FOR INDIE & CONSUMER APPS · SIXTEEN SEATS
One seat. 25 verified joiners. Graduate in public.R-02
You built something. Maybe nobody's found it yet - maybe a handful have, and stalled. What's missing isn't effort, it's a channel: every launch route wants equity, ad spend, or a spot in a feed where you'll drown. cohortduel is the alternative: one seat per category, yours for 10 days. Publish a founding offer and the board's only question is the one that matters - can 25 real, verified joiners show up for the thing? 25 verified users graduate you - with a permanent public record. Run out the clock and the seat rotates - no shame, no flag, refile free (R-19) - but the joiners you found are yours to keep, and the wall records graduations, never attempts. No votes. No followers required. Just real users.
THE BOARD, RIGHT NOW
BOARD LOADING… RUN db:push AND db:seed IF IT STAYS EMPTY.
THE LINE IS PUBLIC - FIRST-COME, NO EXCEPTIONS (R-03). WHEN A SEAT OPENS THE FIRST NAME IN LINE TAKES IT, IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. FULL LINES ON THE BOARD.
THE BOARD, ITEMIZED - THE MACHINE IN SIX NUMBERS
LAUNCH DIRECTORIES COUNT AUDIENCE. WE COUNT DEMAND.
HOW THE BOARD WORKS
Claim the seat
One seat per category - sixteen for indie software. If it's open, it's yours: file free, publish your founding offer, get 10 days. If it's held, wait in line - first-come, no favors, no curation.
R-01 · R-03Declare your activation
Before you're seated, you declare what a real user does: created a first budget. Completed a first build. Logged a first workout. It freezes with your terms - you can't move the goalposts later, and neither can we.
R-20Recruit 25 humans
Your founding cohort: users join with an email, verify it, and hold a numbered seat. Founder-defined pricing - free, discounted, or a lifetime deal. When the 25th seat verifies, the machine acts.
R-09 · R-11Graduate - permanently
The cohort fills, your tenure ends, and your proof record goes on the Alumni Wall - the permanent public record of everyone who found their users. Activated, retained, paying - each number labelled with how it's known: ATTESTED (your word), VERIFIED ✓ (machine-observed), AUDITED (the members' answer).
R-14 · R-21 · R-22YOUR FOUNDING OFFER - YOU SET THE PRICE
The deal price
Your product costs money. The first cohort gets the founder price - urgency and exclusivity, your revenue, your terms.
$19 for first year · regular $49/year · limited to 25 through cohortduel
The lifetime seat
Smaller cohort, bigger commitment: a one-time price for the people who were here before it worked.
$49 once, forever · name in the credits · roadmap votes
The working session
Pre-pricing? Trade seats for structured feedback - a weekly call, a bug bounty of attention, honest notes from people who actually used it.
free during the cohort · one 20-min call · your notes shape v1.1
THE BOARD PROVIDES DISTRIBUTION + CREDIBILITY + A DEADLINE. WHAT YOU CHARGE IS YOURS - SET BEFORE THE SEAT, FROZEN FOR THE TENURE, NO BAIT-AND-SWITCH (R-09, R-21). WE NEVER TAKE A CUT (R-18).
PROOF HAS TIERS. WE SHOW WHICH.
A RECORD THAT CAN'T SAY HOW IT KNOWS ISN'T PROOF - A TIER IS A LABEL, NEVER A GATE (R-52).
THE DUEL, INDIE RULES
On this board, you don't win votes. You win users.
Want a held seat? Challenge it. But the currency isn't retweets - it's 10 humans who verify an email and claim a seat. First builder to 10 verified joiners takes the seat - the holder rotates to the back of the queue, and every joiner you brought counts toward your 25. Win the duel and the seat is yours to fill.
This is deliberate. An indie developer with a Discord of 2,000 can farm a vote. Nobody can farm 25 people doing the thing your product exists for. The audience game and the demand game are different sports - here, only the second one scores.
FIRST TO THE BAR TAKES THE SEAT
THE RULES, INDIE EDITION
why cohortduel stays honest
The board rations attention - one seat per category - and attention rations corrupt unless the rules have teeth. These are the teeth.
Signups are interest. Activation is proof. Retention is truth. Payment is verdict.
Found a loophole? It becomes a rule with your name on it.
THE SEAT
One seat per category.
Sixteen categories for indie software - productivity, personal finance, fitness, writing, creativity, and the rest. One product per chair. Being here means something.
The queue is first-come.
Seat held? Wait in line. Seat open? It’s yours. No votes, no favors, no curation - the line is the fairest rule on the board.
Seventy-two hours of immunity.
A freshly seated builder cannot be challenged for 72 hours - time to publish terms and find your first users.
A seat is a hunting license, not a lease.
10 days, public countdown. Fill your cohort and graduate early; run out the clock and the seat rotates - no shame, refile free. No extensions.
THE PROOF
Declare your activation event before the seat.
An email is interest. An account is a maybe. Before seating you declare what a real user does - first budget, first build, first workout - and it freezes with your terms. The board counts the thing you said counts.
Cohorts are binding.
Your published capacity and deal are frozen. Filling the cohort graduates you; members’ roster positions are permanent. The tenure was real.
Numbers wear their evidence tier.
ATTESTED (your word) · VERIFIED ✓ (Stripe-signed payments) · AUDITED (members confirm, one click, counted either way). The public record always shows how it knows.
THE BATTLE
Indie duels are won with users, not votes.
Challenge a held seat and the currency is 10 verified joiners - real people who confirmed their email through the board’s join flow; first to the bar takes the seat and the holder rotates out. Your duel cohort counts toward graduation. You cannot out-tweet the bar.
One person, one seat, one cohort.
Verified email, deduplicated per cohort at the database level. The founder’s friends cannot occupy the roster twice.
Losing a duel costs the line.
The runner-up rejoins at the back of the queue - dethroned holder or beaten challenger alike. No reward for losing, or challenging becomes a cheap line-cut and everyone does it. The 7-day cooldown still stands. Losing hurts. That is the point.
THE DEAL
Terms before the seat.
Price, cohort size, and activation event are published before seating and frozen for the tenure. No bait-and-switch - ever.
Your first 25 users graduate you.
One signature on the enterprise board; a filled founding cohort on this one. Either way, the tenure ends and the wall records it.
No money touches the machine.
Filing is free, forever. Cohort prices are settled between you and your users - we never take a cut, never sell seats, never take equity. Paid things live only where they can’t corrupt anything.
SPONSOR THE BOARD
A card in the rotating rails beside the board - desktop, ≥1536px. Founding rate - the launch rate, locked for as long as you renew: a standing discount for being early. 5 of 20 slots at this rate - it steps up after the founding five, and again at ten.
One line at the foot of the Monday founder digest. Flat rate, week to week - one sponsor line per send, never more, marked SPONSORED in the email.
WHAT YOU GET: A LINK AND A LABEL - NO TRACKERS, NO IMPRESSION GAMES. WHAT YOU NEVER GET: A SEAT, A QUEUE SPOT, A VOTE, A CLAIM, A COHORT SEAT, OR A DUEL (R-18). BOOK A SLOT →
SIXTEEN CATEGORIES - ONE SEAT EACH
Yours is one filing away.
File free, forever - swings are unlimited. 0% equity, ever. Publish your founding offer, declare your activation bar, and get 10 days and the board's spotlight to find 25 people who prove somebody wants what you built.
The queue is first-come and it will be honored (R-03). Every verification, graduation and seat change lands in the public audit trail.