Why I Built This And Why It Almost Failed

Hey, I'm Kevin.

One year ago, I had an idea for a tweet screenshot tool.

Today, it makes $500/month from 120+ customers.

I'm writing this because if you just found this product, you probably want to know:

• What is it for?

• Will it still exist next month?

• Who's behind it?

• Can I trust this guy?

Fair questions.

Here's the honest story behind this tool.

The Problem I Actually Had

I kept seeing viral content on Instagram—just screenshots of tweets.

But they looked terrible. Raw phone screenshots with weird crops and no branding.

I also repost tweets to other social media like Instagram and LinkedIn.

I did this myself constantly. It annoyed me every time.

So I built a tool to fix it.

I made it for myself first. Then I put it online to see if anyone else cared.

Turns out, people did.

Why You Can Rely on TwitterShots

Screenshot bots go down overnight.

I built TwitterShots to be the last tool you'll ever need for content repurposing.

Here's my promise to you:

• I built this for myself. If it doesn't work for my brands, it doesn't go out.

• No bots. I personally answer every email—founder to user.

• You ask, I build. 80% of features come directly from your feedback.

• 99.9% uptime. A solid stack means no broken workflows.

• I'm in this for the long haul. I'm building for the next decade, not next month.

I'm not a big corporation. I'm the solo founder behind TwitterShots.

I ship fast, I listen, and I genuinely care about your workflow.

If that sounds like someone you'd like to support, I'd love to have you on board.

What Went Wrong First

Launch day: People loved it. Shared it. Bookmarked it.

Week 2: Still zero paying customers.

I had built something people enjoyed using, but not something they'd pay for.

That's when I actually talked to users instead of guessing what they wanted.

I got some feedback from early users:

1. "I need my branding on these screenshots" — Content creators wanted their logo and colors

2. "I need to split threads into Instagram carousels" — This specific workflow was huge

3. "I need to process 100+ tweets at once" — Newsletters and agencies had bulk needs

So I rebuilt the product around those three use cases.

My first paying customer signed up 3 days later.

What I Learned (The Hard Way)

1. People don't pay for features. They pay for solutions.

I started with "Download videos! Export PDFs! Dark mode!"

Nobody cared. Yes, nobody will pay for your dark mode.

I kept asking users what was broken and if there was anything else I could help with.

Most people ignored me, but a few early users replied.

Then I changed the pitch to: "Turn any tweet thread into an Instagram carousel in 10 seconds."

That's when conversions happened.

2. Low prices signal low value.

I launched at $2.99/month thinking it would attract more users.

Indie hacking legend Levelsio used my product and said:

"That's too cheap. Raise your prices! $2.99 is too low to ever get rich."

You can see it in this X post:

I raised it to $6.99. Conversions actually went up.

3. The product needs to market itself.

I added a tiny watermark on free screenshots. I felt guilty about it.

But here's the truth: 65% of people who upgrade do it to remove the watermark.

And every free screenshot shared is free marketing.

4. Build for 100 people, not everyone.

"Tweet screenshots" could be useful for millions of people.

But content creators who post to Instagram 5x per week? They need this.

I stopped trying to serve everyone and focused on that specific group.

5. SEO Is Your Best Employee

What I learned: Almost all my traffic comes from Google.

Do not ignore SEO. It works while you sleep.

I ignored this for months.

I was obsessed with social media marketing.

Posting on Twitter. Trying to go viral.

Meanwhile, people were literally searching "tweet to instagram carousel" on Google every day.

I finally focused on SEO. Here's what I did:

• Improved domain authority

• Built dedicated pages for my top 10 keywords

• Grew from 0 to 8,000+ monthly impressions in 6 weeks through programmatic SEO

Now 80%+ of my customers find me through Google search.

If you're wondering about the tech stack or how I grew from 0 to 8K monthly visitors through SEO, I wrote about that here: How I build twitter screenshot generator tool SEO.

Revenue followed.

One More Thing

If you have ideas or run into issues, email me directly.

I read everything.

I share everything I'm learning—the metrics, the mistakes, the experiments—in public.

Not because I have it figured out.

Because building in public keeps me honest and helps other founders avoid my mistakes.

If you're building something too, or thinking about it, let's connect. Always happy to help.

Thanks for reading. And if you try the tool, I'd genuinely love to hear what you think.

Questions, feedback, or just want to say hi? → kevin@twittershots.com

— Kevin Wu, TwitterShots Founder

Start Creating Professional Tweet Screenshots

Join 120+ customers who trust TwitterShots for their content. From tweet threads to Instagram carousels, create stunning screenshots in seconds.

• Turn Tweets into Instagram Carousels
• Custom Branding & Themes
• Bulk Processing
• Thread to PDF Export
• API Access
• Video Download Support

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