I think I just uncovered the biggest SaaS conspiracy on the internet.

After a thorough investigation conducted by me, approximately 1,000 other jobless people, and a few AI agents, I believe we've uncovered something that could change how you look at indie hacking forever.

Or at least how you look at your X timeline.

It started a couple of weeks ago.

The internet suddenly found itself surrounded by Marc Lou lookalikes. People allegedly operating from Bangladesh, copying his profile picture, his online identity, his entire vibe.

The resemblance was the story. The internet couldn't stop talking about it.

But then I started wondering about something.

What if the whole thing was intentional?

Stay with me.

The Marc Lou situation

Think about the timing.

For days, the conversation was about Marc Lou. His clones. His identity. His profile. Everyone was discussing the same person, sharing screenshots, debating what was happening, and dragging more people into the conversation.

Then, right when everyone was paying attention, Mailcheap entered the picture.

A cheaper alternative to Beehiiv.

Now, I don't know about you, but if I were trying to launch a product into a crowded market, I'd probably want people talking about me for an entire week before launch.

Imagine getting that much attention without spending a fortune on advertising.

Imagine having the entire indie hacker community doing your distribution for you.

I'm not saying that's what happened.

I'm just saying that, in my imaginary detective notebook, I started drawing arrows.

A lot of arrows.

Enter Tyler Denk

Then the conversation moved to Tyler Denk.

The timeline picked sides. People started arguing. Everyone had an opinion. Every other founder suddenly had a PhD in startup drama.

The whole thing started looking less like a product discussion and more like a season of reality television, except everyone involved was selling software subscriptions.

And here's where my theory got even more ridiculous.

“What if the outrage was the distribution? What if the arguments were the marketing?”

What if the more everyone argued, the more people discovered the products at the center of the conversation?

Again, just a theory.

But the arrows in my notebook were multiplying.

The plot thickens

Then came Datafast and Databull.

A cheaper alternative to Datafast appeared. Then an open-source alternative to that alternative entered the conversation.

A clone of a clone.

At this point, I had to ask the obvious question.

Are we even building SaaS anymore, or are we just building cheaper versions of whatever went viral last Tuesday?

First, someone builds a product.

Then someone builds a cheaper version.

Then someone builds a free version of the cheaper version.

Then everyone argues about who copied whom.

And somehow, everyone gets attention.

“It's the startup equivalent of Russian nesting dolls, except every doll is trying to charge less than the doll inside it.”

Connecting the dots

Now imagine, purely hypothetically, that all these events were part of one giant, beautifully executed distribution strategy.

The lookalikes get attention.

The arguments keep the conversation alive.

The product launches ride the wave.

The copycats get copied.

The community does the marketing.

And the entire internet willingly participates because we apparently cannot resist a good founder drama.

If this were a movie, this would be the moment when the detective stands in front of a wall covered in photographs, connecting everything with red string.

Unfortunately, I am not a detective.

I'm a founder with too many browser tabs open.

And I may have a problem.