Dog Walker Vibecoded an App With Claude, Got 22 Paying Users via a $389 Press Release
RochestieRouzet22 · reddit · 2026-11-15
A professional dog walker who can't code built a dog-walking report app (mapped routes, photos, pee/poop logs) with Claude in two weeks, after finding existing tools were built for big agencies at $40/month. He launched it in September at $8/month.
The marketing story is instructive: posting on X got zero signups. On a friend's advice he wrote a plain-language press release in one evening and paid $389 to a newswire. Two days later it appeared on Yahoo Finance, Business Insider, and AP News—but he's candid that no journalist covered him; these were republished press releases with nofollow links, driving just 12 visits in the first month.
The surprise came four weeks later: walkers in other cities started signing up, and most said ChatGPT recommended the app—reproducing his release almost word for word, including the pee-and-poop line. He now has 22 paying walkers. Claude built the whole app; the only marketing that worked was the one page he wrote himself.
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