# IndieStack — Round 14: Thought Experiments for Scale & Product-Market Fit

## Context

IndieStack is a curated marketplace for indie SaaS tools, built by two university students with Python/FastAPI/SQLite and Claude Code. We've launched on Product Hunt, have ~2,000 unique visitors, and are actively doing maker outreach (55 unclaimed tools, magic claim links built).

**Revenue model**: £29 Boost (Featured badge + priority placement + newsletter for 30 days). No Stripe Connect — direct Stripe Checkout only.

Live at: https://indiestack.fly.dev

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## What We've Built (Full Feature Set)

### Tech Stack
- Python 3.11, FastAPI, aiosqlite (SQLite + WAL mode)
- Pure Python string HTML templates (no Jinja2, no React, no JS frameworks)
- Stripe Checkout for £29 Boost payments
- Fly.io, single machine, Docker
- GitHub repo (private, 2 collaborators)

### All Routes
| Route | What It Does |
|-------|-------------|
| `/` | Homepage — hero, trending tools, categories, live ticker, stats |
| `/explore` | Faceted tool browsing — filter by category, tags, price, sort, verified, ejectable |
| `/tool/{slug}` | Tool detail — reviews, changelogs, badges, similar tools, claim/boost CTA, share row, breadcrumbs |
| `/search?q=` | FTS5 search with filters |
| `/new` | Recently added tools |
| `/tags` | All tags page |
| `/tag/{slug}` | Per-tag landing pages (~197 tags, programmatic SEO) |
| `/category/{slug}` | Per-category browse pages |
| `/makers` | Maker directory with search |
| `/maker/{slug}` | Maker profile — bio, tools, indie status |
| `/collections` | Curated tool collections |
| `/stacks` | Vibe Stacks — curated bundles at 15% discount |
| `/stacks/community` | User-created shareable stacks |
| `/compare/{slug1}/{slug2}` | Side-by-side tool comparison |
| `/alternatives` | Alternatives index (programmatic SEO) |
| `/alternatives/{competitor}` | "Best indie alternatives to X" pages |
| `/best` | Best indie tools index — 20 category pages |
| `/best/{category}` | Ranked tools per category |
| `/blog` | Blog index |
| `/blog/{slug}` | Blog posts |
| `/submit` | Tool submission form |
| `/pricing` | Pro tier page |
| `/login`, `/signup` | Auth with `?next=` redirect |
| `/dashboard` | Maker dashboard — tools, analytics, launch readiness, milestones, search analytics |
| `/admin` | Admin — tabbed UI, KPI cards, filters, pagination, magic claim links |
| `/about`, `/faq`, `/terms`, `/privacy` | Static content |
| `/live` | MCP live wire — real-time developer search feed |
| `/updates` | Build-in-public feed |

### Revenue Streams (Current)
1. **£29 Boost** — 30-day Featured badge + priority placement + newsletter feature
2. **Pro tier** (£9/mo) — lower commission, verified badge, analytics (not yet active)
3. **Verified badge** — one-time Stripe Checkout

### What Works Well
- Clean design, responsive, dark mode
- Admin panel is genuinely useful (tabs, filters, KPIs, pagination, magic links)
- Frictionless claim flow (one-click magic links for DMs)
- Programmatic SEO (197 tag pages, 20+ alternatives pages, best-of pages)
- Scale fixes done (caching, indexes, rate limiting, cleanup jobs)

### Current Numbers
- ~2,000 unique visitors
- ~131 tools, 55 unclaimed
- 2 registered users (low conversion)
- £0 revenue
- Already launched on Product Hunt

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## What I Need

Give me **8 thought experiments** — hypothetical scenarios that stress-test our product, business model, and UX. For each one:

1. **The scenario** — a specific, vivid "what if" situation (2-3 sentences)
2. **What breaks** — exactly what fails technically, commercially, or experientially (be specific: name files, flows, pages)
3. **What to build** — concrete feature(s) or changes to survive this scenario (with effort estimates)
4. **Priority** — would you build this NOW or later? Why?

### The 8 experiments should cover:

1. **Viral spike** — A popular developer tweets about IndieStack and 50,000 people visit in 24 hours. What breaks?

2. **Maker flood** — 200 makers claim their tools in one week via magic links. What's their experience? Where do they churn?

3. **SEO success** — Google starts ranking your `/alternatives/{competitor}` pages and you get 500 organic visits/day to those pages. Are they converting? What's missing?

4. **First paying customer** — Someone actually clicks "Boost" and pays £29. What happens? Does the experience feel worth £29? What would make them tell another maker?

5. **Competitor launches** — Someone launches "BetterStack" (a competitor to IndieStack) with VC funding and a bigger tool database. What's your moat? What can't they copy?

6. **Content play** — You decide to go all-in on content marketing (blog posts, comparisons, guides). What infrastructure is missing? What content would actually drive signups?

7. **Community flywheel** — 50 makers are active on the platform. What features would make them come back weekly? What makes IndieStack their "home base" vs just another listing?

8. **Revenue reality check** — You need to make £500/month to justify the time. How many boosts is that? Is it realistic? What other revenue streams could work at your scale?

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## Constraints
- Two university students, limited time
- Claude Code builds features in hours
- SQLite, single Fly.io machine (scale fixes done for ~5k users)
- No React, no JS frameworks — pure Python string templates
- Must be buildable, not theoretical — every suggestion should be something we can ship

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## What Makes a Great Response

- Be brutally honest about what's weak
- Name specific pages/flows/files when pointing out problems
- Prioritise ruthlessly — we can't build everything
- Think like a developer who just landed on the site for the first time
- Think like a maker who just received a claim DM
- Think like someone who just paid £29 and is wondering if they got ripped off
