Generosity is a marketing strategy. Unit economics is a survival strategy. Here is how my "Founder's Launch Program" saved my indie app.

The best week of my indie life

It started with a stranger on Reddit.

He'd tried my native notes app, EpicNotes, on his Xiaomi phone and left a comment: "Feels fast and nice. But there's some minor visual weirdness on my phone." I replied offering him a free 3-month Pro code as a thank-you for the feedback. He said yes. I generated the code in the Play Console, felt like a real company handing out a real perk, and went to sleep happy.

Then came more. A fellow tester who cancelled his subscription on principle but still sent me bug reports with screenshots. A student from India who emailed: "I'm a student, so I can't afford it. If you could make a lifetime promo code available for me, I would be able to fully use it and provide suggestions and bug reports. Please 🙏"

I granted him lifetime Pro in about two minutes. It felt amazing. People were using my app.…