Hi, I'm Xiang
Indie developer building tools for indie developers
My Journey
In 2022, I made a decision that changed everything: I quit my full-time engineering job at a large tech company to pursue indie development. Like many developers, I was drawn to the freedom of building my own products and the dream of creating something people would love.
I tried everything—games, e-commerce platforms, various SaaS tools. Some projects got a few users, others never saw the light of day. But through all these attempts, I started noticing a pattern, not just in my own work, but across the entire indie developer community.
We were all making the same critical mistakes:
- •Building products that we thought were cool, not what people actually needed
- •Lacking the funding to properly validate ideas before investing months of work
- •Struggling with marketing and finding the right audience for our products
I realized that the problem wasn't our technical skills or work ethic. The problem was that we were building in a vacuum, disconnected from the real conversations where people express their actual needs, frustrations, and problems they'd pay to solve.
Why Built SniffSub
SniffSub was born from my own frustration and failures. I needed a way to tap into real conversations where people were already discussing their problems, asking for solutions, and expressing what they'd be willing to pay for.
Online communities became my goldmine. Millions of authentic conversations happening every day, with people being brutally honest about what they need. But manually searching through these conversations was time-consuming and inefficient. I needed something better.
Mission
To help indie developers, small startups, designers, and e-commerce sellers discover real needs from real conversations. No more guessing. No more building products nobody wants. Just authentic insights from people actively looking for solutions.
SniffSub analyzes online conversations to surface pain points, feature requests, frustrations, and sales leads. It's the tool I wish I had when I started my indie journey—and now I'm sharing it with you.
What We Believe In
Quality Over Quantity
I'd rather maintain a few hundred high-quality, valuable pages than spam the internet with thousands of useless ones. Every feature I build is something I would use myself.
Real Problems, Real Solutions
I don't believe in building features for the sake of it. Every tool in SniffSub solves a real problem I've encountered in my own journey as an indie developer.
Transparency & Honesty
I share my failures as openly as my successes. This isn't just another faceless SaaS—there's a real person behind it who understands your struggles.
Community First
SniffSub exists to serve indie developers and small businesses. Your feedback shapes the product, and your success is my success.
Let's Connect
I'm always happy to chat with fellow indie developers, answer questions, or hear your feedback. You can find me on:
Active Development
Continue improving SniffSub every day. Here's the activity over the last 90 days—566 commits and counting.