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You've all inspired me, gonna build in public (4 years and $187 MRR later)

I've been debating building in public for a while.

The main reason was that I didn't think that it would benefit my product in any way. My target users are mainly finance/consulting/MBA students, etc... and they don't really seem like the type to value building in public.

Given I'm building a Personal CRM, confidence that the data is protected and will be around for a long time is massive. I was worried that If people saw that this was just a one man operation, they would lose confidence.

However, I decided to start building in public for myself. The product is 4+ years old ($187 MRR) but better now than never!

I wish I had done it sooner just so I can look back and see what kind of progress I've made. I also think that it would have inspired me to start monetizing sooner.

I don't expect to get any customers out of doing it, but it will at least be a fun thing to document and look back on from time to time if I need some inspiration :) Hopefully it helps someone else too!

I wrote a massive Twitter thread (my first thread!) where I've posted my MRR and some backstory on the project. I'll also be posting small updates there every week (with bigger detailed stuff here on IH) Feel free to check it out if you're curious!

  1. 4

    Retweeted your thread to my 29k followers, hope it gains traction.

    And good luck with Mogul!

    1. 1

      Thank you so much Jay! That actually means so much to me 🙏🙏

  2. 4

    Congratulations!

    It's a common misconception to think that the reason for building in public is to acquire customers directly from that audience. I don't think this is how it's supposed to work.

    Instead, an audience helps to augment everything you do.

    • helps to share the content you create, with their network
    • helps provide support if you run into an issue
    • helps provide accountability to push you towards your revenue milestones
    • helps to provide feedback (even if not a target customer, some feedback is better than no feedback!)

    etc

    1. 2

      Thanks Jon!

      It's a common misconception to think that the reason for building in public is to acquire customers directly from that audience.

      ^^^ Absolutely this

      I am definitely one of those people that has thought like this (still trying to re-wire my brain to not think like that) and that has been one of the biggest shifts I've had to make.

      I'm literally gonna write down the rest of what you wrote because I think this is such a powerful way to think about it. I'll revisit it when I start to forget why I wanted to try this in the first place.

  3. 3

    I think a lot of people appreciate getting a transparent look into how something is built. It helps them build trust towards this person (or team or brand) and it creates a channel for communication.

    I propose a different angle in Building in Public (since it can be so wide).

    Some people think Building in Public is sharing a lot of daily progression on "product building", it works for some target users. In this case I'd suggest to do more storytelling of how you make decisions for your product and how you consider your customer perspective, etc., perhaps finance/consulting/MBA people would appreciate this angle.

    To sum up, how you approach Building in Public has a lot to do with how your target audience behaves. I put down some thoughts in my Building in Public guide, you can see if it sparks any new thoughts.

    1. 1

      Just bookmarked your guide Kevon and will be giving it a deep dive tonight!

      In this case I'd suggest to do more storytelling of how you make decisions for your product and how you consider your customer perspective, etc., perhaps finance/consulting/MBA people would appreciate this angle.

      This is great advice. People do really resonate with stories and from my experience it really does make them more empathetic when they know the "why" behind something. Even for something like a feature in a product they use. Gonna keep this in mind moving forward.

      Thanks Kevon!

      1. 1

        You're welcome Chris - keep rocking!

  4. 2

    Yesssss let's see that $2K MRR!

  5. 1

    I misread your title and thought you were earning $187K MRR ... 😂

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