Last week I wrote about never having written a line of code before June. This is the next instalment, and it's about the part nobody warned me about: getting one real person to use the thing.

Short version: no paying customers yet. But this weekend I learned more about why than in the four months before it.

1. We found a hook. Maybe not the right one.

My first ads were claymation films.

Then we tried a short video in the style of those castle-defence phone games, the Clash of Clans look: little soldiers defending a castle, with Enki as the memory keeping the walls up. It went past 200 plays in about a day. That told us we'd found a hook. Whether it's the right hook, one that brings in people who want what Enki does rather than people who like castle games, I don't know yet.

A follow-up, "Raid on Memory Castle", got 203 views from 166 people on Facebook. 58% were over 55 and a third were over 65. Average watch time: 7 seconds. Link clicks: 5.

I've put £30 behind it as a paid test (£3 a day for ten days), with a stop rule written down before it started: more than £1 a click and no sign-ups after four days, it stops.

2. The front door was locked

I finally pulled the server logs and counted. About 18 people reached the sign-up screen. None got past it.

The first screen asked for date of birth, email and an 18+ tick, all at once, before you'd seen anything. Safe, responsible, and a wall.

On Sunday I split it:

  • Tick that you're 18 or over, give an email, you're in.
  • Your birthday is asked later, inside the app, the first time you reach an adults-only part.
  • If the birthday is under 18, it stops kindly and points to proper help.

While I was in there I checked whether the sign-in email could be hammered by a bot. It could. It's now five emails an hour per address, and when you hit the limit it tells you so instead of pretending an email is on its way.

3. I couldn't see any of it, so I built a dashboard

I was posting to Facebook groups, Instagram, LinkedIn, Bluesky and Indie Hackers and losing track of what went where. So I built a small desk that:

  • logs every post
  • shows which links actually got clicked
  • nudges me when a scheduled post is due
  • flags when the overnight tests go red

It's how I found the 0 out of 18. Without it I'd still be blaming the ads.

What I'd love your help with

  1. If you've found your first ten users, where did they actually come from?
  2. Has anyone found their audience was older than they assumed? What changed when you leaned into it?
  3. Is £30 on a video test a sensible first experiment, or noise at that size?
  4. What would make you trust an AI companion with your memories?

I'll answer every comment. If you want to see it: https://enki-companion.onrender.com/?utm_source=devto&utm_campaign=ep1_first_customer

Thanks for reading, from a 56-year-old who is now more scared of a sign-up form than of code.