Your first 10,000 users will not arrive from a launch post, which sends visitors for a day before the traffic stops. The KubeArmor AI-CTF at KubeCon India 2026 worked differently, because players earned bonus points for starring the project's GitHub repo. The booth wrap counted 300+ new GitHub stars from CTF traffic, and I co-created that CTF.

Shann Holmberg lists 26 ways to build distribution, which shows how many channels exist before you pay for a single ad.

This post teaches the points-for-stars mechanic first. Then it adds the three free channels that stack on top of it.

TLDR

Pay players in points for the action you want, such as a star on your repo.
The CTF booth wrap counted 500+ CTF signups and 300+ new KubeArmor stars from CTF traffic.
Lead every announcement with what changes for the user, not with the feature list.
An Awesome list listing takes one pull request and stays in a README.
On Reddit, answer first. Buy ads only while CAC stays under LTV.

A CTF Sent 300+ New Stars to the KubeArmor Repo

A CTF (capture the flag) is a security game where players solve challenges to win points. The KubeArmor AI-CTF ran from 18 to 21 June 2026 with 18 challenges and over $1,000 in prizes. Take the same product and audience through two launches.

A launch post gives one day of visits, and points for a star leave stars behind.

A launch post goes out, people visit for a day, and nothing asks them to act.
The CTF gave bonus points for three actions: star the KubeArmor repo, join the CNCF Slack channel, and follow KubeArmor on LinkedIn.
600 players registered and 520 were active.
The booth wrap counted 500+ CTF signups and 300+ new KubeArmor stars from CTF traffic.

Watch out. The wrap counts stars from CTF traffic. It does not split out how many came from the bonus alone, so read 300+ as the traffic total.

Step 1. Lead With What Changes for the User

Apple's iPod press release of 23 October 2001 carried this headline: "Ultra-Portable MP3 Music Player Puts 1,000 Songs in Your Pocket." The 5 GB hard drive appears three paragraphs below it.

Users care about what changes for them. Stop leading with your feature list or your 256-bit encryption. Lead with the hours they stop losing to the old way.

Example. The CTF's pitch to a player was no local tooling and no Kubernetes cluster. You open a tab and start breaking things.

Step 2. Pay Players in Points for Starring Your Repo

The CTF turned gameplay into community growth. Each bonus action was a step the project wanted a visitor to take anyway.

Players register, play, take a bonus action, and leave a star behind.

Copy the mechanic in four moves:

List the three actions you want after launch, such as a star, a community join and a follow.
Attach bonus points to each action inside something people already want to do, such as a game or a challenge.
Put the prizes on the leaderboard. The CTF paid the top three finishers a $100 Amazon gift card each plus swag, and every contestant got a certificate.
Count each action by source after the event ends.

A prize pool gives a crowd a reason to show up without a favor. The full build is in How I Built a Full AI Security CTF Platform in One Day, and the event sits on the KubeArmor AI CTF project page.

The KubeArmor AI CTF project page on atharvashah.com.

Step 3. Get Listed on the Awesome List for Your Niche

GitHub hosts thousands of hand-curated "Awesome" lists, one for nearly every niche. The original, sindresorhus/awesome, holds more than 518,000 stars as of 13 October 2026. Popular lists carry tens of thousands of stars.

A listing takes four steps and one maintainer review, and it stays in the README.

Search GitHub for awesome plus your industry. Building a security tool, search Awesome Security. Nobody grants you permission first, so fork the repository and add your tool in the same format as its neighbors.

Anuj lists 100+ places to launch a startup, and the Awesome list for your niche is one more.

A merged pull request works like vetting. The maintainers checked your tool before anyone else did, and that is trust you did not have to build yourself. A tweet is dead in a day, and a listing sits in that README indefinitely.

Step 4. Answer First on Reddit, Then Mention the Product

Founders often drop a link on Reddit and vanish, and many subreddits remove that post. Read each subreddit's rules, show up as a person first, and mention what you built only after you were useful.

Work three tiers of subreddits, and answer before you mention the product.

Tip. Find the threads worth answering with the method in Social Listening and High-Intent Lead Generation Strategy.

Reddit threads and Awesome lists are also pages an AI assistant can read. Forget Ranking #1 on Google. Time to Get Recommended by AI covers how to check whether your listings move the answers.

Step 5. Buy Ads Only While CAC Stays Under LTV

Once a message converts, put money behind it with paid ads. CAC (customer acquisition cost) is what you pay to win one customer. LTV (lifetime value) is what that customer spends with you in total.

Rule of thumb. CAC = ad spend / customers won. Keep CAC below LTV, because every dollar past that line loses money.

Four Questions a Founder Asks About First Users

Do I need a CTF to use points for stars? No. Any event, quiz, beta or challenge with a leaderboard works. Pick up to three actions and attach points to each.

Which number do I track? Count stars, community joins and follows by source. The CTF wrap could not split its 300+ stars by source, and you can.

Which channel fits a B2B product first? Start where buyers read reviews. At AccuKnox, Gartner Peer Insights reviews grew from near zero to about 60.

The AccuKnox case study shows Gartner Peer Insights reviews moving from near zero to about 60.

What if no Awesome list fits my niche? Search for adjacent niches first. Then read the list's README format before you open the pull request.

The Appendix Holds the Commands and the Formula

Open the pull request for an Awesome list from your terminal:

gh repo fork <owner>/awesome-<niche> --clone
cd awesome-<niche>
git switch -c add-<your-tool>
# add one line to README.md in the same format as its neighbors
git commit -am "Add <your tool>"
gh pr create --fill

A template for your own bonus actions, with the points left for you to set:

Action                        Points
Star the repo                 <you set this>
Join the community channel    <you set this>
Follow on LinkedIn            <you set this>

The ad rule:

CAC = ad spend / customers won
Spend while CAC < LTV

First 10,000 Users. A CTF Sent 300+ Stars to…