Hit 200K users fast on my productivity tool, quit my job & now I’m stuck. How do I get back on track?

Hey folks, last year I launched a lightweight async tool to help remote teams sync up without the headache of Zoom fatigue. Unlike other tools that focus on heavy features, I focused on speed, simplicity, and accessibility - no learning curve, no downloads, just straight-to-the-point communication.

This was a problem I faced firsthand working remotely for an Israel-based startup. Meeting fatigue was real, and I knew there had to be a better way.

The response was incredible:

• 50K signups in 3 days after landing on the front page of Product Hunt.
• Teams loved the simplicity and started sharing it on Slack, which sparked a second wave of growth.
• We scaled to 200K total users, with 30K weekly actives at our peak. Retention was solid early on - 60% of signups returned weekly.

Building it felt magical, like everything was falling into place.

I quit my job, confident we could charge for premium features. That’s when reality hit:

• WAUs plummeted by 80%, dropping to 6K.
• Only ~500 teams converted to $6/month per user. SMBs loved the tool but hesitated to pay, while larger teams wanted enterprise-grade features I couldn’t deliver.
• Growth stalled - limiting the free tier killed word-of-mouth, and the buzz dried up.

It felt like overnight, we’d lost the magic. Watching users churn after they’d raved about the product was a gut punch.

Looking back, I underestimated how competitive the async space is. Giants like Loom and Slack dominate, and while I believed our lightweight, no-friction approach could carve out a niche, keeping users engaged and paying has been an uphill battle.

Now, I’m at a crossroads:

1. Expand the free tier to reignite virality - but how do I sustain costs if this works?
2. Niche down further - focus on solopreneurs or specific industries?
3. Build integrations (Notion, ClickUp, etc.) and target power users on LinkedIn?

Here for any advice!