the blog

Founder-led marketing, written down.

Launch playbooks, the thinking behind the points economy, and what we're learning building Favors.dev in public.

September 11, 2026 · 12 min read · Mark Fulton

SaaS Onboarding Email Sequence: The 5-Email Template

The 5-email onboarding sequence that walks a new signup to their first win: annotated fill-in templates, behavior triggers, and the deliverability rules founders skip.

September 10, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

Product Demo Videos for Startups: The 90-Second Script

The 90-second demo video a solo founder can script, record, and ship in one afternoon: a fill-in beat sheet with timestamps, the magic-moment rule, and where it converts.

September 9, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

LinkedIn for Founders: The No-Cringe Playbook

The LinkedIn playbook for founders who hate posting: honest triage on whether to bother, a 10-minute profile rewrite, three post shapes, and a cringe translator.

September 7, 2026 · 10 min read · Mark Fulton

Co-Marketing for Startups: The Indie Playbook

How two small products borrow each other's audience: the shared-audience test, four plays that work at indie scale, and a partnership one-pager that fits in a DM.

September 4, 2026 · 9 min read · Mark Fulton

Startup Case Study Template (When You Have 3 Customers)

The interview-to-published pipeline for a founder with three customers and no design team: six questions, a fill-in-the-blanks template, and five jobs one story does.

September 2, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

Startup Press Release: Is It Worth It in 2026?

What a wire release actually buys an unknown startup, the three narrow cases where one earns its cost, and the cheaper stack that gets you covered instead.

September 1, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

HARO Alternatives in 2026 (And Is HARO Back?)

Cision killed Connectively in 2024, then the HARO name came back. The honest 2026 map of source request platforms, what each costs, and whether pitching pays.

August 31, 2026 · 12 min read · Mark Fulton

How to Get Featured in Newsletters (Not Sponsored)

A founder's playbook for getting featured in newsletters your buyers already read: how to build the list, what to pitch, and why an editorial mention beats an ad.

August 28, 2026 · 12 min read · Mark Fulton

How to Get Newsletter Subscribers: Zero to 1,000

A stage-gated path from zero to 1,000 newsletter subscribers for founders: what to do at each threshold, what to ignore until later, and the metric that matters.

August 27, 2026 · 12 min read · Mark Fulton

Free Marketing Tools for Startups: The $0 Stack

A $0 marketing stack for solo founders covering research, content, email, social proof and analytics, plus a verified table of exactly where each free tier stops.

August 26, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

How to Price a SaaS Product in the Early Stage

How to price a SaaS product before you have data: three early models compared, a decision tree, a founding-member offer template, and how to raise prices later.

August 25, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

SaaS Landing Page Copy: Teardowns for Solo Founders

SaaS landing page copy with no traffic to test on: the five-second test, five headline formulas, objections in order, and three annotated before-and-after teardowns.

August 21, 2026 · 10 min read · Mark Fulton

Engineering as Marketing: The Weekend Free-Tool Playbook

Engineering as marketing on a founder's schedule: pick a free tool, scope it to a weekend, bridge it to your product, and see what ours does in Search Console.

August 20, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

Programmatic SEO for Indie Hackers: A Real Teardown

Programmatic SEO for indie hackers, with our own Search Console numbers: 46 templated pages against 45 written posts, what ranked, what we cannibalized, and how to build it.

August 19, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

SEO for Solo Founders: The One-Hour-a-Day System

SEO for solo founders on one hour a day: what to ignore entirely, how to pick keywords you can win, a weekly publishing rhythm, and where the first backlinks come from.

August 18, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

Continuous Launch Strategy: How Often Should You Launch?

Continuous launch strategy for solo founders: why one launch day wastes what you build, what counts as a launchable moment, and a 4-6 week cadence that holds.

August 17, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

Product Launch Metrics: The 5 That Matter for Founders

Product launch metrics for solo founders: why upvotes predict nothing, the five numbers that do, and a one-page dashboard you can build in an afternoon.

A solo founder standing at a glowing amber balance scale weighing whether to run a lifetime deal — on one pan a single bright 60-day burst of upfront cash shaped like a short-lived sales spike, and on the other a long, dim grey chain of support tickets and server icons stretching far off into the future and tipping the scale down — while a glowing amber clock gate marked NET 60 holds the money back between the founder and the cash, a cracked grey tag reading 70/30 falls away into a discard bin because the real split is negotiated rather than published, and beside the founder a short bright row of five-star review cards is banked early along amber threads arriving from a ring of other founders, illustrating that a lifetime deal is a cash-now-for-costs-later trade whose headline number is far larger than what actually reaches your bank account.

August 14, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

AppSumo Lifetime Deals: Are They Worth It for Founders?

Are lifetime deals worth it? The seller-side math on AppSumo: what the revenue share really is, when the cash actually lands, and a worked P&L for a $59 deal.

A solo founder at a glowing amber launch console holding up a bright product card labeled v2 and deciding how to launch the same product a second time, while a cracked grey signboard reading ONE LAUNCH ONLY is crossed out and falling away into a discard bin — in front of them a glowing amber decision tree splits into three branches of rising brightness, a faint one ending at a small dim changelog note, a medium one ending at a modest glowing update card, and a bright one ending at a rocket lifting off a second time from the same scorched launch pad, with a circular calendar dial gate marked 6 MONTHS standing on the bright branch and amber threads connecting the founder to a ring of other founders who arrive along that branch to support the second launch, illustrating that a product can legitimately be launched more than once when the update is substantial enough to earn it.

August 13, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

How to Relaunch Your Product: The Rules, Platform by Platform

You don't only get one launch. What counts as relaunch-worthy, the real rules on Product Hunt, Hacker News and BetaList, and a decision tree to settle it.

A solo founder at a glowing amber launch console stretching one single bright product core into five amber threads that fan out across a horizontal five-day timeline marked MON, TUE, WED, THU, FRI — each thread ending at its own station above its day: a community chat room, a stack of directory listing cards, a rising rocket, a plain terminal window, and a recap chart with a five-star card, lit one after another like a relay so the week reads as a sequence rather than a single burst — while a dimmed, crossed-out single-day version beside them fires the same product once into a grey crowd that scatters and goes dark, a small energy-gauge dial shows a steady sustainable level rather than redline, and amber threads connect the founder to a ring of other founders standing along the timeline who arrive on different days to support each surface, illustrating that a solo founder runs a launch week by spreading one product across five surfaces rather than shipping five features.

August 12, 2026 · 12 min read · Mark Fulton

Launch Week Playbook: A 5-Day Plan for Solo Founders

A launch week beats a launch day — but you can't run Supabase's. The solo founder's version: one surface per day, per-day checklists, and an honest energy budget.

A solo founder at a glowing amber desk hand-writing one very short cold email to a single named person, while a towering grey mass-sending rig of extra domains, duplicated inboxes, and a spray of hundreds of identical dim envelopes sits unplugged and falling away into a discard bin beside them — on the founder's side a small bright stack of only four glowing amber envelope cards rises, each carrying a checkmark seal, with a compliance shield badge glowing alongside, and one especially bright amber thread arrives from above as a warm introduction passed along by a connected network of other founders, burning far brighter than the entire cold spray, illustrating that founder cold email is won with a handful of specific, compliant, hand-written messages rather than agency-scale sending infrastructure — and that a traded warm intro beats the whole apparatus.

August 10, 2026 · 12 min read · Mark Fulton

Cold Email for Startups: The Founder's 4-Line Playbook

Cold email for startups, scoped to one founder: the 4-line structure, five annotated templates, the legal floor most guides skip, and when to skip it entirely.

August 7, 2026 · 12 min read · Mark Fulton

Your First 10 Paying Customers: A Founder's Playbook

Your first 10 paying customers come from sales, not marketing. The warm-network map, real objection scripts, founding-member pricing, and a tracker to run it.

A solo founder running a customer discovery interview across a glowing amber desk, listening with a hand to their chin rather than pitching, while two question cards float above them — a cracked grey card labeled Hypothetical falling away into a waste bin, and a bright amber card labeled Past Behavior branching upward into glowing follow-up threads that lead to a spreadsheet-and-sticky-note workaround the interviewee already built — with a stage-grouped question bank racked down the left side in three bands labeled Problem, Solution, and Payment, a small interview scorecard panel on the right, and amber threads fanning out from the interviewee to a network of other founders, illustrating that discovery questions work when they ask about the past and that the real answers come from the follow-up rather than the script.

August 6, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

Customer Discovery Interview Questions (+ Follow-Ups)

Customer discovery interview questions that actually work: 22 questions by stage, what to listen for in each answer, and the follow-up that does the real work.

A solo founder at a glowing amber recruiting console sorting incoming beta testers by quality rather than headcount — a polite friend holding a blank Looks great card falls away into a dimmed bin on one side, while a founder-tester who files a specific, reproducible bug report rises bright along an amber thread and lands on the roadmap — with a four-column source scorecard floating beside them rating each recruiting channel on tester quality, cost, speed, and founder fit, a small gate marked 12 testers for 14 days standing between the app and the store, and amber threads connecting the founder to a network of peers who test each other's products, illustrating that finding beta testers is a quality-selection problem, not a volume problem.

August 5, 2026 · 10 min read · Mark Fulton

How to Find Beta Testers: The 2026 Source Map

Where to find beta testers in 2026, ranked by tester quality instead of volume — free channels, paid platforms, the app-store gates, and how many you really need.

August 4, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

Waitlist Marketing: The Solo Founder's Pre-Launch Playbook

Waitlist marketing that works for one person: what a waitlist really validates, referral mechanics worth building, and five copy-paste pre-launch emails.

A calm solo founder posting a Show HN launch from a glowing amber terminal, choosing between two title cards held up side by side — a plain, specific one that rises toward a bright front-page slot and a hype-loaded one stamped flagged that falls away into a dimmed bin — while a single maker's first comment glows beneath the post and threads of honest replies run back and forth with a crowd of other founders who tested the product and filed real feedback before launch day, and a small vote-ring button sits switched off and crossed out to one side, illustrating that a Show HN is won with a working demo, a boring title, and candid answers rather than coordinated upvotes.

August 3, 2026 · 10 min read · Mark Fulton

Show HN Rules: What Gets Flagged and How to Post (2026)

What Show HN is, what the official Hacker News guidelines actually allow, the titles that get a launch flagged, and the first comment that carries it.

A solo founder at a glowing amber sorting console filing one product card into a tiered rack of startup launch directories — a small bright top tier of high-authority sites, a wider middle tier of worth-the-hour boards, a narrow niche tier of category-specific directories, and a dimmed discard bin of submit-anything link farms — with a numbered sequence arrow running left to right across the tiers to show submission order rather than carpet-bombing, a small verification checkmark re-scanning each listing, and amber threads carrying upvotes, reviews, and comments from a network of other founders into the listings to keep them ranking, illustrating that launch directories pay off when you submit in the right order to the right tier and bring a crowd to the listing afterward.

July 31, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

Startup Launch Directories: Where to Launch (2026)

Startup launch directories, tiered and verified: which ones actually matter, the order to submit in, and when to stop. Every row links to a live-checked page.

A solo founder standing at a glowing amber planning wall running a single 90-day marketing plan laid out as a three-phase Gantt chart of horizontal amber bars labeled 1-30, 31-60, and 61-90 — foundation blocks and a rising article stack accumulating over the first phase, a review star, a testimonial card, and a backlink chain accumulating over the second, and a launch rocket lifting off a finished base over the third as a crowd of other founders arrives — with amber threads connecting the founder to that network of peers and feeding help into every phase, illustrating that a solo founder's quarter runs foundations first, then authority, then the launch spike, powered throughout by favors traded with other founders.

July 30, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

90-Day Startup Marketing Plan: A Template for Founders

A 90-day startup marketing plan built for one person with no budget — a week-by-week schedule you can actually run, with every task linked to its full playbook.

A solo founder standing at a glowing amber fork in the road deciding whether to run paid ads — on one side a coin-fed ad meter burning through a small budget into a crowd of strangers who scatter the moment the meter stops, with nothing left behind, and on the other side the same founder trading hours with a network of peers along amber threads that harden into permanent assets: a review card, a backlink, a testimonial, and a search listing that keeps standing after the spend ends — with a small decision-tree diagram floating between the two paths, illustrating that for a bootstrapped startup before product-market fit, rented attention resets to zero while traded effort compounds.

July 29, 2026 · 10 min read · Mark Fulton

Paid Ads for Bootstrapped Startups: Do They Work?

Do paid ads work for bootstrapped startups? Rarely before product-market fit. The auction math, the honest exceptions, and a decision tree to settle it.

A solo founder standing at a glowing amber ledger console where marketing help is weighed and metered — on one side a collapsing informal founder group whose goodwill has run out, its givers dimmed and its takers still asking, and on the other a balanced three-stage loop labeled Help, Earn, and Spend in which a verified favor is checked, converted into points, and spent to pull help back — with amber threads carrying reviews, testimonials, feedback, and backlinks between the founder and a network of peers, illustrating that reciprocity becomes a real marketing channel only when it is metered and verified rather than left to goodwill.

July 28, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

Reciprocity Marketing for Founders: The Missing Layer

Reciprocity marketing usually means free samples for customers. For founders it's something bigger: a metered, verified trade layer in the GTM stack. The thesis.

A solo founder at a glowing amber workstation running incoming product feedback through a four-lane grading meter labeled Specificity, Actionability, Depth, and Effort — vague thumbs-up bubbles reading Looks great fall away into a dimmed bin on one side, while a detailed critique card that points at a specific screen and names a concrete fix rises bright along an amber thread and becomes a change on the founder's roadmap — with more amber threads carrying honest critiques back and forth between the founder and a network of other founders who actually used the product, illustrating that useful pre-launch feedback comes from peers who ship, not from polite friends, and that it can be scored rather than guessed at.

July 27, 2026 · 9 min read · Mark Fulton

How to Get Product Feedback Before Launch (2026)

Most pre-launch product feedback is useless politeness. Who to ask with zero users, the questions that surface real objections, and a rubric to grade it.

July 24, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

Marketing Channels for Indie Hackers: The 2026 Scorecard

The full marketing-channel menu ranked for a one-person team — by effort, time-to-payoff, and whether it compounds. A scorecard, not another list of 7 tips.

A solo founder at a glowing amber workstation choosing between two creators — a huge 200k-follower generalist whose audience is a faint, scattered cloud, and a small 800-follower niche creator whose tight circle of aligned followers glows bright and engaged — with a creator-fit scorecard floating beside them and amber threads carrying a reciprocal, value-for-value collab (a shoutout traded for a shoutout) between the founder and a network of other founders and creators, while a dimmed pay-per-post price tag sits switched off, illustrating that for a startup the best micro-influencer collabs are chosen by audience fit and run on reciprocity rather than reach or ad spend.

July 24, 2026 · 10 min read · Mark Fulton

Micro-Influencer Marketing for Startups (No Budget)

Micro-influencer marketing for startups isn't about reach or ad budget: the right 800-follower niche creator beats a 200k generalist. The reciprocal-collab playbook.

A relaxed solo founder speaks into a glowing amber podcast microphone across from another founder who hosts the show, the two linked by amber threads — and from the single mic, more amber threads fan out into a stack of compounding assets: a backlink chain, a rising authority badge, and a small AI answer box that cites the founder by name, with threads reaching a wider network of founder-hosts, illustrating that one podcast appearance becomes a permanent backlink, an authority signal, and a named-author trail AI engines cite, and that the fastest way to get booked is trading with founders who host shows.

July 22, 2026 · 9 min read · Mark Fulton

How to Get on Podcasts as a Founder: The Pitch Playbook

Podcast guesting gets founders backlinks, authority, and citations AI engines love. The exact pitch that books you — and how to turn one episode into a dozen assets.

July 18, 2026 · 10 min read · Mark Fulton

Newsletter Swaps for Founders: The Zero-Budget Playbook

Newsletter swaps are the most underrated zero-cost growth loop for founders: trade audiences with peers instead of buying them. The fair-swap playbook + a copy-paste template.

A solo founder standing at a glowing amber fork in the road labeled Build vs Borrow — on one side a huge empty community hall they'd have to fill alone, on the other a lively room of other founders already gathered where the founder joins in and helps — with a compounding help-to-trust-to-distribution loop cycling beside them and amber threads carrying reviews, feedback, and backlinks between the founder and the network, illustrating that at a one-person scale community-led growth means joining and serving an existing community rather than building your own from zero.

July 15, 2026 · 9 min read · Mark Fulton

Community-Led Growth for Solo Founders (No Team, 2026)

Community-led growth for solo founders isn't building your own forum — it's joining and serving one. The 1-person CLG playbook, plus a build-vs-borrow decision tree.

A solo founder at a glowing amber workstation turning a vague, empty speech-bubble card labeled Great into a detailed, specific five-star testimonial card, guided by a small floating question-bank checklist — while amber threads connect them to a circle of other founders trading honest testimonial cards in exchange for help, and one strong testimonial rises along an amber thread into a small AI answer box that cites it, illustrating that new founders earn real testimonials by giving value first and trading with peers, and that those testimonials double as social proof and AI-search citations.

July 14, 2026 · 9 min read · Mark Fulton

How to Get Testimonials for a New Product (2026)

Getting testimonials for a new product with few customers is a give-first problem. The exact ask scripts, a question bank that yields usable quotes, and the honesty line you don't cross.

A solo founder at a glowing amber workstation turning their first handful of real product reviews into two kinds of proof at once — a rising row of five-star review cards feeding a social-proof panel on one side, and the same reviews flowing along amber threads into an AI answer box that cites them on the other — while a small discard bin labeled fake sits switched off, illustrating that honest first reviews double as social proof and AI-search citations.

July 10, 2026 · 9 min read · Mark Fulton

How to Get Your First Reviews: A Cold-Start Playbook

Your first product reviews with zero users are a cold-start problem, not a marketing one. Honest ask scripts, where reviews matter most, and why reviews now feed AI answers.

A solo founder standing before a glowing amber map of indie hacker communities laid out as connected rooms — a large learning hall, an accountability room of daily streak-loggers, a noisy platform plaza for Reddit and Hacker News, and a smaller reciprocity room where helping is the currency — each room labeled by the job it does, with amber threads carrying feedback, reviews, and backlinks between the founder and a network of peers, illustrating that the right community is chosen by what you need it for, not by its follower count.

July 9, 2026 · 9 min read · Mark Fulton

Indie Hacker Communities 2026: A Map for Solo Founders

A guided map of the best indie hacker communities in 2026 — ranked by what each is actually good for: feedback, launches, accountability, or distribution.

A friendly solo founder sitting inside a glowing amber Reddit-style community feed, handing helpful answers to a circle of other founders along amber threads while a small self-promo card waits at the bottom of a 90/10 stack — and one upvoted comment rises out of the thread into an AI answer box labeled with a cited source, illustrating that being genuinely useful on Reddit avoids bans and now feeds AI search citations.

July 8, 2026 · 10 min read · Mark Fulton

How to Market on Reddit Without Getting Banned (2026)

Marketing on Reddit without getting banned isn't a trick — it's being a redditor first. A subreddit-by-subreddit playbook, the 90/10 rule, and why good comments now feed AI answers.

A solo founder at a glowing amber sorting console filing their startup into a tiered directory rack — a wide, bright base of high-authority general directories, a middle band of indie launch platforms, a small niche tier, and a discard bin of low-quality link-farm directories marked skip — while an amber thread carries a single high-value editorial backlink up past the whole rack toward a network of other founders, illustrating that directory links are the compounding floor of a startup's SEO and traded editorial links are the ceiling.

July 7, 2026 · 9 min read · Mark Fulton

Startup Directory Backlinks: The Filtered 2026 List

Not all startup directory backlinks help your SEO. A tiered, worth-it-or-skip list of the best directories to submit your startup — and when to stop submitting.

A solo founder studying three glowing amber gauges labeled DA, DR, and Authority Score — each a different needle position for the same site — while a separate, brighter meter labeled Google stays unplugged from all three, and an amber directory-listing tile rises in value as the host domain beneath it grows taller, connected by amber threads to a network of other founders trading editorial backlinks, illustrating that vendor authority scores are estimates, not Google's, and that real authority is earned slowly through trusted links.

July 6, 2026 · 8 min read · Mark Fulton

Domain Authority Explained (DA vs DR): A Founder's Guide

Domain authority explained for founders: what DA, DR, and Authority Score actually measure, why none of them are Google's, and the only honest way to move the score.

A solo founder building a glowing amber backlink value pyramid — a wide base of directory listings, a middle band of niche blog links, and a small bright apex of high-authority editorial backlinks — with amber threads carrying editorial links traded to and from a network of other founders, illustrating that the highest-value backlinks are earned through reciprocity rather than bought, and that one editorial link outweighs many one-day shares.

July 3, 2026 · 10 min read · Mark Fulton

How to Get Backlinks for a Startup (No Budget, 2026)

White-hat link building for startups with no budget and no outreach list: the legit menu, a backlink value pyramid, and why one editorial link beats 50 shares.

A calm solo founder reading a glowing amber line chart of organic click-through rate that dips into an AI Overview answer box and then rebounds, while the doom-headline noise falls away — connected by amber threads to a network of other founders whose reviews, backlinks, and named-author articles feed the AI answer, illustrating that AI Overviews redistribute traffic rather than kill it and that citable authority is the founder's response.

July 2, 2026 · 9 min read · Mark Fulton

AI Overviews & Organic Traffic in 2026: The Real Data

Is organic traffic dying in 2026? A data-first read on AI Overviews — what the CTR numbers really show, the rebound nobody mentions, and how founders respond.

July 1, 2026 · 9 min read · Mark Fulton

Personal Brand for Founders Who Hate Self-Promotion

Building a personal brand when you hate self-promotion isn't about posting more — it's about helping in public. The reframe, plus a minimum-viable founder presence.

A solo founder broadcasting their work-in-progress from a glowing amber studio — a Share/Skip sorting tray and a four-week calendar beside them — with amber threads carrying the updates out to a network of other founders who amplify them back, illustrating building in public as a reciprocal distribution system rather than a follower-count race.

June 30, 2026 · 10 min read · Mark Fulton

Build in Public: The 2026 Playbook for Solo Founders

Build in public without the follower-count hype: a real distribution system — what to share, what to skip, a 4-week cadence, and how watchers become users.

A solo founder at a launch console on launch day, ticking off a glowing amber checklist whose final unchecked box is a crowd of other founders arriving along amber threads to support the launch — illustrating that the last box on a SaaS launch checklist is a real crowd.

June 29, 2026 · 8 min read · Mark Fulton

SaaS Launch Checklist: The Interactive Launch-Day Guide

An interactive SaaS launch checklist you actually tick off: T-minus 2 weeks, launch-day hour blocks, and the crowd-and-support list every other guide skips.

A solo founder standing between two glowing amber surfaces — a classic ranked list of blue links on one side and a single synthesized AI answer box on the other — both fed by the same shared foundation of content, backlinks, and reviews flowing along amber threads from a network of other founders, illustrating that AEO and SEO are one discipline with two output surfaces.

June 26, 2026 · 8 min read · Mark Fulton

AEO vs SEO in 2026: Same Discipline, New Surface

AEO vs SEO isn't a rivalry — Google itself calls answer engine optimization 'still SEO.' A clean comparison of goals, signals, and metrics, plus where founders should spend next.

A solo founder feeding three glowing amber answer engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews — each labeled card pulling a different source (reviews, named-author articles, backlinks) along amber threads from a network of other founders, illustrating each engine's distinct citation diet.

June 25, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

How to Get Cited by ChatGPT & Perplexity (2026)

Getting cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity means feeding each engine's source diet. The per-engine checklist — plus the off-page signals a founder can actually earn.

A solo founder standing beside a glowing amber AI answer box, with three labeled streams — Reviews, Reddit, and Named authors — flowing into it along amber threads from a network of other founders, illustrating the off-page signals that get a startup cited in AI search.

June 24, 2026 · 12 min read · Mark Fulton

Answer Engine Optimization for Startups: A 2026 Guide

Answer engine optimization (AEO) for startups means getting named inside AI answers, not just ranked. The on-page tactics, the off-page truth, and how to win.

A solo founder standing at the center of four glowing amber lanes labeled Content, Community, Reciprocity, and Founder-as-product, connected by amber threads to a network of other founders — illustrating the four modes of founder-led marketing.

June 23, 2026 · 9 min read · Mark Fulton

Founder-Led Marketing Explained: A Guide for Solo Founders

Founder-led marketing is using your own voice and credibility as the channel. Here's the clean definition, the four modes, a maturity ladder, and how to do it with no personal brand.

A solo founder on a launch-day stage that's empty behind them, reaching out along glowing amber threads to borrow a crowd of other founders who arrive to support the launch — illustrating borrowed, owned, and earned audiences.

June 21, 2026 · 10 min read · Mark Fulton

How to Launch a SaaS With No Audience: The Playbook

Launching a SaaS with no audience isn't about building a following first — it's about borrowing and earning one. A playbook to assemble a crowd before launch day.

A founder at a launch console choosing among glowing amber platform cards — BetaList, Peerlist, Indie Hackers, Hacker News and more — each connected by amber threads to a crowd of other founders, with one card marked as a compounding backlink that keeps ranking after launch day.

June 19, 2026 · 10 min read · Mark Fulton

Product Hunt Alternatives 2026: 15 Places to Launch

The best Product Hunt alternatives for 2026, ranked by who's actually there, cost, and the backlink value that keeps working long after launch day.

A founder at a launch console on Product Hunt day, an amber rocket rising past an hour-by-hour timeline, connected by glowing amber threads to a real crowd of other founders arriving to support the launch.

June 18, 2026 · 9 min read · Mark Fulton

How to Launch on Product Hunt in 2026: The Honest Guide

A no-upvote-ring Product Hunt launch guide for 2026: what a launch can and can't do, the 2-week pre-launch, an hour-by-hour playbook, and how to arrive with a real crowd.

A solo founder choosing between two glowing paths — a compounding amber tree growing from content, reviews, and backlinks on one side, and a fading spark of paid ads and one-off posts on the other — connected by amber threads to other founders trading favors.

June 17, 2026 · 10 min read · Mark Fulton

SaaS Marketing on No Budget: The Honest Playbook

Marketing a SaaS on no budget isn't a money problem — it's a time problem. Here's which free channels compound, which evaporate, and how to turn effort into growth.

A startup landing page on a dark screen being roasted — small amber flames along the bottom edge, a magnifying glass over the headline, and a red-to-green conversion-score gauge with the needle in the amber zone.

June 17, 2026 · 9 min read · Mark Fulton

Roast My Landing Page: The Honest Guide (+ a Free AI Tool)

A landing page roast is the fastest way to find what's quietly killing your conversions. Here's what a good roast checks, how to roast your own page step by step, and a free AI tool that does it in 30 seconds.

A solo founder reaching their first 100 users hand-to-hand, connected by glowing amber threads to a crowd of other founders trading marketing favors to help each other launch.

June 16, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

How to Get Your First 100 Users: The Honest Playbook

Your first 100 users is a distribution problem, not a product problem. A channel-by-channel playbook — free, cheap, and reciprocal — to win them in week one, no growth hacks.

A solo founder at a laptop connected by glowing amber threads to a network of other founders — a go-to-market strategy built around trading marketing favors with peers.

June 16, 2026 · 10 min read · Mark Fulton

GTM Strategy for Solo Founders: A Go-To-Market Plan Built for One

Every go-to-market framework assumes a team, a budget, and an audience. Here's the version rewritten for solo founders with none of those — built around the one asset you actually have: other founders.

A circle of diverse startup founders linked by glowing amber threads, representing the Favors.dev marketing co-op where founders trade verified marketing favors to launch their SaaS.

June 12, 2026 · 11 min read · Mark Fulton

Introducing Favors.dev: The Founder Marketing Co-op Where Favors Launch Your SaaS

Why SaaS launch marketing fails for solo founders — and how trading verified marketing favors with other founders (shares, feedback, testimonials, backlinks) becomes a repeatable channel for early users.