Your 7.5% activation rate (15 active users from 200 signups) is not a marketing problem—it's a product-market fit signal that needs investigation before you spend another dollar on acquisition. The good news: the market is massive and validated (Eat This Much pulls 8.2M monthly visitors; Mealime has 4.5M users and 77K monthly organic traffic). The concerning news: you're competing in a crowded space where the differentiator you've chosen (grocery sales integration) is technically difficult and has attracted at least one other indie developer (RecipeWiz in Calgary, which got CBC coverage and positive Reddit reception).

Your friends and family who say it's "cool" but don't use it are giving you the most important data point you have: the idea resonates, but the experience doesn't stick. Before pivoting, you need to understand whether the problem is (a) onboarding friction—users never experience the core value, (b) time-to-value—the grocery sales integration doesn't deliver enough savings to justify the effort, or (c) feature gaps—competitors like Mealime win on recipe simplicity and grocery list generation without the sales complexity.

The 8-month build time and $100 ad spend with 6% conversion to active tells me you've been in build mode when you should have been in learn mode. This strategy focuses Week 1-2 on diagnosing the activation problem through direct user conversations, then pivots to either fixing the product or repositioning based on what you learn. Do not resume paid acquisition until activation exceeds 25%.

Critical Insight: RecipeWiz is doing exactly what you're doing, launched August 2025 in Calgary, got CBC news coverage, and received 275 upvotes (95% approval) on r/Calgary. Their approach: "Check your 'Flyer Matches' to see which recipes use the most sale items from local stores." This validates your concept but means you're not alone, and they're ahead on local PR.

1. Stop spending on paid acquisition. Your 6% ad-to-active rate means you're paying ~$33 to acquire one active user. At $5/mo revenue, that's 7+ months to payback—before accounting for churn. Fix activation first.

1. Stop building new features. 8 months of building hasn't solved the retention problem. Every new feature adds complexity that makes onboarding harder. Freeze the roadmap until you understand why users leave.

1. Stop waiting for 1000 users to charge. This delays the learning you need. Offer the 15 active users a paid tier now ($3/mo early adopter rate). Their willingness to pay is the best signal of real value.

1. Stop treating "friends and family like it" as validation. They're being polite. The 185 who signed up and churned are your real feedback—go talk to them.

1. Stop comparing yourself to Eat This Much's scale. They have 675K ranking keywords and years of SEO momentum. That's not your game. Focus on the niche (budget-conscious, sale-driven meal planning) where you can win.

Template 1: Reddit Value Post (r/Frugal, r/budgetfood)

Title: How I cut my grocery bill by $180/month by planning meals around weekly sales

Body:

Grocery shopping is more involved than it looks. A lot of people plan meals for the week, then go buy ingredients. But here's the problem: those ingredients might be overpriced this week.

I flipped the process. Here's what I do now:

Step 1: Every Sunday, I check the weekly flyers for my 2-3 closest grocery stores (I use Flipp to see them all in one place).

Step 2: I look for proteins on deep discount—chicken thighs, ground beef, pork shoulder. Whatever's 30%+ off becomes my base for the week.

Step 3: I pick 3-4 recipes that use that protein plus vegetables that are also on sale.

Step 4: I make a shopping list with ONLY those items plus staples I'm out of.

Last week: chicken thighs were $1.99/lb (usually $3.99). I planned three meals around chicken—stir fry, sheet pan with vegetables, and chicken salad. Total grocery bill: $62 for a family of 3 for the week.

The key insight: you're not planning meals then buying ingredients. You're buying what's cheap then planning meals around it.

Anyone else do this? What's your system?

Template 2: User Reactivation Email

Subject: Quick question from the MealMate founder

Body:

Hi [Name],

I noticed you signed up for MealMate a few weeks ago but haven't used it recently. I'm not writing to sell you anything—I genuinely want to understand what happened.

I'm [Your Name], and I built this app because I was spending too much on groceries and wanted to eat healthier. But if it's not working for you, I need to know why.

Would you be open to a quick 10-minute call this week? I'd love to hear what you were hoping MealMate would do, and where it fell short.

If you prefer, you can also just reply to this email with a few sentences. Any feedback helps.

Thanks for giving us a try,

[Your Name]

P.S. — If there's one thing we could change to make MealMate useful for you, what would it be?

Template 3: Local Subreddit Launch Post

Title: Built a free app that creates meal plans from this week's [City] grocery sales — would love feedback

Body:

Hey [r/CityName],

I've been frustrated with grocery bills lately, so I built something for myself that I think others might find useful.

The idea: instead of planning meals then buying ingredients (and finding out chicken is $6/lb this week), the app checks what's actually on sale at [Local Store 1], [Local Store 2], and [Local Store 3], then suggests recipes using those discounted items.

It's free, and I'm a local developer just trying to make something useful.

Here's how it works:

1. Enter your zip code and dietary preferences
2. The app pulls this week's sales from nearby stores
3. You get a meal plan + shopping list using the cheapest ingredients available right now

I'd love feedback from anyone willing to try it. What's working? What's confusing? What's missing?

[Link]

Happy to answer any questions. And if this isn't helpful, tell me that too—I'd rather know than guess.