Just deployed my first real web app. No idea what to do next. What did you do?

I've been building for a few months and finally pushed my project live yesterday. It's an AI tool for developers — took way longer than expected and I'm honestly a bit lost now that it's actually out there.

I always assumed "going live" was the hard part. Turns out it might be the easy part.

For those of you who've launched something before — what did you actually do in the first week after deployment?

Did you:

- Go straight for a custom domain?

- Start posting on social media?

- Send it to friends first?

- Post on Product Hunt?

- Something else entirely?

I'm specifically confused about the order of things. Like should I get a domain before trying to get users? Or does it not matter at launch?

Also — did you get your first users from posting online or from people you personally knew? I'm curious whether strangers actually try new tools or if it's always word of mouth at the start.

Not looking for a perfect answer, just what actually worked for you vs what you thought would work.

Just deployed my first real web app. No idea what to do next. What did you do?

Just deployed my first real web app. No idea what to do next. What did you do?

I've been building for a few months and finally pushed my project live yesterday. It's an AI tool for developers — took way longer than expected and I'm honestly a bit lost now that it's actually out there.

I always assumed "going live" was the hard part. Turns out it might be the easy part.

For those of you who've launched something before — what did you actually do in the first week after deployment?

Did you:

- Go straight for a custom domain?

- Start posting on social media?

- Send it to friends first?

- Post on Product Hunt?

- Something else entirely?

I'm specifically confused about the order of things. Like should I get a domain before trying to get users? Or does it not matter at launch?

Also — did you get your first users from posting online or from people you personally knew? I'm curious whether strangers actually try new tools or if it's always word of mouth at the start.

Not looking for a perfect answer, just what actually worked for you vs what you thought would work.

Just deployed my first real web app. No idea what to do next. What did you do?

I've been building for a few months and finally pushed my project live yesterday. It's an AI tool for developers — took way longer than expected and I'm honestly a bit lost now that it's actually out there.

I always assumed "going live" was the hard part. Turns out it might be the easy part.

For those of you who've launched something before — what did you actually do in the first week after deployment?

Did you:

- Go straight for a custom domain?

- Start posting on social media?

- Send it to friends first?

- Post on Product Hunt?

- Something else entirely?

I'm specifically confused about the order of things. Like should I get a domain before trying to get users? Or does it not matter at launch?

Also — did you get your first users from posting online or from people you personally knew? I'm curious whether strangers actually try new tools or if it's always word of mouth at the start.

Not looking for a perfect answer, just what actually worked for you vs what you thought would work.

Developers who got their first 100 users — what actually worked?

Built and deployed a side project recently. It's live on a Vercel URL right now and a handful of people have tried it.

I've been reading about growth and everyone says different things:

- "Post on Product Hunt"

- "Build in public on Twitter"

- "Get on Hacker News"

- "Cold email people"

- "Just build a great product and it spreads itself"

None of this tells me what to do on day 1 with zero audience and zero budget.

So I'm asking people who've actually done it:

How did you get your first 10 users? Were they people you knew personally or strangers?

How did you get from 10 to 100? Was there one thing that worked or a combination?

Did having a proper domain name matter early on or did people not care about the .vercel.app URL?

Did social media actually bring users or just followers who never converted?

I'm not asking for theory. I want to know what you literally did. Even if it was embarrassing or manual or doesn't scale.

Just deployed my first real web app. No idea what to do next. What did you do?

I've been building for a few months and finally pushed my project live yesterday. It's an AI tool for developers — took way longer than expected and I'm honestly a bit lost now that it's actually out there.

I always assumed "going live" was the hard part. Turns out it might be the easy part.

For those of you who've launched something before — what did you actually do in the first week after deployment?

Did you:

- Go straight for a custom domain?

- Start posting on social media?

- Send it to friends first?

- Post on Product Hunt?

- Something else entirely?

I'm specifically confused about the order of things. Like should I get a domain before trying to get users? Or does it not matter at launch?

Also — did you get your first users from posting online or from people you personally knew? I'm curious whether strangers actually try new tools or if it's always word of mouth at the start.

Not looking for a perfect answer, just what actually worked for you vs what you thought would work.

Just deployed my first real web app. No idea what to do next. What did you do?

I've been building for a few months and finally pushed my project live yesterday. It's an AI tool for developers — took way longer than expected and I'm honestly a bit lost now that it's actually out there.

I always assumed "going live" was the hard part. Turns out it might be the easy part.

For those of you who've launched something before — what did you actually do in the first week after deployment?

Did you:

- Go straight for a custom domain?

- Start posting on social media?

- Send it to friends first?

- Post on Product Hunt?

- Something else entirely?

I'm specifically confused about the order of things. Like should I get a domain before trying to get users? Or does it not matter at launch?

Also — did you get your first users from posting online or from people you personally knew? I'm curious whether strangers actually try new tools or if it's always word of mouth at the start.

Not looking for a perfect answer, just what actually worked for you vs what you thought would work.

Not trying to call anyone out — genuinely curious.

I was prepping for interviews for months. Solved 200+ problems.

Felt confident. Then bombed an interview on a problem I'd

"solved" before because I couldn't explain my approach.

Realized I'd been memorizing outputs, not understanding the thinking.

How do you actually internalize WHY a solution works, not just

that it works? What's your process?

(I ended up building something around this problem — happy to

share if the discussion goes there)

For months I was doing this:

1. Get stuck on a problem

2. Watch the solution video

3. "Oh that makes sense"

4. Same problem 2 weeks later — completely blank

The issue: I was learning solutions, not thinking.

What actually worked: having someone ask me questions instead of

giving me answers. "What happens if the array is empty?"

"Why does your loop fail on duplicates?" "What if you could

look up any value in O(1) — what structure does that?"

Those questions forced me to think, not copy.

I got so obsessed with this approach I built an AI that does

exactly this — asks you the right questions until you find

the answer yourself.

If anyone's struggling with the same thing, happy to share

what I built. Drop a comment and I'll link it.

Genuine question — I've been prepping for a while and noticed

that I can memorize 300 solutions but still blank in interviews

when something is slightly different.

What techniques have actually helped you build real understanding

rather than pattern matching?

Things I've tried:

- Explaining solutions out loud (rubber duck)

- Solving without looking at hints first

- Asking "why does this work" not just "how does this work"

What's worked for you?