Simplifying Resumes with CVGist: A Journey of Growth and Overcoming Challenges

Earlier this year, we realized that most resume builders on the market were overly time-consuming and complex. We wanted to take a different approach, aiming to simplify the process for job seekers. Our first iteration of CVGist was straightforward, asking users for just two inputs: a brief bio and a job description. From there, our tool would generate a professional resume in minutes.

Dealing with Technical Hurdles

As we’ve grown, we’ve faced some technical challenges along the way. One of the key hurdles has been a known limitation with OpenAI's JSON responses, where approximately 1 in every 100 attempts results in a data drop. This could lead to issues for end-users, but our technical team developed a workaround to mitigate the impact, ensuring a smoother overall experience. While OpenAI is actively working to resolve this issue, we’ve implemented solutions to maintain consistency and reliability for our users.

Looking forward, we plan to continue using the OpenAI API with the GPT-4 model for generating resume text. As newer models are released, we’ll evaluate them based on factors like speed, reliability, and cost, ensuring that we offer the best possible solution to our customers.

We use Supabase for managing user authentication, data modeling, and API integrations, which has been a game-changer for speeding up development. However, our front-end development with Preact—while lightweight and fast—has presented its own set of issues, particularly when building out our blog as part of our main URL. As a result, we are currently rebuilding our landing page to improve its SEO, targeting additional keywords to drive organic traffic.

Our Growth and Marketing Journey

In just a few months, we’ve grown to serve over 500 customers, all while focusing primarily on social media to spread the word. Recently, we’ve started experimenting with small paid ad campaigns, not only to reach more users but also to indirectly boost our SEO efforts. We use tools like Semrush to identify relevant keywords and backlinks to target, helping us refine our online presence.

Product Launches and Lessons Learned

Launching a product isn’t easy, and our Product Hunt launch didn’t perform as well as we hoped. Still, the backlinks we gained improved our SEO, and we see it as a long-term win. We also learned that platforms like Reddit, Hacker News, and Hacker Noon can provide valuable visibility for indie startups like ours.

What's Next for CVGist?

We’re excited to announce that CVGist is just getting started. In the coming months, we’ll be rolling out additional free tools to help job seekers even more. You can expect features like Tailored Resume Templates for specific industries and roles as a lot of our X traffic is looking for this. We will also make it easier to access our tool WhatisMyCareerPath, designed to help individuals who might be unsure of their next step find direction and clarity. We will also look for partnership opportunities to continue to automate the full end-to-end job application process.

Why We Chose the Indie Hacker Path

We’ve been building in public—my brother and I—and we’ve truly valued the feedback and support we’ve received along the way. Choosing the indie hacker route wasn’t just about creating something meaningful; it was about finally delivering a product after years of procrastination. Waiting for the perfect idea or an app with every single bell and whistle was the roadblock we faced. Now, we feel like we’ve built something that resonates with users, and as indie hackers, we’re committed to continually improving and adapting while maintaining complete control over our journey.