Build in public seems to be more market in public 🤔

I'm just now getting started with building in public and it's super early in my whole process, I can say that I share the same thoughts. It seems like most people that are building in public really are just marketing, but the replies to this most give me confidence that even without considerable traction it makes sense to build in public to be build up some history and trust.

Hey Ashish,

couple of thoughts:

1. It's not about the individual posts itself. It's about the history you build. When you finally launch your product, people can see it has been in the making for a while by looking back in your Twitter history. Somehow a history of consistency creates a higher level of trust (don't ask me why, but I know I experience it myself as well)
2. Don't expect the audience to come to you (build it and they won't come). Instead you can use #buildinpublic to connect with like-minded people and start building a network around you on Twitter.

Ashish:
Building in public seems to be a bit of a mixed bag as you said, people have different goals with it.

I'd love for you to check out my site for people building in public: https://openmakers.io/

Our goal is for makers to publish key milestones and updates for their products and less of the day-to-day stuff that other maker sites focus on and kind of gets old. We see it as a way to have consistent visibility (assuming they post at least once a week). Consistency = trust with potential customers.

We have purposely stayed away from the "discussion" type content on our site as it leads to more manipulation and gloating than we are interested in promoting.

Love to hear your thoughts.!

Hi Anish 👋

I think this is the feeling when your audience is still low due to the beginning of things, and I certainly understand that.
I think people with broad audience thanks to successful product/experience have the tendency to get more traction, as people attracts people and we have the tendency of following more easily what we consider successful people.

IMO, you can still tweet about you building your product in public, but from what I've seen so far, the most interesting tweet share really interesting piece of content to read.
If you're able to give insightful knowledge (either tech, market or experience) from your tweets, I feel there is traction coming even if your product is not done yet and people will look forward to using it at some point.
You can consider this marketing of course, but I guess there's still room for people genuinely interested in knowing how to build a product from scratch, given the experience is correctly shared and launch some hype around the product 😊

My observation is "you can build in public, or not but it will only make sense if there are potential customers among your watchers".

"Building NOT in public" doesn't always mean "building your startup in stealth". For example, if your product is B2B and your customers are companies that probably will not follow and see how you "build in public" it will not make any sense. What would make sense in this situation is to show your product THEM, not your followers.

So, I would always separate these 2 things.

Yep, we've previously built a product in the proverbial basement, didn't even use Twitter or anything and just launched. It did work out, but it's sure useful to have an audience, so I can understand a lot of it is just marketing.

This time as a fun side-project we're building a new SaaS startup from scratch, completely in public, and writing about it every step of the way. We started last week with 0 followers and just write about our thoughts and what we're doing (including building).

We like the building part the most and find it fun to see others build in public too (especially with things like game dev that seems to happen much more often), so we're doing the same for a complete SaaS product. We don't have any revenue or milestones for the project yet, so we're telling the story forward instead of backwards.

If you have an idea that's already validated by you, because it solves a problem that you yourself are experiencing, building in stealth mode for a month or two before talking about your product sounds reasonable.

You will get so much valuable feedback when you 'release' it though. So, to avoid the extremely common problem of building something that no one wants, I recommend releasing at least a working demo of the simplest version of your product in two to three months max. Then you can talk about it in at least one community of the people its intended for and incorporate that feedback into your next pass.

If you already feel like this is not possible and you need a lengthier stealth mode, or if you've already taken longer that this, then you need to refine your approach to building and shipping products in order to succeed.

All you need to start building traction is one killer feature. If it takes you longer than three months to ship a feature, its very unlikely that you'll find one. Spoiler alert: it will probably not be your first attempt.

In terms of posting financials, it can help you hold yourself accountable to your own growth goals. It can be done privately among trusted partners and friends or in public. But making yourself feel accountable to some kind of growth metric is extremely important - using the public for this is an extreme version of this. If you're selling to small businesses or makers, it can also be an inspiring content marketing channel. I feel like standing up and applauding every time someone who's seriously hustling posts a < 5k MRR number publically. I find it legitimately SO inspiring and freeing, but I make things for a living, so take that with the grain of salt.

I thinks it’s actually not the best idea to build in public if your goal is to make a successful product. It’s a lot of work to create content and share online, there are much better marketing strategies that don’t involve so much constant work.

The best reason for building in public is because you want to inspire and help teach other people. If you do that well, then people will naturally follow because you are providing then with a lot of value for free.

Once you have a big following, it is naturally very valuable. There will be inevitable funneling to any products that internet followers can access and buy. Of course, some product will convert a lot better than others (i.e. info products related to the content you created to build your audience in the first place)

What if we focus on building a personal brand in public instead of a product brand? What really sells is personal brands. Despite what product you build, if people trust you, they trust your product. And if you pivot, your audience stay because of you. This is how I see it. What do you think?

Don't build your startup in stealth

In my opinion, this is mostly important to get feedback early while you are building. So that you don't build something which nobody wants. And so that you can adjust your trajectory early.

One thing I learned from working at a startup was that “good marketing can kill a bad product”. Be mindful with what you put out there.

Most of the tweets about people actually building their product in public usually get no traction and no following on Twitter.

I've noticed that myself 😄 I've come to realize that it isn't the purpose of those kinds of tweets.

The "building in public" tweets where you share in progress stuff, mockups, designs, code, processes, etc are there to give you some kind of credibility. They show that you walk the talk and that you're actually a builder. People aren't really interested in what you build, they are interested in the fact that you are building.

Then there are the other kinds of tweets that are there for engagement.

I like to mix in both 😇

I tend to agree @GalacticLeopard that it's more of a marketing tactic for the most vocal Build In Public types. Ultimately though it's just about the motivation of those people i.e. they happen to see it as a good marketing tool, but there are plenty of people who build in public as an accountability mechanism, or as a way to garner feedback.

A few years back I built a charity and whilst building it I posted about my progress every day for 100 days. 80% of the time the posts only reached a small group of people, but it really helped me focus on progressing the project a tiny bit each day towards launch.

Ashish, your observations about the "build in public" approach are interesting, and you're not alone in your observations. Building in public is a unique journey, and it's great to see you sharing your thoughts on it! 🌟

You are right that tweets about the actual process of building a product may not always gain immediate traction or a massive following on Twitter. However, I believe that the real value of "building in public" lies in the authenticity and transparency it brings to the table. Even if the immediate engagement seems low, you're likely attracting an audience that genuinely cares about your progress and wants to see your growth.

The posts that gain traction often come from creators who have already reached certain milestones, such as product launch or revenue generation. This is because at that stage, there's tangible evidence of progress and success, which tends to resonate with a broader audience.

Your edited version of the advice is spot on! Building in stealth can be a valid approach, allowing you to focus on refining your idea without external pressure. But complementing it with strategic marketing and promotion before the launch can be a game-changer. By doing so, you build anticipation and gather early adopters, making the launch more impactful.

Remember, there's no one-size-fits-all formula for success, and every entrepreneurial journey is unique. Stay true to your vision, share your progress authentically, and you'll find a supportive community cheering you on every step of the way! Best of luck with your startup, and keep us updated on your exciting progress! 🚀😇

Hey Everyone

We recently built https://ansy.ai/
it is a Discord bot that will answer community questions based on chat history of public channels. Cool way to save time of mods.
https://www.producthunt.com/posts/ansy-ai
Do check us out and let us know what you think. Your feedback will be super helpful.

It is quickly becoming #braginpublic where people only share revenue and metrics without providing any real value through insights or learnings. This kind of content gets the most traction to, but it's not really useful to other people and often the numbers are misleading.

Sharing a top line revenue number is not quite the same as sharing an audited P&L, which tells the real story.

Hi Ashish

I'm building https://skilledup.life (free talent for tech startups) public. Here's our current performance https://skilledup.life/metrics

I don't think stealth and building in public go hand in hand. It's a mindset. I've tapped into the wisdom of the crowd since 2005.

The latest startup is a lot more public than the very first.

Nobody gives a shit when you build in public until you've gotten some serious traction.

I'd even say that it's more "brag in public," but rightfully so -- we care more about the result than the process.

People only want to pick the brains of those who have succeeded.

For everyone else, I'd say the sheer unnecessary transparency (especially with financials) doesn't move the needle one bit.

I agree, I twit about the daily progress of my product but it seems that it attracts no one. Even I tried to twit useful tools or methods that I used, still no progress.

I see myself as a anti-social media person. I always focus on building the product. Do not know How I will get people to notice my my product when I was failing gathering followers on social media.

This concerns me a lot and sometimes I got demotivated then I did nothing.

I guess finding followers is hard think as a developer.

This highly depends on the product and if you have something that generates value, I don't think it matters that much when you start marketing it. Important is that you do marketing, and don't wait for it to grow on its own.

I'm following a few people (here and on Twitter mostly) who either started working on something or have already released a (software) product. Both seem to be doing fine. You obviously won't generate as much traction without a product compared to as if you would have something to show already, but everything helps.