u/Annual-Chart9466

Back in June I got my first paying customer after months of $0 MRR.

$9.99. $10.49 with VAT.

I know that's not a lot, but that "Woohoo! You made a sale!" email after staring at $0 for months felt insane. Still one of the best feelings I've had building this.

I've been trying to make SaaS work for almost a year. Cloakly is a 1-click screen hider. You hit a hotkey and it hides your windows and desktop icons so you don't share something private on a Zoom call. Simple idea, but I overbuilt it for months.

Windows version, blur modes, selective hiding. I kept telling myself "one more feature then I'll market it" while analytics showed barely anyone visiting. Way too much time building, not enough talking to people.

At some point I realized I was hiding behind dev work, because coding is easier than asking people to use your stuff.

So I started posting on Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and TikTok about screen-share fails. No product pitch, just relatable pain. That's how people found it.

One person signed up for free, actually used it, and gave me feedback on what was broken for his setup. I fixed it. Then I asked him directly if he'd pay once I fixed it. He said yes.

June 12th: first payment - Lemon Squeezy "wooooooo! You been paid!"
Today, Aug 19th: $420.58 total from June 1 to Aug 19

No huge launch. No viral tweet. Just one person with a real problem, talking to him, fixing what he needed.

Biggest lesson: I spent months worrying about SEO, landing pages, pricing. Getting one person to care taught me more than all of that.

Still very early. $420 doesn't mean I figured out SaaS. But it's a start after $0. Now I just need to do it again. And again.

If you're stuck at signups but no pays, talk to those people before building another feature. I wish I did earlier.

How did the rest of you get your first paying users? Was it one conversation like this or something completely different?

So Cloakly has been out of beta for a minute now, and the feedback loop is still completely unhinged. First, half the internet was convinced I’d built the ultimate interview-cheating machine. Now, I just got a massive essay from a remote manager arguing that tools like this are a "threat to team accountability" because colleagues have a right to see exactly what’s on your desktop during a live share.

Honestly? Hard disagree.

When I’m giving a codebase walkthrough or a live client demo, my team needs to see the code and the UI. They don’t need to see my personal banking tabs, a private message from my fiancée, or the messy ocean of random desktop icons I forgot to clear out.

To me, forcing people to expose their entire digital footprint just to share a single window isn't "transparency", t's a privacy tax. Presentation anxiety is a very real thing, and having to meticulously close 15 apps before every single Zoom or Teams call just to feel safe is exhausting.

I coded Cloakly to act as a digital privacy shield, not a way to slack off. It lets you keep your private notes or sensitive apps perfectly visible to you (even semi-transparent so you can look "through" them to the shared window behind), while your audience sees a completely clean, pristine desktop with zero taskbar clutter.

But it got me thinking about the line we draw in remote culture. Is it "gatekeeping information" to want a hard boundary between your local workspace and a team screen share? Or is the expectation of absolute screen visibility just overreaching micromanagement?

Curious to hear how you guys balance basic digital privacy with everyday corporate calls.

Live at: https://www.getcloakly.com/

I spent months doing 15-min calls with remote workers. Not demos, just asking about that moment before they hit "Share Screen."

What I expected to hear:

• "I need better privacy controls"
• "I want to block notifications"
• "Security is important"

What 41 out of 47 actually said:

• "I don't want my boss seeing I'm on LinkedIn"
• "I close 10 tabs because I'm scared my bank account pops up"
• "I almost shared my therapy notes to a client last month"
• "It's not about privacy, I just don't want to look stupid"

Not one person asked for granular settings. They all described the same 2-minute panic ritual of closing everything manually.

People don't want to manage complex privacy profiles while a Zoom call is waiting on them. They just want a panic button.

That’s why I pivoted the way I built Cloakly.

Instead of making you configure settings or manage complex blacklists, it acts as a single, instant boundary. Right before you hit share, Cloakly lets you instantly hide your messy desktop, private tabs, and sensitive background windows in a single click—and brings them right back when the call is over.

It turns a 2-minute frantic ritual into a 1-second habit.

If you’ve ever had that split-second spike of anxiety before sharing your screen, I’d love for you to try it out.

What’s your current pre-screen-share ritual? Do you do the 10-tab panic close too?

If you use an AI assistant during meetings or interviews, you've probably worried about it showing up on screen share. Tools like Cluely charge $149.99/mo for their top plan — and the only thing that justifies the jump from their $19.99 Pro plan is screen share invisibility.

That's $130/month for one feature.

I built Cloakly to solve exactly that. It's a lightweight add-on that hides your AI assistant from screen sharing software. Works alongside whatever AI tool you're already using.

$6.99/mo. That's it.

What makes it different:

• Works with your existing AI assistant — no need to switch tools

• Lightweight, runs quietly in the background

• Fraction of the cost of bundled alternatives

Still early days but it's working well. Happy to answer any questions or take feedback. Link in comments.

When I posted the beta of Cloakly, half the comments loved the idea and the other half were convinced I’d built the ultimate tool for cheating.

The drama actually helped. After 200+ beta users stress-tested it, it turns out people just want to hide their messy Slack DMs, banking apps and other sensitive apps during screen shares on Teams or Zoom calls. Because no one likes "presentation anxiety."

What’s new for the production build:

• Pin on Top: Keep your hidden notes/windows always visible to you while you present.
• Window Transparency: You can now see "through" your private windows to the shared content behind them.
• Taskbar Stealth: Hide the icons of your private apps from the taskbar so the audience sees a completely clean desktop.
• And lastly new Fresh look to the website and application

I’m moving out of beta today. If you want to stop the panic of accidentally flashing your private data to coworkers, give it a look.

Live at: https://www.getcloakly.com/

So I’ve been working on this side project called Cloakly. It’s a tool that hides specific windows during screen shares: you see them on your screen, but the people watching the share see absolutely nothing.

The biggest piece of feedback I’ve gotten so far? "Congrats, you just built a way for people to cheat in technical interviews."

Honest answer: Yeah, someone could definitely use it for that. But people also use second monitors, physical sticky notes, or "oops, my internet cut out" breaks when they’re stuck. I can’t really police intent.

My actual goal was way more boring: digital hygiene. I built it so I don't accidentally flash my bank balance, a private WhatsApp message, or a messy desktop during a client demo or a 9-5 meeting. To me, it’s about privacy, not deception.

The legitimate use case is real, but the "cheating" label is sticking. Is a tool worth writing off just because it could be misused? Or is the privacy benefit for the rest of us worth the trade-off?

Curious to hear what the community actually thinks about this one.