Next Biz Thing #428 nicklaunches.com
Nick Launches https://nicklaunches.com/
In this episode, Markus J. Diplama spotlights Nick Launches, a launch platform and discovery hub built by a former startup CTO for indie makers and AI builders. The episode explores how weekly launch cycles, community voting and a permanent backlink help new products get found, and why the site's library of 192 personally reviewed launch directories, growth guides and SEO playbooks makes it a genuine resource rather than just a listing. It is an encouraging listen for any founder who has ever launched into silence. Visit Nick Launches and see what builders are shipping this week.
Have you ever built something you were genuinely proud of, pressed the publish button, and then heard absolutely nothing? No signups, no comments, no traffic. Just silence. If you have, you are in very good company, because that silence is one of the most common experiences in the entire world of building products. And today we are talking about a place that was designed to break it.
Welcome to The Next Biz Thing. I am Markus J. Diplama, and on this show we go looking for the businesses, the builders and the ideas that are shaping what comes next. We celebrate the people who are doing the work, and we try to learn something useful from each of them along the way. Today's spotlight is on a platform that sits right at the heart of the indie and AI product world. It is called Nick Launches.
Let me start with a simple truth about building software today. It has never been easier to make something. With modern frameworks, AI coding assistants and no code tools, a single person can go from an idea on a Monday morning to a working product by the weekend. That is extraordinary. But it has created a new problem. When everybody can build, the hard part is no longer building. The hard part is being found. There are thousands of new tools arriving every month, and most of them disappear before anyone even knows they exist.
Nick Launches exists to solve exactly that. At its core, it is a launch platform and discovery hub for indie makers and AI builders. Its message is short and to the point: do not just build, get discovered. The idea is that a founder can bring a new product to a place where other builders, creators and curious early adopters are actively looking for what is new, and give that product a real chance to be seen.
The story behind it is one that a lot of listeners will recognise. The person behind Nick Launches is a former startup CTO who spent years in the corporate grind and eventually decided to leave that lifestyle behind to commit fully to building products and writing about the journey. He has shipped his own tools, including Prompt Builder and InstaPosts, and he writes about web apps, mobile apps, SEO and AI from direct experience. That matters, because Nick Launches is not a platform designed by someone guessing at what makers need. It is designed by someone who has sat in that silence after launch day and knows exactly how it feels.
So how does it actually work? The process is refreshingly simple. A builder signs in and submits their product, and the site says it takes under two minutes to add a tool to the directory. From there, the product can be featured on the homepage and included in the weekly digest, which goes out to the community. And then the product has the chance to grow its reach, earning upvotes, traffic and backlinks from real builders who are browsing the site.
One of the most interesting things about Nick Launches is its rhythm. Instead of one frantic, crowded launch day, it runs in weekly cycles. Each week has its own board of launches, and visitors can browse what came out that week and help pick a winner. When I looked at the site, week thirty nine of twenty twenty six was underway with more than one hundred launches on the board, and the leaderboard was a wonderful snapshot of what builders are working on right now. There was a network that turns unused storage into shared infrastructure, an email signature designer, a free digital QR menu builder for restaurants, a real time AI translator for video calls, a workout tracker for people who lift, and an AI recipe tool that works out what you can cook from what is already in your fridge. That variety tells you something important. This is not a niche corner of the internet. It is a genuine cross section of the builder economy.
The weekly format also makes the playing field feel fairer. The site publishes regular recap posts about how each week went, and one of them told a story I really enjoyed. In one recent week, a free launch climbed to the top of the board with more than twenty upvotes, without paying for a promoted slot at all. For a first time founder with no audience, that is exactly the kind of outcome that keeps you going. It shows that good products and genuine community interest can still win.
Now let us talk about the part that search minded founders will love. Every launch on Nick Launches comes with a permanent backlink from a strong, high authority domain. If you are new to SEO, here is why that matters. Search engines treat links from trusted sites as a kind of vote of confidence. For a brand new website with no history, earning those early votes is one of the hardest things to do, and one of the most valuable. So a launch on Nick Launches is not just a moment of visibility on launch week. It keeps working quietly in the background, helping a new product get recognised by search engines over the months that follow.
And the site is organised in a way that makes discovery easy for visitors too. Products are grouped into categories, and the numbers show just how active the community is. At the time I checked, the AI category alone held more than seven hundred and seventy products, productivity had more than seven hundred, and there were hundreds more across marketing, developer tools, communication, content creation, analytics, e commerce and SEO. There are smaller, specialised corners too, covering everything from education and health to travel, legal, music and sustainability. Whatever a visitor is interested in, there is a clear path to the tools that fit.
But here is where Nick Launches really sets itself apart from a simple listing site. It is also a teaching resource. The site describes itself as a growing library of launch directories, hands on tool reviews, growth guides and SEO playbooks for indie AI products. And that library is substantial.
Take the launch directories section. Nick has put together a catalogue of one hundred and ninety two places where founders can launch their products, and he says he has personally tested and reviewed each one. Every entry is labelled with practical details, such as whether it is free, freemium or paid, whether it offers a dofollow link, whether a badge is required, and an honest rating of how strong that directory really is. For a founder planning a launch, that turns weeks of research into an afternoon of focused work. You can see at a glance where your time will pay off.
Then there is the blog, which is full of the kind of advice builders genuinely need. There are guides on how to build backlinks for a new SaaS website through directories, useful content, partnerships, outreach and brand mentions. There are thoughtful pieces on alternatives to the traditional one day launch model, and there are tool reviews, dev tutorials and product building lessons taken from real experience. It is written by a builder for builders, and you can feel that in the tone.
For the more technical crowd, Nick Launches also offers an API and MCP option, so that the platform can plug into modern developer and AI agent workflows. There is a badge that makers can place on their own sites to show they launched there. And there is a newsletter that keeps the community up to date with the latest AI trends, tutorials and industry insights. Put together, these pieces create an ecosystem rather than a one off listing. You come for the launch, you stay for the learning, and you keep coming back to see what everyone else is building.
I also want to mention something small that says a lot about the values behind the project. Nick Launches is a Stripe Climate partner, directing a share of its revenue toward carbon removal. It is a quiet detail at the bottom of the page, but it reflects a mindset of building responsibly, even as a small independent business.
So why does all of this matter for the rest of us? Because we are living through one of the biggest shifts in how products get made. The barrier to building has almost vanished, and that means the next great tool might come from a solo developer, a student, a designer who learned to code last year, or a former CTO who simply decided to go and build. But none of that potential means anything if those products never find their first users. Platforms like Nick Launches are part of the answer. They give independent builders a stage, a community and a set of practical playbooks, and they make the path from launch to traction a little less lonely.
There is also something encouraging here for anyone listening who has an idea they have not shipped yet. The tools are ready. The community is out there. And there are people like Nick who have walked the road and are sharing what they learned so that you do not have to figure it all out alone.
If you are a founder, a maker or an indie hacker with something new to share, I would really encourage you to go and take a look at Nick Launches. Browse this week's launches, vote for the products you love, dig into the directory reviews and the growth guides, and when your own product is ready, give it a proper launch. And even if you are not building right now, it is a brilliant way to discover the tools that people are shipping this very week.
That is it for today's episode. Thank you so much for spending this time with me. Keep building, keep sharing, and keep an eye out for the next big thing, because it might be launching this week. I am Markus J. Diplama, and this has been The Next Biz Thing. Until next time, take care.
