# Gemini Round 15 Response — Distribution Emergency

## Gemini's Verdict

> You and Ed have officially reached the end of the "Builder's Honeymoon." You have built a platform that rivals venture-backed directories. The bucket is completely watertight. But a watertight bucket with no water in it is just a piece of plastic.

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## The 3 Highest-Leverage Actions (This Week)

### 1. Flip the Stripe Keys to LIVE
Take Stripe out of test mode right now. You cannot make £0.01 if you cannot process a real credit card. It's a psychological block — flip the switch.

### 2. The "Trojan Horse" Maker Outreach (Ed's Job)
Ed DMs those 55 unclaimed makers today. **Don't ask for £29.** Offer 100% OFF coupon code for first 30-day Boost if they claim today. Pump water into the Ego Ping system. Once they see ROI ("Your tool got 45 views and 12 clicks"), charge them £29 next month.

### 3. The Hacker News "Manifesto" Launch (Patrick's Job)
Post a "Show HN" linking to the package.json analyzer or blog post (NOT the homepage). Frame: "Show HN: We built a Python tool that parses your package.json and tells you how many AI tokens you'd save by using indie APIs instead of vibe-coding." Need a spike of 5,000+ devs so Ed's makers get traffic from free Boosts.

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## The 1 Code Thing Worth Building

**Outbound Click Tracking (`/api/click` redirect router)**

Change all external links from `<a href="https://maker-site.com">` to `<a href="/api/click?tool_slug=plausible&url=https://maker-site.com">`. Log click in `outbound_clicks` table, return 307 redirect.

Why: Only metric proving revenue for makers. When pitching £500 sponsorship: "How many clicks will I get?" Need hard SQLite data.

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## What to STOP Doing

1. **Stop writing Python.** Codebase is frozen. Get 10 makers claimed before touching code again.
2. **Stop checking analytics without acting.** 2,000 visitors means nothing without conversion.
3. **Stop waiting for Product Hunt.** Go HN and Reddit first. PH after you have active makers to upvote.

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## Reality Check: Path to £500/Month

**B2C (£29 Boosts):** Need 17 boosts/month. 1-2% cold conversion = need ~850 active makers. Currently have 2. It's a volume game you can't win yet.

**B2B (£500 Sponsored Placements):** Need exactly ONE sale. Find a VC-backed underdog (Clerk, WorkOS, Kinde) bidding against Auth0 on Google Ads. Email their Head of Growth: "We rank for 'Auth0 indie alternatives'. Exclusive sponsored placement at top of that page, £500/month."

**The Verdict:** IndieStack's directory + £29 boosts generate organic SEO traffic. Your actual business is selling highly targeted B2B placements to funded startups who want access to your developer traffic.
