Thomas is the founder of Uneed, a new launch platform for tech products.
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Hey Thomas, Tell us more about what you are working on
I’m working on Uneed, a launch platform for tech products that’s positioning itself as a direct competitor to Product Hunt. It’s been an exciting journey – I’ve been working on this project for 5 years now, and it’s incredibly rewarding to see the site grow consistently, to the point where it’s now my primary source of income 😊.
At its core, Uneed is all about showcasing great startups. Every day, we feature up to 15 new product launches. These products compete with each other: the goal is to gather as many upvotes as possible to climb to the top of the daily rankings. The most successful products also have the chance to make it into our weekly, monthly, and even yearly leaderboards. We also have a fast-growing newsletter with over 6K subscribers now 😄.
What sets us apart from Product Hunt is our commitment to fair visibility and transparency. On Uneed, every submitted product is guaranteed a spot on our homepage. By limiting the number of daily launches, we ensure that each product gets its moment in the spotlight. This approach levels the playing field, giving every creator, regardless of their background or connections (and ability to buy bots 😅), a true opportunity to showcase their product.
We’ve also recently introduced a unique review service that’s gaining traction. For a fee, we provide an in-depth, unbiased review of a product, which is then optimized to rank for ‘[Product Name] review’ on search engines. This service not only boosts the product’s visibility but also provides valuable, credible feedback for potential users.
One aspect of Uneed that I’m particularly proud of is that it’s still a one-person business. This allows for quick decision-making, rapid implementation of new features, and a direct line of communication with our users. I’m able to take user feedback into account almost immediately, ensuring that Uneed evolves in a way that truly serves its community 👊🏻.
Tell us More about your background, and how you came up with the idea of Uneed
My journey into the world of indie hacking kind of started when I was 15 and launched my first online project: a Minecraft server 😂. Looking back, it’s amazing to see how that early experience sparked a passion that would shape my future career!
Fast forward a few years, and I found myself pursuing a 5-year web development school in Paris, France. It was during these studies that the seed for Uneed was planted, though I didn’t know it at the time. Like many developers, I was always on the lookout for new technologies to experiment with. That’s when I decided to create a side project to test out Nuxt, a new framework I was curious about.
Being primarily a front-end developer, I thought, “Why not create a directory of tools for other front-end devs?”
Soon, I was creating similar directories for various topics – Uneed Design, Uneed No Code, and so on. It was exciting to see these sites gradually gaining traction and attracting visitors.
The real turning point came when I decided to open up the platform to user submissions. I implemented a simple yet effective concept: I would personally validate and feature one new product each day. This decision inadvertently gave birth to the waiting line concept that’s now a core feature of Uneed 🙌🏻!
How did you get your first Customers for Uneed?
I’ll be completely honest with you: when I started, I had no idea what I was doing, and I never imagined I could make a living from Uneed. So when I got my first paying customer… I was over the moon!
The waiting line system I implemented started working surprisingly well, and before I knew it, the queue had grown to several months long. That’s when I decided to add a paid option to skip the line. I made it a paid feature because publishing each tool was quite time-consuming – I’d go through their landing page, take screenshots, write a description, find appropriate tags and categories, and so on. I set the base price at $30, which it still is today.
Looking back, I realize how terrible I was at marketing in those early days 😅. In fact, I barely did any marketing at all! My only real acquisition channel was my Twitter account, where I was building in public. I’d share my successes and failures, ask development questions, and generally just document my journey.
One thing I quickly understood was the importance of making my customers happy. I’d go all out to drive as much traffic as possible to the featured product of the day. I even went as far as talking about it on my school’s Slack channel, to my friends, and on forums I frequented. It was grassroots marketing at its finest (or most desperate, depending on how you look at it)!
The real game-changer came when I started selling “premium spots” that allowed products to stay displayed at the top of the homepage. That’s when things started getting really interesting for the clients, and consequently, for me as well.
What Marketing Channels are working for you now?
Beyond my Twitter account, I’ve primarily focused on developing two key acquisition channels: SEO and our newsletter. Both have played crucial roles in Uneed’s growth and continue to be cornerstones of our marketing strategy.
Let’s talk about SEO first. I’ve invested a lot of time and effort into learning and implementing solid SEO practices, and it’s really paid off. Today, Uneed boasts thousands of pages generated with Programmatic SEO (PSEO), which has significantly expanded our organic reach. We’ve also launched a blog filled with valuable content for our target audience.
But it’s not just about quantity – we’ve paid close attention to quality too. Every page on Uneed is optimized with complete metadata, ensuring we’re giving search engines all the information they need to understand and rank our content. The results speak for themselves: we’ve achieved a domain rating of almost 50 and have accumulated more than 14,000 backlinks.
On the newsletter front, my goal has always been to create something genuinely valuable for our subscribers. It’s not just a promotional tool – it’s a curated digest of the most exciting happenings in the tech product world. Each edition includes a personally written introduction, giving it a human touch that I believe our readers appreciate.
The newsletter also features a ranking of the week’s top products, providing a quick overview of what’s hot on Uneed. We include our latest product reviews, offering in-depth insights into notable launches. And for those looking for opportunities, we highlight the latest products put up for sale on the site.
How is your business doing now?
I’m happy to report that Uneed is doing really well 🔥! It’s been a slow and steady growth journey, which is typical for marketplace businesses, I think. To be honest, I’m not pouring an incredible amount of time into it 😅, but the consistent progress is truly rewarding.
In terms of financials, Uneed is now generating between $1,500 and $2,000 per month. It’s important to note that the revenue can be quite variable, which is something I’ve come to expect in this type of business.
What’s particularly exciting is seeing the continuous improvement across various metrics. Our traffic is steadily increasing, our SEO efforts are paying off, we’re accumulating more backlinks, our domain rating is climbing, and overall brand awareness is on the rise. It’s incredibly gratifying to hear that many people now recognize the Uneed name 😊!
For me, the key to this success has been patience. I don’t have some grand, miraculous plan to 10x our revenue in the next six months. Instead, I firmly believe that if I stay in the race, remain persistent, and continue to improve Uneed bit by bit, we can go very far.
My focus moving forward is twofold. First, I want to double down on our SEO efforts. There’s still a lot of potential to grow our organic reach and visibility! Second, I’m committed to refining our existing features. My goal is to have a platform that’s fast, enjoyable to use, bug-free, and equipped with all the functionalities our users expect and need.
This approach might not lead to overnight success, but I believe it’s the foundation for long-term, sustainable growth. In the world of tech and startups (and indie hacking!), there’s often a lot of pressure to grow rapidly and chase the next big thing. But with Uneed, I’m taking a different path, because it just fits my personality better. I’m building something that adds real value, improves gradually but consistently, and aims to be a reliable, go-to platform for product launches and discovery for years to come.
What has been your biggest achievement in business thus far?
The thing I’m most proud of is having built Uneed alongside many other things. I do freelance work, I teach development courses, I do a lot of cycling (it takes time!), and the rest of the time I build Uneed 😄.
I’ve been able to do this because I’ve automated a huge part of the site management, and today it runs 90% without my intervention. Automation is something that seems to be talked about very little, but is actually super important in the world of solopreneurship.
What were the worst mistakes you’ve made since launching?
I waited far too long to transform Uneed into a launch platform. I took the step of moving from a simple directory to a launch platform at the beginning of 2024, even though I had the idea in mind for quite a while already, and I think I also had the necessary traffic to do it.
I believe that if I had had the courage to do it earlier, I would already be much further ahead in the game!
What Tech Stack are you currently using?
- Nuxt 3 and Nuxt UI for the frontend
- Supabase for authentication, storage and database
- A VPS with Hetzner using Coolify for hosting
My tech stack has barely evolved since the creation of Uneed, I’ve simply changed hosting providers and integrated a component library rather than using Tailwind.
I’m convinced that the best stack when you’re a solopreneur is the one you master the best. I don’t feel limited by this one, so I see no reason to change 😄!
What advice would you give to new entrepreneurs?
If you want to dive into solopreneurship, I really advise you to love it 😂, and most importantly, to arm yourself with patience: it’s a long-term game.
There’s no magic formula, and I’m convinced that there’s no point in working like crazy for 3 months only to end up burned out and neglecting your personal life. It’s all about balance.
Building a successful solo business is more of a marathon than a sprint. It requires consistent effort over time, rather than short bursts of intense work. This approach not only leads to more sustainable growth but also allows you to enjoy the journey.
What resources do you recommend for entrepreneurs?
I’m going to be very honest with you once again: I don’t read books, don’t listen to podcasts, and read very few articles about entrepreneurship. I had some training in school on the subject, and that was enough for me 😅.
In my opinion, it’s important to get feedback and opinions from other solopreneurs, and I find all of this on X (formerly known as Twitter). The best advice I can give you is: sign up on X, find interesting people to follow, ask them questions, and learn from them.
Lastly, Where can we learn more about you?
You guessed it: my X account!
