Nobody told me Week 1 of building in public would feel this lonely. Here's what happened anyway.
A few days ago I wrote about the gap nobody talks about.
The space between building something real
and being known for it.
A lot of people felt it too.
That alone told me, okay, this is worth building.
So I started.
Week 1 is weird.
You're building something that doesn't exist yet.
No users. No feedback. No validation.
Just you, your laptop, and a problem you believe is real.
The only thing keeping you going is momentum.
So I made one rule for myself:
Ship something every single day.
Even if nobody sees it.
Even if it's ugly.
Even if it's just one API endpoint.
This week I built the backend foundation of BuiltBy.
Auth, core APIs, error handling.
The boring stuff that nobody claps for
but everything breaks without.
I posted about it publicly every day on X.
Small updates. Raw progress.
And
Few people resonated with the idea
and gave thoughtful comments
But honestly? That one reply on Day 1
hit different than I expected.
Because when you're building alone,
one human acknowledging your work
feels like fuel.
I'm still early. Very early.
No UI. No users. No launch date.
But the idea is clear:
Builders work hard every day.
That work deserves to be seen, verified, remembered.
Not a resume. Not a GitHub.
Something that actually captures who you are as a builder.
That's what I'm building.
Week 2 starts tomorrow.
If you've ever felt like your best work
went completely unseen
BuiltBy is being built for you.
Would love to know, what's the one thing
you wish people could actually see
about how you build?
"Sumit, that 'lonely' feeling in Week 1 is the most honest part of building in public—everyone sees the highlight reels, but nobody talks about the silence of the first few posts. The mission behind BuiltBy is actually the perfect antidote to that; we need better ways to showcase the person behind the product.
Since you're pushing through the early-day grind and looking for more eyes on the builder identity you're creating, there’s a competition where you can submit BuiltBy — entry is $19 and winner gets a Tokyo trip. Prize pool just opened at $0. Your odds are the best right now."