How M Afzaal built Vowelkit around teachers and word games
M Afzaal is the founder and developer of Vowelkit, a free daily word guessing game with a custom puzzle maker and word tools. This conversation explores how personal outreach helped bring in early players, why the puzzle maker became central to the product, and what M Afzaal learned from building too many pages too quickly.
Talk to real users and build the smallest version that solves a clear problem. M Afzaal’s experience also shows the value of focusing on the core product rather than copying competitors or adding features too quickly.
What’s the short story of how your business started, and what makes it genuinely different from the other options your customers have?
Vowelkit started as a side project while I was studying software development at 42 Heilbronn in Germany. I loved daily word games, but I wanted one that stayed completely free, needed no login and worked just as well on a phone as on a laptop. So I built my own: one five-letter word a day, unlimited extra rounds, versions from 3 to 11 letters and a kids mode. What makes it different is the puzzle maker. Anyone can turn a word into a puzzle and send it as a link, so a teacher can build a game from this week’s spelling list and a family can make one for a birthday. Next to the game I added free word tools, and I rated every daily Wordle answer since 2021 for difficulty on a public data page.
How did you win your first customers, and where does most of your new business come from today?
I had no ad budget, so my first players came from doing things by hand. I listed Vowelkit on word game directories, got it added to a curated GitHub list of daily games, and wrote personal emails to librarians, ESL teachers, literacy programs and Scrabble clubs explaining how the puzzle maker could help their learners or members. Every email was one to one, not a mass mailing. Today new players come from a mix of search, those directory listings and that ongoing outreach to educators and clubs, which I still do every week.
What’s one decision that changed the direction of your business, and one mistake that taught you the most?
The decision that changed the most was focusing on teachers and word game clubs instead of trying to compete for casual players with big brands. Once I saw that the puzzle maker solved a real problem for a teacher, the whole product made more sense. My biggest mistake was building too many pages and tools too quickly. It made the site harder for search engines to understand, so I paused new pages and now spend that time improving what already exists. Doing fewer things well has taught me more than shipping fast.
What has changed in your industry or in what your customers expect over the last couple of years, and how have you adapted?
Daily word games went from a niche hobby to a daily habit for millions of people, and players now expect more than one puzzle. They want variety, shorter and longer words, something their kids can play, and they do not want to create an account or hand over their data just to guess a word. I adapted by adding word lengths from 3 to 11 letters, a kids mode, unlimited rounds and custom puzzles, all without a login. I also noticed that teachers use these games in class, so I made sure the puzzle maker works on school devices and takes only a minute to use.
If you were advising someone starting out in your industry today, what would you tell them to do first, and what would you tell them to ignore?
First, talk to a small group of real users and watch how they play. A single teacher telling you what they need in class is worth more than any feature idea you have alone. Build the smallest version that solves that need and share it personally. What to ignore: offers to pay for quick visibility, and the urge to copy every feature a bigger competitor has. Stay free where you can, stay honest in what you promise, and keep improving the core experience. Players notice when something is made with care.
Thank you to M Afzaal and the team at Vowelkit for sharing what actually worked with Leaders Perception readers.
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