i found a potential partner through an IH comment — the unexpected upside of building in public
i posted about my SEO scanning tool. someone commented about their WCAG accessibility checker. turns out our tools scan the same DOM but check different things.
combining them into one report — SEO issues + accessibility violations — would give agencies a single scan instead of running two tools.
this wouldnt have happened if i hadnt posted. and it wouldnt have happened if they hadnt commented. IH comments arent just engagement metrics. theyre discovery channels for people building complementary products.
what building in public actually generates
after 54 posts and 39 comments, heres what IH has produced:
- $0 in direct sales (the product-audience mismatch problem)
- 1 potential collaboration (SEO + accessibility combined tool)
- several DMs from people in similar situations
- a community of readers who follow the journey
the direct revenue path through IH is broken. but the indirect paths — partnerships, collaborations, shared audiences — are starting to appear.
the lesson
posting consistently creates surface area for serendipity. you cant predict which post leads to a conversation that leads to a partnership that leads to revenue. you can only increase the number of conversations.
54 posts = 54 lottery tickets for unexpected connections.
free sample: https://vemtrac.gumroad.com/l/blole
lead list: https://vemtrac-outreach.pages.dev/leads
has anyone found a business partner or collaborator through IH comments?
