Here are the core tactics from the Starter Story interview, “How I Used Reddit to Hit $17K MRR (With ZERO Audience),” featuring App Alchemy founder Diego Roshardt.
TL;DR:
- The Core Idea: You don’t need a personal brand or thousands of followers to succeed. Reddit is an underrated marketing channel that offers massive, free, and hyper-targeted reach through its subreddits.
- The Golden Rule: Provide Value First, Plug Second. Never create a post that is about your product. Instead, create a post that provides real value (a case study, a guide, an analysis) and subtly link your product at the end as a helpful resource.
- The Perfect Post Structure: 1) A catchy, curiosity-driven headline. 2) A body of content that delivers value to the community. 3) A natural link to your product at the end.
- The Subreddit Hack: Use the Reddit Ads tool (for free) to discover dozens of relevant subreddits. Simply start creating a campaign, and look at the community suggestions in the targeting section. You’ll get a massive list without spending a dime.
The Reddit Marketing Playbook: From $0 to $17k MRR with No Followers
Diego Roshardt built App Alchemy, a SaaS that uses AI to design mobile app interfaces, to $17k MRR in just four months. The incredible part? He did it with less than 100 followers on X and no other social channels. His entire initial success came from a single source: Reddit.
Quick Backstory: Scratching His Own Itch
- The Product: App Alchemy, an AI tool for rapid mobile app design.
- The Origin: Diego experienced the pain firsthand of paying hundreds of dollars for a designer on Upwork and getting charged extra for every small revision. He realized AI could solve this.
- The Speed: He built the MVP in just two weeks. His advice for devs: use popular, established libraries (better AI support) and UI component libraries (Chakra UI, Ant Design) to build faster.
The 5-Step Reddit Marketing Playbook
Diego argues that Reddit is the most underrated marketing channel for two reasons: (1) Massive free reach and (2) Precise targeting through niche communities (subreddits). This is his 5-step playbook.
Step 1: Become a Real Reddit User
Don’t just create an account and start spamming. Use Reddit daily. This helps you:
- Learn the culture: Understand what kind of posts perform well and which ones get hated.
- “Warm up” your account: Reddit automatically filters posts from new accounts. You need a history of activity to build trust.
Step 2: Build a Massive Subreddit List
Volume is key. You need to post in many places to increase your chances of going viral.
- The Hack: Use the Reddit Ads tool (no payment required). Go to the Reddit Ads page and start creating a new campaign. In the targeting section, type in a keyword related to your product (e.g., “no-code”). The tool will suggest a long list of related subreddits. Collect them all.
Step 3: Craft a “Value-First” Organic Post
This is the most critical step. Most people fail on Reddit because their posts are pushy and overtly promotional.
Diego’s Formula: Value First, Plug Second.
- Start with a catchy headline: Never use a title like “Launching my new product X.” Create a title that sparks curiosity and promises value.
- Provide value upfront: Don’t mention your product immediately. Write a case study, an analysis, or a helpful guide for that specific community. For example, Diego wrote a post analyzing a successful mobile app he found on Twitter.
- Plug your product naturally: After delivering a ton of value, link your product at the end of the post, framing it as a tool that helped you with your analysis or as a relevant solution.
- Tip for strict subreddits: To avoid getting banned for self-promotion, plug a complimentary product alongside yours. For instance, Diego plugs Cursor (a dev tool) next to his design tool, App Alchemy. This makes the post look less like spam.
Step 4: Post in Volume
Take the high-quality post you’ve created and share it across multiple subreddits from your list. Even if no single post goes viral, if you post in 10 subreddits and each gets 10k views, you’ve just generated 100k free impressions.
Step 5: Repeat and Be Consistent
Experiment with different content formats (videos, case studies, discussions) to see what works best in your niche. A good rule of thumb is to post 2-3 times per week. Any more than that, and you risk getting banned.
3 Other Key Lessons
- Build in a growing market: Don’t build a tool for newspaper owners (a dying market). Build a tool for something like live-coding (an exploding market).
- Marketing is not an afterthought: Spend a significant amount of your time on marketing right from the start, instead of adding more features that no one asked for.
- Speed is your greatest advantage: As a solo founder, leverage your ability to move quickly.