DON'T Build in Public!
I started following the "build in public" trend to see what good things will come out of it. Once my product got some popularity, people started shamelessly copying my tools and pretending that its theirs. I think building in public would be useful if you are ready to iterate fast and keep going for a long period of time improving the product so that copycats wont catch up.
It sucks to see people behave like that.
That definitely sucks. We used to find our website 100% copied at least 2x per year at WP Buffs. Not good.
I would challenge you a bit to use this as a learning moment though! If others could so easily copy your tool, pass it off as their own and run a better business, was it really that great of a business idea? Did it have enough of a differentiator?
You also probably learned from the experience and made a few Twitter friends along the way. That's valuable too.
People duplicated our website but could never duplicate our distribution channels and marketing strategies. So we won even when people copied our shit. I think the lesson you should try to learn here is not whether building in public is good/bad, but how to build something that can't be so easily copied.
Just my two cents, Ali!
Very true Joe. Even the most original idea will quickly find imitators. You can build a moat in many ways but at the end of the day, copycats are a good validation that you're building something people want.
You've got a headstart with the product you've already built but the amount of time you've been thinking about the problem you're trying to solve will also mean you've already solved some of the challenges that competitors will have to figure out themselves.
My take on Build In Public is to share what you're learning during your building journey, as a way to grow a community who are interested in the problems you're solving. It doesn't mean you have to give competitors a strategic or technical blueprint they can use to replicate what you've built.
That " [not giving] competitors a strategic or technical blueprint they can use to replicate what you've built" is really critical.
I still haven't figured out how to do it for my product.
Well said, naborino.
I am not totally against the "build in public" idea but I think it should be done in a way that benefits all parties involved in the process, especially when the indie hacker makes a living out of their products.
Thanks for your response!
Great feedback, Joe.
This is the kind of insight I hoped to read when I wrote this post. The tool took me one week to build and I, naively, posted it on twitter where I build a community of 2k+ restaurant owners. I was too eager to share it with them before adding any retention features other than collecting users' email addresses. I think I still can win this race but I need to play some growth marketing games and add more retention features while improving the tool.
Thanks for taking the time to share your valuable thoughts, Joe!
You're so welcome! I hope it didn't come across as negative. All failures come with learning and that's often the fastest way to grow as an entrepreneur.
Don't give up! One semi-failure is just one of the many obstacles to overcome before your successes.
Well said
🤜🏽 🤛🏽
Fully agree... whether you build in public or not, copycats will find you and copy "you".
But they can't copy "you" - they can only copy the client side code - and if open source maybe server side.
They have no idea why you built things a certain way, what to do next etc.
I still agree that this sucks, especially when it might take away traffic (and users!) from your product.
You wrote it in a better way than me, axelthegerman!
Thank you.
Slightly offtopic, but I am worried about this as well. How did you find the clones? Use a specific phrase on the website and then use a google alert or similar to search the web?
I think we used CopyScape Copysentry.
It was helpful when we were still a young company with a low-DA website because if someone duplicated our content word-for-word, Google might not know which was the original.
But once our DA grew and we gained more authority, it was obvious to Google who was ripping off who and we stopped using it.
Pretty good tool though!
If you hadn't built in public, they could still copy your tools, right?
Yes. But, my point is that IH should be careful how they build in public. For example, if someone is making a living out of their tools, then they better not share all source code, download numbers, and other critical stuff. If they want, they could do so after they get some good head start and be prepared for some competition, at least for the short term.
++ Is there anyone serving a niche alone?
I don't personally subscribe to the scarcity mentality. There is abundance for many people to create similar products and all benefit. Even if you share the same market, you challenge each other to build better products in the long run.
While a product can functionally do the same thing, there's many more components such as how it makes people feel, the level of care & support, and many other factors that go into it. Being the best product isn't enough anymore and never has. Being the best business on the other hand is what keeps users coming back.
"I don't personally subscribe to the scarcity mentality. There is abundance for many people to create similar products and all benefit. "
It has to be a scarcity mentality when the IH make their living out of their tools to feed their family. Not against the BIP idea, but only when all involved parties are winning.
"Being the best product isn't enough anymore and never has. Being the best business on the other hand is what keeps users coming back."
Well said, jdouglas!
Thank you!
I think this "problem" would be forever, even when you are not building in public, someone will see your product or use it and try to copy it. I know it sucks, but don't let it get you.
I've always found "showing your cards to the world" a bit silly.
It's one thing if you know what to reveal and what not to reveal, only revealing non-consequential, non-actionable, non-trade secret insights into your business to promote your products and increase your sales.
You're winning if you do that.
But it's another if you get carried away and become an open book for the sake of whoring for attention or validation, without strategizing for how you'll leverage those eyeballs to boost your revenue/profit, while you unwittingly equip your competitors and even potential competitors with specific domain knowledge that they can use against you.
I used to connect my Stripe to Indie Hackers for Zlappo in the beginning.
But one user looked me up on IH and exclaimed that he didn't know that my product was this early, that it "only had $80 in MRR," a la:
Suffice to say, I not only felt embarrassed for being called out but also even felt attacked.
Hell, I've seen startups making $10k MRR where the users went, "Wow, didn't know they made so little." (!)
What's the point in being so transparent?
It's juicy for readers, I get it, but as an entrepreneur it's pointless to open yourself up to attack and ridicule, particularly when you're in your nascent stage (which is coincidentally when founders feel compelled to build in public the most -- when you have traction already, you tend to want to keep on the quieter side).
You articulated what I wanted to write in a much better way!
Well said...
Thanks, simplisticallysimple!
That really sucks but Build in Public has also helped a lot of creators. I recently have interviewed Arvid and he speaks about build in public has helped him...
Sorry to hear that happened Ali - super frustrating! I am not building in public until I have some traction…and mostly because I want to spend my time either a) actually building or b) doing customer discover to continue to refine my marketing message, build my list, etc.
There is lots of good feedback here though, and it’s helpful for me to read through it. Thanks for sharing what happened!
Thanks for your kind words, Pdevine123.
It is all about doing it cleverly and in a way that doesn’t let someone takes advantage of your hard work.
Best of luck!
Don't believe others can copy the ethos & energy behind the creation. fake tends to feel like a fake in my view.
Good point, koelkast_777
Thanks for notifying us Ali. I'm embarking my journey as a indie hacker and I was thinking to show my process. But obviously at start I won't be able to iterate fast, so I think I'll keep it a secret and then slowly I'll start building the community.
Building in public could be powerful if done the right way. I am just against doing it naively.
Best of luck, bypratikraj!
People will make alternatives for your tools and compete with you even if you don't build in public. What sells can't be hidden.
Sure. That is why building a moat and retention features are important. Approaching the BIP trend without having this in mind will not be a good idea.
Sorry to hear it but it has nothing to do with building in public. If your product is successful, you will face copying sooner or later. You have to think how make your product and business uncopyable from the day 1 - no matter if you BIP or not.
It actually has! When you start building from scratch and share all source code and user data, you will not have time to build your moat and retention features fast enough. This is especially true when your product get really good traction. I am not totally against BIP, but in a way that doesn't harm the IH.
Building in public doesn't mean sharing all source code (unless your product is open-source). If you are still building a commercial product you will never ever share the sensitive data. If you do, it's very silly, and please don't call it BIP.
I think that I was the problem not the concept of BIP itself. I done it wrong.
Thanks for your comment, NorNorsu!
You should not care if people are copying your tools. But care if people are making better tools that solves the same problems.
Great point, dot_michael.
Thank you.
People all around the world can copy and improve on your technical features and business model as soon as you make it available to your intended users.
What's hard to copy is a community of users who you build loyalty with by showing them that you're building it for them. You can do this by being asking them for and being responsive to their feedback as you iterate and improve your product to better solve their problems.
Yess
In some cases, I would agree. However, the majority of indie hackers don't have copycats as their main problem. The main problem is validating their solution and getting people to care about it. You're going to have an easier time with that if you do build in public, and if you get successful enough where copycats start popping up, congratulations on your champagne problems! 🍾
Haha
Great point, thefedoration!
Thanks.
I'm curious... if you publish an ebook on Gumroad, any person could buy and download it and republish it somewhere else. How different is this from building in public?
Building in public doesn't mean sharing all your sources (like with books). You can share what you are doing, how you are doing it, your feelings etc but sharing the course code is not a part of BIP (unless you build an open source product, but in this case, you will be rather glad if somebody copy your code).
Very interesting point of view, alexandromg!
I will think about it and get back to you.
Thank you.
Was the barrier to entry too low in your case? Also, I've been hearing about how SaaS isn't winner-takes-all, but I do think it depends on which market you are in. Do you have visibility of how much market share you command vis-à-vis your peers?
Tech barrier to entry was very low. But, distribution is giving me an advantage. So, it is not too bad actually. My market share strategy is to go out and if I noticed that 10 potential users aren't using any similar products, I start building it for them. Then, I would think about the next 10, 50,...100.
I don't think you should be too discouraged! Food-tech is a massive market. There are small ways that you can continue to differentiate your product. Even having just a different style from others can help. Or emphasis high-touch customer support. The advantage with large markets is that you only need to attract a very small portion to be successful.
I'm also building a SaaS product for the restaurant industry, something similar to ChowNow. Online ordering for smaller restaurants without any monthly fees. I know there are dozens of competitors, and many are very similar, but I really only need a few clients to make it worth while for me. There are hundreds of thousands of restaurants in the US alone, so I think I can get a few to give my product a try!
I'm curious how you built a following of restaurant owners on Twitter? I really know nothing about doing that right now. Hopefully my product is different enough that you may not mind sharing :)
Haha…this has been an amazing roller coaster for me. I have been trying to build a community since the mid of last year to no avail. After a lot of frustration I followed some popular accounts that many restaurant owners follow and I took notes. I noticed the type of content they kept liking and sharing. Then, I just applied the strategies I found in their most liked & retweeted content. I started getting hundreds of new followers in the last few weeks after applying these strategies.
This makes a lot of sense. Thanks for sharing!
I've been building in public for over a year now.
Never had that experience happen to me (yet), but I definitely look forward to it if/when it happens.
When you see someone copying you, you know you're on the right track.
Plus, if they're copying YOU, then you know you're always one step ahead of them :)
I like your positive take on this. I need a friend like you in my life! FOLLOWED :)
haha thanks!
If you do any marketing at all, competitors can copy.
Even without marketing, competitors can copy! Unless you plan to have zero users and keep your product secret for internal use, you have to accept that people will copy and compete.
Your way can be network effects, superior product, patents, business relationships, marketing channels... whatever. But you have to be prepared to compete and win on something!
As I said in the post, I am not totally against BIP. I am with doing it in a smart way.
Thanks!
I know the pain, but your product is not yours at all.
Your mind can start the next idea continuously.
Also, think differently. Make an idea that everybody can copy, but you still can earn money from that. Like WordPress or any other open-source product that has a cloud version as well as self-host.
the tech is never the moat. someone ripping off 100% of your app should be at the bottom of your things to worry about.
set up distribution, set up better UX, set up better CS
there are at least 20 competitors in almost all popular SaaS niches
also building in public builds credibility
Tech can actually be the ultimate moat if you added some good retention & interaction features. Think whatsapp, for example, which has nothing but tech retention features.
I only realized distribution importance less than a year ago and started building a small community on twitter. ~3500 followers so far!
Thanks for sharing your valuable feedback.
Right, but what I mean by tech is not the moat, I mean purely on the features. There are thousands of whatsapp clones with the exact same functionality and design.
Whatsapps moat is distribution which is non-tech. Yes they have retention but to retain users they first need to convert them, and thats where they initially built their advantage.
Similarly, you can't be afraid to build in public because someone will copy your feature. They will copy it regardless. Even if you build in stealth you'd have to launch publicly anyway. And at that point you'd have maybe a few weeks headstart over the copycats. I don't think thats a meaningful advantage anyway all things considered. :)
100% agree!
Good point.
Thanks, sohamsarkar!
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There is hardly any unique idea or product. Google search or even fb is not unique.
So i agree nothing to fear. Make it super easy, be crazy about users problems, fantical support, solve what is difficult in other products if you are still a cat copying ;)
Thank you, teklog78!