The "Invisible Nobodies" Who Built a 5k-Visitor Startup in 90 Days

Meet Prince.

16-year-old Prince is based in India. He is running FoundrList with his brother.

The two brothers would like to keep things private for now. So no photos or full names shared in this story.

Foundrlist is a product discovery and launch platform designed as a modern alternative to Product Hunt. It is specifically built for indie makers, SaaS builders, and early-stage startup founders to gain continuous visibility for their digital products.

FoundrList is just Prince and his brother. No team. A bootstrapped duo.

My brother and I built FoundrList because we were sick of being invisible nobodies in the startup world. No jobs, no network, no nothing just two kids coding after homework, desperate for one real founder to talk to. X was a circus. LinkedIn was fake. Discord? Dead.

So we made the thing we needed: a calm, no-BS platform for indie makers to launch products, get steady discovery (not that one-day Product Hunt BS), rank weekly by category, add profiles, and actually connect with other builders. Simple submissions, AI help, zero hype, basics free.

We quietly launched October 4, 2025. Ugly MVP, no logins, manual everything. Shipped it anyway.

Reddit gave us a hard time. They banned us over 100 times. Posts deleted. Accounts shadowbanned. The whole nightmare.

Every time we tried to share genuinely "Hey, check this out if you're a builder" - BAM, gone. It felt personal. Like Reddit hates young founders trying to hustle. Exhausting. Unfair. Infuriating.

What didn't work on Reddit? Everything at first. Broad posts, looking too promotional, ignoring the insane rules. We were ready to quit. But we learned the hard way: value-first, niche subs, real comments, strict compliance.

Now we have found ways to post on Reddit without instant death - like the post below:

Mostly we do replies though, not posts. That’s the key after 100+ bans.

By far we’re getting the most leads from X. Personal outreach in the DMs wins.

X DM example:

"Hey [Name], loving [their product]! Running foundrlist.com. A calm spot for steady discovery & founder chats. Add yours free if fits? [link] 🚀"

We send 20-50 a day. High conversion rate.

We also do outreach in our replies on X - example below.

Users can browse and submit for free. We got paid features for boosted ranking, AI listing tools, and featured profiles.

We have run zero paid ads. 100% bootstrapped.

In just 3 months (early January 2026), we're at 950 users (founders listing, engaging, building momentum), heading straight to 1,000.

Already pulled in $1,000+ revenue from early paid features.

We got ~5k weekly visitors, mostly from X + organic.

Screw the gatekeepers. If two teenage indie makers can survive 100+ bans, ship fast, and hit real traction... You don't need permission. You don't need age. You just need to fix your own pain and keep going.

You can reach both Prince and his brother on this X account @foundrceo.