I’m Sunil Joshi, designer, frontend developer, and digital product builder.
For the past 15 years, I’ve been building and running digital products. And one thing I’ve learned: Growth isn’t magic. It’s structure.
Recently, we launched Shadcn Space, a niche Shadcn UI library built specifically for developers who want production-ready blocks and landing pages.
In the first 28 days after launch, we generated:
- 102,000+ page views
- 18,000+ sessions
- 1,700+ organic clicks
- 300+ GitHub stars
- 500+ waitlist signups
- 151K+ Reddit Views
No paid ads.
It was the result of years of building digital products, making mistakes, understanding distribution, and applying those lessons intentionally.
In this post, I’ll break down exactly how we achieved this step by step so other builders and founders can apply the same principles to their own products.
1 – Build curiosity before launch
Most founders build privately for months and then expect a single launch post to change everything.
That rarely works.
Before launching ShadcnSpace publicly, we created momentum intentionally.
We:
- Built a waitlist landing page
- Shared preview videos of real UI blocks on Twitter and Reddit
- Showed actual product quality, not mockups
- Posted consistently for 3 – 4 weeks
- This helped us get 500+ users joining the Waitlist
This early phase was not about traffic. It was about positioning.
When people repeatedly see progress, they subconsciously assign credibility. They feel part of the journey. By the time we launched, we weren’t introducing a new product, we were releasing something people were already expecting.
Key Insight:
Don’t build in silence. Build in public.
2 – Open Source as a Trust Engine
On January 26, we released the open-source version.
Within 3 weeks:
- 300+ GitHub stars
- High-quality developer feedback
- Organic shares within dev communities
Open source does something powerful for developer tools: it removes skepticism.
Developers do not trust landing pages. They trust code.
When someone can inspect your repository, evaluate the structure, and understand implementation decisions, the barrier to adoption drops dramatically.
Instead of asking people to “trust us,” we let them verify us.
That credibility didn’t just drive GitHub stars; it also amplified SEO clicks, Reddit conversions, and direct traffic.
GitHub Repo
Key Insight:
Open source reduces trust friction.
3 – Posting Consistency (Reddit + Twitter)
Reddit was not used as a traffic hack.
It was used as a presence engine.
We showed up consistently:
- Answered UI and shadcn-related questions
- Helped developers solve real problems
- Posted about what we are working
- Shared insights without aggressively linking
Over time, this created:
- 151K+ total Reddit views
- Steady referral traffic
- Brand familiarity within niche dev communities
The important part is this: very few posts went viral.
But consistency compounded.
When people repeatedly see helpful contributions under the same name, brand recall forms naturally.
Social Proof:
Key Insight:
Consistency beats virality.
4 – SEO was built into the product
This is where most dev tools misunderstand growth.
They treat SEO as blog content. We treated SEO as infrastructure.
From the beginning, ShadcnSpace was built with:
- Static generation using Next.js
- Fast load performance
- Clean and predictable URL structure
- Fully indexable preview pages
- Intent-driven long-tail keyword targeting
Instead of writing generic articles, we created highly specific pages that matched developer search intent.
For example:
- shadcn hero section
- shadcn blocks
- shadcn marquee
When a developer searches one of these queries, they don’t want a theory. They want a ready-to-use UI.
Each preview page delivered exactly that.
That alignment between search intent and product utility created sustainable organic traffic.
Social Proof:
Key Insight:
SEO isn’t content only. Its structure.
Where does traffic actually come from?
Growth did not come from one source.
It came from a system.
Organic (Search)
Developers actively searching for specific shadcn components discovered our preview pages. This traffic had high intent and strong retention.
Referral (Reddit + Twitter)
Community exposure created awareness. Even when users didn’t click immediately, they remembered the name.
Direct Traffic
Brand recall from consistent visibility translated into direct visits.
GitHub
For many developers, GitHub was the validation step before using the platform. It reinforced trust.
The Flywheel Effect
Social → Awareness
GitHub → Trust
SEO → Discovery
Quality → Retention
Each channel strengthened the others.
Someone might discover us on Reddit, validate on GitHub, return via Google, and later come back directly.
That’s compounding growth.
What most founders get wrong?
After analyzing this process, the common mistakes become obvious:
- Launching once and expecting momentum
- Hoping for virality instead of building systems
- Ignoring SEO until after traffic slows
- Adding marketing as an afterthought
- Running ads before validating product demand
Growth for developer tools is not about noise. It’s about alignment between product quality and visibility structure.
The Real Lesson
There was no hidden tactic. No secret growth loophole.
What worked was simple, but disciplined:
- High product quality
- Public visibility before launch
- Open-source credibility
- SEO baked into infrastructure
- Consistent community presence
If you’re building something, start showing it today.
Because momentum is not created at launch. It was built long before it.
