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Why Needle

Find the people already asking for what you built

Your next customer is probably describing their problem on Reddit, Hacker News, or GitHub right now. Needle searches 13 public communities, ranks every post by buying intent, and leaves the reply to you.

Try free for 7 daysSee pricing

7-day free trial - no card

The leads really are needles in a haystack

Needle throws away 83% of the posts that match your keywords, and only about 1 in 20 is a strong buying signal. Here is a month of real production runs.

1 dot = 1,000 postsNeedle Auto Search, Sep 15 - Oct 15, 2026

Five reasons founders pick Needle

Each one is how the product works today, not a roadmap promise.

  1. It ranks by buying intent, not keyword match

    A keyword match tells you a post mentions your space. It does not tell you the author wants to buy. Needle checks both, then puts the people asking for a solution at the top.

    • 83% of keyword matches are dropped as noise before you see them
    • About 1 in 20 posts read is a strong buying signal, and those come first
    • Job posts, self-promotion, bots, and your own posts are filtered out up front

  2. It learns from every post you rate

    Mark a few posts as not relevant and Needle learns what to skip for that brand. Nothing it learns is permanent: rules expire on their own, and you can undo them.

    • Words you keep rejecting are excluded from future runs
    • Buyer language like “looking for” or “alternative” is never excluded
    • Subreddits and authors you reject are blocked; subreddits you like get searched more closely

  3. Setup takes one URL

    Paste your website. Needle writes search terms in the words your buyers use, picks the roles to look for, and starts your first Auto Search straight away.

    • Terms describe the problem, so you find people who have not heard of you yet
    • Words that would pull in the wrong crowd are excluded from the start
    • “Improve my results” turns a thin first run into specific term and network suggestions

  4. Alerts you will actually read

    Hot leads go straight to the tool you already work in. Everything else waits for one email digest a day.

    • Hot-lead alerts are capped per run and per day, so each one means something
    • The same post never shows up twice
    • Leads sync to HubSpot or Pipedrive on Scale

  5. Replies stay human

    Communities ban reply bots, and buyers can tell. Needle drafts; you decide what to send and post it from your own account.

    • Two drafts per post, written for that thread
    • Needle never posts on your behalf
    • Mark leads replied, done, or dismissed to keep track of who you have answered

Which situation are you in?

Pick the one that sounds like you. 7-day free trial - no card.

Compared with what you might use instead

Each of these is good at something. Here is where Needle differs, with the full comparison a click away.

  • Keyword alerts

    F5Bot, Google Alerts

    Good for
    Free, instant pings for a handful of exact phrases.
    Where Needle differs
    Needle ranks by intent instead of forwarding every match, and searches more communities in one place.

    Needle vs F5BotNeedle vs Google Alerts

  • Contact databases

    Apollo, Clay, Sales Navigator

    Good for
    Building cold outbound lists with emails and job titles.
    Where Needle differs
    Needle finds people who asked for help in public this week, before they are on anyone’s list. Plenty of teams use both.

    Apollo vs Clay vs Sales Navigator

  • Brand monitoring suites

    Brand24, Awario

    Good for
    Tracking press, news, and consumer brand mentions.
    Where Needle differs
    Needle searches the founder and developer communities where software gets chosen, and ranks for buyers rather than reach.

    Needle vs Brand24

  • Reply bots

    ReplyGuy and similar

    Good for
    Automating replies at volume.
    Where Needle differs
    Needle drafts for a person to send. Communities ban automated replies, and your account stays yours.

    Needle vs ReplyGuy

All comparisons

When Needle is not the right tool

Better to hear it now than after a trial.

  • Your buyers never talk about the problem in public

    Needle only reads public posts. Pure consumer brands often get more from consumer research tools.

  • You want replies posted automatically

    We will not build that. It gets accounts banned and burns the communities your buyers trust.

  • You need emails and phone numbers for cold outreach

    Needle finds conversations, not contact details. A contact database is the right tool for that job.

  • You mainly track press coverage

    A media monitoring suite covers news sites better than a community search does.

Questions

How is Needle different from keyword alerts?
Keyword alerts send you every post that contains your words, newest first. Needle reads each matching post, drops the noise (83% of matches in our production data), and ranks what is left by how likely the author is to buy. You read the top of one list instead of triaging every ping.
What does Needle mean by buying intent?
Each post gets two scores. One checks that it is about the problem your product solves. The other checks whether the author is looking for a solution: asking for a recommendation, comparing tools, or describing a pain they want fixed. Posts are then grouped as hot leads, worth engaging, or monitor, and monitor posts stay out of your alerts.
Which communities does Needle search?
Reddit, Stack Overflow, Hacker News, YouTube, GitHub, Mastodon, Lobsters, Tumblr, X, LinkedIn, Bluesky, Forums, and Product Hunt. Solo covers 8 of them. Growth adds YouTube, Tumblr, and Forums; Scale adds X and LinkedIn.
Does Needle post replies for me?
No, and it never will. Needle can draft a reply (two versions per post) so you start from something specific to the thread, but you edit it and post it yourself, from your own account.
Do I need to set up keywords myself?
No. Paste your website and Needle writes search terms in the words buyers use, picks the buyer roles to look for, and lists terms to exclude. Your first Auto Search starts as soon as setup finishes. If it comes back thin, "Improve my results" reads what the run found and suggests better terms and networks.
What happens after the free trial?
The trial lasts 7 days and needs no card. When it ends, the leads you found stay readable and you can still mark them replied or done. Monitoring pauses until you pick a plan.
Where do the numbers on this page come from?
From Needle's own production Auto Search runs between Sep 15 - Oct 15, 2026, measured by a script over every post fetched. We quote ratios rather than totals because one trial week made up most of that period's volume.

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