How Matt Wolfe turned an AI tools spreadsheet into Future Tools
The short version
Future Tools began as YouTuber Matt Wolfe's personal spreadsheet of AI tools. He built the site on December 17, 2022, and shared his first month's numbers in public, noting he'd had his YouTube channel for 12+ years.
Matt Wolfe is a YouTuber who covers AI news and tools. Future Tools, his website of AI tools, began as a spreadsheet he kept for himself and went live in December 2022.
Here’s how Matt Wolfe’s Future Tools started, his first month in his own numbers, and a weekly log you can copy to track yours.
How Matt Wolfe started Future Tools from a spreadsheet
Wolfe built FutureTools.io on December 17, 2022, as a weekend project. He wanted to learn Webflow, a website builder, and APIs (the way one app asks another for data).
He wrote that he also wanted a better way to sort the tools he had listed in a spreadsheet. As of October 19, 2026, the site’s About page tells the same story: Future Tools started as his personal spreadsheet.
He shared his progress on Twitter and Facebook while he built it. That’s called building in public: sharing your progress and numbers openly, so people can give feedback as you go.
On January 10, 2023, he posted his first month’s numbers in Build In Public – The Whirlwind First Month of FutureTools.
His first month, in his own numbers
Every figure below comes from that post, and every one is self-reported. Each row keeps the time window he gave. The windows differ and some overlap, so don’t add, subtract or divide across rows.
| His window | What he measured | His number |
|---|---|---|
| December 17, 2022 | Site built | 6 users, likely him on his own devices |
| December 29, 2022 | Product Hunt launch | #8 for the day, #53 for the week, 521 new users |
| December 17, 2022, to January 5, 2023 | New newsletter subscribers | 1,164, about 58 a day (his math) |
| January 10, 2023 | Newsletter total | Just shy of 1,700, which he called 529 new in 10 days |
| Past 5 days, as of January 10 | Newsletter signups | Averaging over 100 a day |
| Past 5 days, as of January 10 | Site users | Averaging roughly 6,000 a day |
| Last 28 days, as of January 10 | His YouTube channel, not the site | 21,834 views, 2,000+ watch hours, 1,100 new subscribers |
He didn’t say which 10 days the 529 covers.
Product Hunt’s own page for FutureTools.io also dates the launch to December 29, 2022.
Before: you see a one-day spike on January 5 in the graph in his post. You read it as a burst of new signups.
After: you read his note. He moved his newsletter from ConvertKit to beehiiv, and he wrote that the spike was the day he imported his list. So the spike is his whole ConvertKit list arriving on one day. He says those 1,164 people signed up between December 17 and January 5, so it isn’t a one-day burst of signups.
The head start: 12+ years on YouTube first
Future Tools didn’t start from zero. In the same post, Wolfe wrote, “I’ve had this YouTube channel for 12+ years now”. A few videos had done OK, he added, but he’d never seen growth like this.
He dated that growth from when he began posting more videos about AI tools. He also wrote that the site had been live for 24 days. So his 28-day YouTube window began before the site existed.
The lesson: don’t measure your first month against his. If you’re new to video, start with how to get comfortable talking to a camera.
What building in public taught him in 2023
These are his lessons from the January 2023 post, paraphrased except for one line:
- Build what you wish you had. His biggest lesson was to “build something that I wish I had for myself and, most likely, others will want it too.”
- Let feedback shape the product. Many of the site’s features came from other people’s suggestions.
- Expect people to reach out. People wrote to him wanting to collaborate, and he got to try tools before their public release.
- Use the attention to keep going. Knowing people were following along pushed him to keep improving the site.
- Show up every day. His No Zero Days rule meant making at least a little progress on the project every day.
Future Tools today, as of October 2026
The About page has no date, and its figures are self-reported. On October 19, 2026, it said:
- Direction: less “here is everything,” more “here is what matters.” That means hand-picked news, reviews and a short list of tools worth paying for.
- Newsletter: twice a week, read by more than 250,000 people, by its own count.
- Policy: sponsors are labeled, affiliate links never change a ranking, and the newsletter stays free.
- People: a small team. The page lists 5 people, with Wolfe as founder.
He’s still active. On October 19, 2026, his YouTube channel (@mreflow) showed 1.02 million subscribers and a video posted 2 days earlier.
What you can copy from Matt Wolfe and Future Tools
- Start with a list you already keep. His began as a spreadsheet. Yours might be a notes file of mics you’ve priced, or a folder of tutorials you like.
- Share numbers with their windows. Saying you averaged over 100 signups a day for 5 days tells people more than saying you’re growing fast.
- Ask for feedback in public. He said many of the site’s features came from suggestions.
- Log the same 5 lines every week, so you can compare one week with the next.
- Set a daily minimum, like his No Zero Days rule.
Before: a blank log. Copy it into a note and fill it in every Friday, always for the same 7 days.
Week of [date] (7 days)
Views: [number]
Watch hours: [number]
New subscribers: [number]
Top comment: [one line]
After: here’s a made-up week for a small channel. Every number covers the same 7 days, so next week’s log compares line by line.
Week of March 2 (7 days)
Views: 1,240
Watch hours: 38
New subscribers: 12
Top comment: asked which mic I use
What we don’t know
- Current traffic. The About page says millions of visitors, with no date or exact count.
- Whether any number was audited. Every first-month figure is his own report, and the post doesn’t mention an audit. Product Hunt’s page confirms the launch date.
- How much came from his existing channel. He credits his AI-tools videos for the YouTube growth. For the site, he wrote that he didn’t know where most traffic came from, though Google sent over 12,500 users in 24 days.
What to do next
- Open the list you already keep, and start the 5-line log this Friday.
- See how 3 podcasts started, head starts included, in our answer to is it too late to start a podcast.
- Keep up with dated AI changes in our AI news for creators page.
- For another start made for 1 person first, read how Khan Academy started, with math tutoring for 1 cousin.
Sources
- Build In Public – The Whirlwind First Month of FutureTools mattwolfe.com
- Future Tools - About - The Story Behind Future Tools futuretools.io
- FutureTools.io: Find The Exact AI Tool For Your Needs | Product Hunt producthunt.com
- Matt Wolfe - YouTube youtube.com
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