on my upcoming launch.
What I believe is, if you want to go fast then go alone, but if you want to go away then you will need a team.
Controol App
Congratulations! It must be truly a great feeling! Wishing you the best!
Controol App
Highlights.Email
Congratulations! Controol looks amazing and making it to the Top 5 is no easy feat so fair play!
My first solo launch was today as well and my story is very similar to yours - just me building something I personally needed: Highlights.Email — a solution to export book highlights from a Kobo wirelessly. And similar to yourself, I didn't expect much from the launch today so I'm very happy to have made it to the Top 10 of the day! :)
Controol App
Huge kudos on the launch and making it to the Top 5 — that’s incredible, especially as a solo builder 👏
I’m actually planning to launch my own project on Product Hunt soon, and to be honest, it’s a bit overwhelming with all the advice floating around online. Since you just went through it, I’d really appreciate any tips or things you wish you knew before launching. Would love to learn from your experience!
Controol App
@parth_ahir Thanks so much — really appreciate the kind words!
Totally get what you’re feeling. There’s a lot of advice out there, and it can be overwhelming, especially when you’re launching solo.
Here are 3 quick things I’d keep in mind:
Don’t overthink the prep — I launched without a list, audience or plan. Just made sure the product was clear and useful.
Engage early — replying to every comment and being present throughout the day helped a lot.
It’s not about the votes — the real win is the feedback and the connections you make.
CodeDesign.ai
This looks like a really easy to use expense tracker, congrats on your launch will try it out soon!
Controol App
@rince Thanks so much! That’s exactly what I was aiming for — something simple and stress-free.
Would love to hear your thoughts once you try it!
Product Hunt
Congrats!! Make sure to check today's newsletter when it goes out! ;)
Controol App
@aaronoleary Wow, thanks so much! Super curious now 👀 — I’ll definitely keep an eye on the newsletter. Appreciate the heads-up!
Hi @maxi_carreras ! This was such a good thing to read on a Monday — thank you for sharing it so honestly 🙌
I’m preparing to launch my first solo product soon too, and the hesitation is real… especially for all the reasons you mentioned: no audience, no team, no idea if anyone will care.
It’s super inspiring to see your experience turn out like this — congrats on hitting the Top 5! 🎉
Quick question: did you prepare your launch in other platforms too (like LinkedIn or Twitter)? How many people did you have involved in supporting you on Product Hunt the day of the launch?
I keep going back and forth on whether it’s really worth launching solo without an audience — and how to actually build one without spending months just building an audience first. Would love to hear any tips you’ve picked up along the way!
@maxi_carreras I was also wondering? How did you decide which day to launch? Any reason why you launched in a sunday? Thanks again!
Controol App
@maxi_carreras Thanks so much for taking the time to share all this — honestly, it means a lot! 🙏
I love your approach. There’s something really refreshing (and encouraging!) about launching without overthinking or overplanning, and just putting your work out there because it matters. The Sunday strategy is such a smart move too — I hadn’t thought of that!
Thanks for the support, I think I will stop posposing and launch sooner than expected ;)
Huge congrats, Maxi - this is fantastic! Hard work clearly pays off!
I'm in a similar situation: launching ContextGem (an open-source LLM framework) solo later today 😊. And just like you - no team yet, no paid ads, no lists. Instead, I've had the privilege of collaborating with amazing AI devs who have used my framework and provided valuable feedback.
This is my first launch on Product Hunt, so we'll see how it goes, but it's definitely exciting! Hearing your story reinforces my belief that with enough effort and persistence, anything is possible!
Controol App
Congrats on the Top 5. I've previously launched without an audience, and to be honest, it was a great experience. I got many users from PH, and the most important thing that I got, was experience.
Planning to launch my new product soon.
Controol App
@maxi_carreras Thanks for the best wishes & looking forward to your support.
Product Hunt
This is awesome, congrats!! Moments like these is what I love about Product Hunt :)
I'm prepping some apps to launch as a solo-maker but the experience is definitely more daunting than expected. I also find dogfooding or getting folks to test a bit harder than if I had a counterpart to test alongside with.
Controol App
@gabe Thanks so much! 🙌 Yeah, those little moments of validation really make all the difference, especially when you're building solo.
Totally feel you — testing alone and getting real feedback early on can be tough. What helped me was putting out a raw version early and just being super transparent about the “why” behind the product.
If you ever want someone to give feedback or just bounce ideas off of, feel free to DM me. Happy to help 🙌
Congrats man! This is SO huge in the solo founder space. You definitely need to pat yourself on the back for this win!
I'm a solo founder myself and launching my first web-app in the next 24 hours or so. Learning a ton already about creating an interactive PH listing, improving my video, higher quality landing page, etc.
Your app really goes to show what "build it and they will come" means and is incredibly motivating for people like me just starting out. Congrats again!
Looking forward to seeing where you take this project!
Controol App
Congratulations. How long have you been working on this?
Controol App
@admiralrohan Thanks so much! I’ve been working on Controol for about 2 months — solo builder, lots of late nights 😅
It’s been a quick build, but I focused on solving one core problem really well. Now comes the fun part: improving it with real feedback.
@maxi_carreras Amazing, good luck.
Graphify
Hey, that's exactly why I love Product Hunt so much, even as a solo founder you can get to the top of the boards. Congrats on your launch and keep up the hustle 🤝
Congratulations that is amazing!
I've been launching on producthunt for over 5 years.
I've been featured several times but to become a top spot of the day is really amazing so well done it does mean your idea resonates with lots of people;
Controol App
Thats amazing!! We all know launching successfully on PH is a dream all startup founders want to live. So great you could live that IRL :). I am preparing of a PH launch and can relate to your experience completely. Wishing you many great successes, @maxi_carreras !!
Controol App