Solo UX founder built READR (clean reading for Figma/designers)

Week 8 metrics crushing:
53 users (organic only)
18 WAU (+5,577% WoW )
165 page views (+587% WoW)
76 installs (+322% WoW)
85% retention (elite)
5 Google recommendations

Why it wins:

- One-click distraction-free articles/specs/docs

Chrome hand-picked READR to feature in its "New Extension Recommendation" popup.

When users install Chrome fresh, a small handful of extensions are shown prominently.

From millions of extensions -Chrome chose READR.

16% of our active users are Chinese-speaking Taiwan and mainland China discovered organically with zero targeting.

Today we made READR properly accessible to them:

Landing page now in Simplified Chinese,

Traditional Chinese, and English

I launched READR 36 days ago a Chrome extension that strips any webpage to just the words.

Wanted to share an honest update for anyone building extensions.

THE NUMBERS

86 installs, 4 uninstalls 95.3% retention

35 day update and the numbers keep moving

INSTALLS & RETENTION

83 installs

4 uninstalls 94.9% retention

WHAT'S NEW: Cross-device reading sync

Close an article at work 67% through.

Open it at home on any Chrome browser.

Toast appears: "Continue reading from 67%"

16 days after launching READR on the Chrome Web Store, Google's algorithm picked it up and started recommending it in Chrome's extension sidebar.

No ad spend. No marketing budget. No team. Just a solo developer and a product people didn't uninstall.

Here's what I think made it happen

One-click distraction-free reading. Linux power users found us first.
39% Linux, 39% Canada weekly users completely organic.
Built with Mozilla Readability engine. v1.0.1 live with pro features.
Thank you

READR v1.0.1 is live

After a few uses, the extension will now quietly ask

if you'd like to leave a review. Small toast at the

bottom, auto-dismisses in 10 seconds, never shown

32 installs, 1 uninstall 96.5% retention.

The interesting development this week: Chrome has started recommending READR through its extension

sidebar automatically.
Organic discovery from Google with zero ad spend. The SEO work on the store listing is paying off.