Distribution plays · № 3 of 7 · borrows search demand — the tool earns its own attention

Build a free tool that sells for you

fast · days to ship; search compounds afterborrow

Solve one painful problem free, one step before your paid product. Users arrive already problem-aware, so demand is warm — and “vibecoding” just made tools ~100× cheaper to build.

$540k/mo
equivalent ad value of Shopify’s free Business Name Generator (~400k sessions/month) — the top of a funnel that ends in an auto-created storefront.

What the evidence says

The real Shopify trick isn’t the tool — it’s the 200+ keyword-specific landing pages wrapping the same generator (“clothing brand name generator”, ~1.5k searches a month, and on and on). “It’s almost like Shopify took 200 different masks and slapped them on top of the Business Name Generator.” Foundation teardowncase study

The catch

A free tool has its own distribution problem. Competitors running the same tool on a single landing page lose the long tail. The tool without the keyword wrap is just a feature.

The cheap test

Check search volume for “[your tool] + free / calculator / checker”, vibe-code the MVP, show instant results before asking for an email, and make the output shareable. Then repeat monthly — Tweet Hunter’s cadence: one free tool a month, $10M exit in 18 months.

First steps, from the essay

  1. List 10 free-tool ideas that sit one step before your purchase (graders, calculators, analyzers, generators)
  2. Filter: does the tool’s output naturally lead into the paid offer?
  3. Check search volume for “[tool] + free/calculator/checker”
  4. Vibe-code it: instant results first, capture email second
  5. Make the output shareable — scores, grades and generated names create viral moments
  6. Repeat monthly; each tool is a small bet, winners compound

The cast

Shopify — owner of the single best-documented free-tool funnel.
  • Generate name → claim domain → one-click signup → storefront auto-created
  • One identical tool wearing 200+ keyword-specific landing pages
Ahrefs — the “limited taste” model.
  • Free backlink checker ranks for the exact term buyers type; a deliberate sliver of the $129/month product
Tweet Hunter — the cadence proof.
  • One free tool per month; each a small bet, winners compound
  • Two-week MVP → $10M exit in 18 months — two indie makers, no ads, no audience
HubSpot — the pioneer.
  • Website Grader (2007) graded 4M sites — “one of the cheapest lead machines in B2B history”
Gabriel Weinberg — DuckDuckGo founder.
  • Wrote the play’s textbook chapter: “Engineering as Marketing”, in Traction (with Justin Mares)

Go deeper

Disagree? Pin a note on it →