Paid

Paid ads are the channel that most indie founders think will save them and that most playbooks here barely use. The data below shows when paid actually worked: late-stage scaling after organic was already validated, narrow targeting on Google Search for high-intent queries, App Store install campaigns where unit economics were proven. The playbooks below also show what didn't work: pre-product-market-fit Facebook Ads, broad targeting hoping to find the audience through ad spend, paid traffic that converted but never retained. If you're considering paid, the question isn't "what's my CAC" — it's "have I proven this channel converts organically first?" Almost every successful founder here did. The ones who tried to shortcut by buying their way in mostly aren't on this list anymore.