📢 5 build in public myths busted
5 Build In Public Myths that need to die
Building in Public is a popular trend these days among indie hackers to get initial traction on their products.
But there are a lot of myths around how it should be done to be effective or not.
I’ve seen many founders succeed by building in public over the years, and I do a bit of it myself.
I think these 5 myths around building in public that need to be busted -
1. You have to show income screenshots 📈
No you don't
Sure, people on Twitter love to see MRR graphs but you don’t need to share them if you're not comfortable.
Or if they can be harmful to your business.
Share your lessons, but protect your business at all costs
2. You have to create a lot of content 📝
No you don't
Just a simple tweet at the end of the day or a blog post at the end of the week is enough.
What matters is that you share a tiny lesson you learned in your journey. Or something interesting that happened in your business.
That's all anyone who is following you cares about.
3. Building in public works for everyone 🤔
No it doesn't.
There are certain business models where it makes sense to build in public.
Everyone else should do it only to share their lessons with their followers and friends.
Not all your customers are interested in your journey, they just want their problems solved.
4. You have to share everything about your business 🧑💻
No you don't.
There are competitors out there.
Don't share all your traffic sources or growth strategies. Especially if the product can be easily copied.
You can still share earned insights and build a personal brand without revealing critical information about your business.
5. You can only Build In Public on Twitter 🐦
Not really.
You can do it wherever you feel comfortable -
- Indie Hackers
- Wip.co
- A niche sub reddit
- A YouTube channel
- A Podcast
- A Newsletter
Pick a platform you like and use it to share your journey.
People build in public for mainly 3 reasons -
- As a marketing strategy in the initial days.
- Find support from a community.
- Share their lessons for other founders following their journey.
None of these reasons mean you have to follow a specific path or put your core business in danger.
That’s it for today.
Do you build in public? Drop a comment and let me know.
Further Reading
- 0 To 28M ARR While Building In Public📈 | Nathan Barry
- Too Many Eyes: Why Bootstrapped Companies Stop Being Transparent (Eventually) | Arvid Kahl
Time to go.
Thank you for reading 🙏
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Love it, Ayush
Great list. I've been publishing weekly videos of my journey since early March. My audience hasn't grown all that much, so I'm not sure how well it's "working," but I'm finding the process to be invaluable as a solo founder. It forces me to produce progress every week which has helped me get out of my head (which can be a big weakness of going solo).
Oh yes.. that's a big benefit 👍
Building in public is most certainly not for everyone, nor for every business. I agree this obsession is widely overrated :-)
True that..
Love your article Ayush!
We share in public how we build 20+ startups. And it gets us prospects and increase our credibility. But it's not easy to figure out how to start and what to share.
I have mixed feelings about 'lots of content' because when you starting it's difficult to create good content, especially if you need to do it regularly.
I think one of the tricks is developing systems and schedule that you commit to follow. Like if you decided to tweet daily, you should tweet daily no matter what. The same for weekly newsletters.
I'm trying to solve this issue with Momentum, a build-in-public tool I'm working on.
Would love to hear your feedback and recommendations!
https://mmntm.build
Common sense. Think it through. Do what feels right for you. :)
Kern.al is the place to build in public. Try INDIEHACKERS as an invite code
I've always seen Kernal as a place to discuss ideas.. not actually build your business in public.. There are other platforms better suited for that..