5 reasons why I build in public and you should too
No doubt you have heard many build-in-public success stories. Folks like Arvid Kahl, Tony Dinh, and Jon Yongfook have all found success by sharing their journey as they built their companies.
So you might think building in public is just about marketing. And, yes, getting noticed and building trust is undoubtedly an aspect of the build-in-public movement. But there are a lot of other great reasons to do it.
Here are the five biggest reasons I am building in public, in order of their importance to me:
- Public accountability
- Required reflection
- Getting attention
- Practice writing
- Community support
Public accountability
Have you ever given someone else great advice that you neglect to follow yourself? I do this. All. The. Time.
Like many coders, my instinct is to sit in a room and build, build, build for months. I’ve been down this road before. It ends badly.
I know I should be doing more marketing. I know I need to validate before I build. But, now I have a great reason not to ignore those things: public embarrassment. Fear of having to tell the world that I am a giant hypocrite is a powerful motivator to correct those mistakes and do the right thing in the first place.
So building-in-public helps push me to focus on the right things, instead of just on the easy stuff that I’d personally choose to spend my time on (features and features and more features!).
Required reflection
The path to success is never a straight line. For example, if I write down a plan for the next three months, then put my head down and just power through without pausing to check on my progress and make course corrections, I will not end up where I want to be.
When the length of your to-do list makes you start to sweat, it’s easy to put on blinders and go full steam ahead. As an indie hacker and solopreneur, this problem is particularly pronounced. The to-do list is all on me, plus I don’t have teammates to point out when I head in the wrong direction.
The solution is to force yourself to pause and reflect. Sharing my progress regularly in a public forum makes me stop and think about my progress on the plan, what has been working and what hasn’t, and what adjustments I need to make.
Getting attention
Let’s be honest. Ultimately, building in public is a way of getting attention. The world is full of people pitching solutions to problems, and you need to somehow cut through all that noise to start gaining the trust of your audience.
By sharing your journey, you’re hoping to connect with like-minded folks and forge a bond that might someday lead to a fan who will help spread your message or, even better, pay you for the value you offer. Of course, this impact is most substantial if your target market overlaps with folks interested in building in public.
For me, this isn’t the number one reason I build in public. But I acknowledge that it is undoubtedly a critical side-effect.
Practice writing
When I was younger, I never got the appeal of being a great writer. Writing seemed less important than doing and building. But I’ve come to believe that writing is a powerful means of processing your thoughts into a form that is easy to understand and share. You can have great ideas and create beautiful things, but you won’t go anywhere if you can’t communicate that value to others.
This year, I’ve made it a goal to improve my writing. There is only one way to get better at writing: to practice. Building in public is a great excuse to write more and gives you a solid source of topics.
Community support
This item ended up further down the list than I would have thought because I firmly believe that as an indie founder, it is essential to connect with other people going through the same struggles that you are.
Being a founder, especially solo, is HARD. Sometimes it is soul-crushingly hard. You will feel lonely. You will feel like you’re failing. I hope you don’t feel this way often. For me, it’s infrequent. But having someone to share those emotions with can be a life-saver when you do.
One reason this is lower on my list is that you don’t have to build in public to find this sense of community. You can show up, be honest, and communicate with other founders. But building in public is an excellent place to start making those connections.
Summary
There are a lot of great reasons to build in public. For me, these five are at the top of the list. But for others, the reasons differ.
Do you build in public? If so, what is the most potent reason? If not, what stops you from doing so?
I look forward to hearing from all of you! If you liked this, follow me here on IH or Twitter at https://twitter.com/ThatMattMorris.
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Thank you for sharing. I’ve been reading about building in public. Logically it makes a lot of sense. However I think it can be hard to build in public if 1) you don’t have an idea yet, so what in the world do you share 2) fear of ridicule or rejection. I don’t have a business yet so I think I’m going to share the process of re-building my personal website with a blog.
Great points, Melinda!
To your first point, yes, I think building-in-public isn't necessarily for everyone! Rebuilding your personal website and building out your blog is definitely something you can do in public, and sharing as you go is a great way to find other folks who are interested in what you're working on.
Your second point could be a whole other blog post! Fear of ridicule and rejection is actually why I build in public.
It's too easy when you're building something to do it in private, never sharing it with anyone because "it isn't ready yet". But really building in private is just delaying that scary stuff, not avoiding it. You're going to have to share it eventually if you ever want others to use/read/share it!
@arvidkahl just had a great post about this: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/building-in-public-and-negativity/
So, well I know it can be frightening (I've done the build-in-private thing too many times), I strongly believe you're better off facing your fears and sharing with the world as you go. You get feedback, and more importantly, you get comfortable sharing things that aren't perfect.
Your point about practicing writing is what really resonated with me. I think a ton of people in the software world underestimate how difficult it is to write and to write well. Similar to writing code, the only way to improve one's writing is by....well, writing. It doesn't happen overnight, it requires hundreds of hours of trial and error and learning by doing. So, building in a public is a great way, at the very least, to hone one's ability to concisely articulate their desires and vision.
100% agreed, Ryan. I wish I had realized earlier in my life how valuable practicing writing is!
To me, it's not just valuable in sharing with others, but also in thinking through and processing complexity to help my own understanding.
The smartest people (I think of Richard Feynman in particular) can take a very complicated idea and make it so simple that it seems obvious. That's what I aim to do with writing — obviously, I'm nowhere near Feynman levels 😂.
Thanks for this info, I completely agree. Your point on "Required reflection" stood out to me and made me think of the software development life cycle. In some sense, building in private can be represented by the waterfall SDLC methodology, you don't have the public to validate your product or features along the way. Building in public however, allows fellow colleagues and users to provide you with that imperative feedback that allows you to pivot, should you need to. This allows you to be "agile" and approach features in an iterative manner, saving time in the long run and actually producing something that people will love. All the best.
These points are definitely in line with the builders I meet on Twitter. Great article.
Great post! The thought of building in public has been appealing to me more and more lately. I think my only concern would be someone swooping in and trying to steal my ideas. I know that’s not likely to happen but it still crosses my mind from time to time.
Listen, I'm not going to lie to you. I think it is possible. Some people will say it never happens, and I don't think 99.999% of people will do it, but, eventually, you may share with someone working on a related project who thinks you make a great point and incorporates your solution into their own.
Here's the thing: it doesn't matter.
Most ideas aren't going to pan out and validate.
For those ideas that do work, most executions are going to fail, either technically or in marketing and distribution.
And for those who execute successfully, the biggest problem you have won't usually be competition. There is room in most markets for multiple players.
Love this quote from Justin Kan: "Startups mostly don't compete against each other, they compete against no one giving a shit"
Great post Matt! From a personal development point of view I think you're 100% on point with the "required reflection" and "practice writing" parts.
I am also trying to build my company in public too but sometimes I feel I don't have anything interesting to share. Besides, it's hard to come up with a lot of ideas of things to talk about at the end of the day job, then jump into your indie project for a few hours in the evening.
Out of curiosity, how often do you share progress/thoughts with your audience? And how did you build that "building in public muscle" many of us would like to develop?
I absolutely feel the same way about struggling to find interesting things to share. I think giving yourself a nudge to share more often is a great thing, but forcing yourself to a rigid schedule of posting is terrible.
Kevon Cheung, who is a fantastic resource on building in public, made a great suggestion on Twitter: Spend a few minutes at the end of each day and ask yourself "What did I learn today that can be useful to someone out there on Twitter?"
If nothing comes to mind, you don't have to Tweet anything! If you can think of something, share it. But remember that a lesson which, at first glance, might seem obvious or minor could be really useful to someone at an earlier stage than you. So be thoughtful here.
This also feeds back into the reflection point you mentioned. Personal retrospectives are super valuable.
Regarding end-of-day energy, I have to admit: I'm currently freelancing. That gives me some more flexibility to spend time on my own businesses than I did when I was a full-time employee (which I have been for most of my career). Full-time will suck all the energy out of you — and I really liked my job!
Thanks for the words of inspiration Matt. I'll try make it a habit to ask myself at the end of the day: "What did I learn today that can be useful to someone out there on Twitter?"
In general I think I need to free up more time for self-reflection. I tend to be too impatient and want to get things done fast. But it really pays to take steps back and consider things from a different/broader perspective at times.
I'm working full-time on the day job for now but hope I can be fully dedicated to EnVsion by the end of the year.
Hey Matt, thanks for the input.
The thing that is always on my mind when hearing about build in public is that when you start you are literally talking to no one, which to me feels weird.
I quickly checked your twitter page and it seems like you also don't have a ton of attention on your tweets, very much like me ahahah. Could you please share your thought process around this? Cause to me, talking with no one listening is a waste of time...
For sure, Filippo, it would be nice if I had way more followers! Hahaha.
If you look closely at the list I've suggested, I don't think having a big audience is actually that important when you start.
Notice:
I also think everyone starts somewhere. I've gone from 0 to 135 followers over the last 2.5 months. Obviously, that isn't nearly as fast as some people grow (in terms of quantity), but I've met great folks, had a lot of great conversations, and learned a bunch through Twitter over that time period.
Would definitely do it all again.
Great comment, really got me thinking!! :D
Thank you Matt for the honest reply!
Thanks for the clarification. I am building in public! @LernerZhang on Twitter.
Hi Matt. I found your article very validating. Thank you for sharing. As an entrepreneur who started out strictly as a developer, I used to build everything in private but over the years I learned the value of integrating marketing early in product development. And building-in-public is a very effective form of marketing that is perfect for that need. To enable myself to take full advantage of that realization, I invested in adding marketing to my tool box and worked on sharpening my writing, particularly marketing copywriting and blog writing. And that has helped me grow tremendously as an indie entrepreneur. For example, I built a small marketing agency solely on leads from community sharing. So I can personally attest to the benefits of building-in-public, if the project allows.
By the way, I checked out your project and it is particularly interesting to me because I am working on something in the same space. Perhaps it'd be interesting to discover any possibilities for symbiotic benefits. Ciao!
This is a very put together post! Building in public is something that I have indeed been looking into but then it comes along with this whole aspect of people not accepting what you make or in fact even people stealing away your process and ideas. That would be the only thing stopping me
This is something I am trying to get better at by doing this it also improves your ability to speak articulately to an audience. which will ultimately help if we are pitching to clients, potential investors or to a group of friends, as an introvert this is something I am trying to conquer. It's something that has held me back from fully realizing my potential.
that's why I started a youtube channel to improve my ability to speak to an audience, no matter how difficult it is being an introvert. great post!
Introverts of the world unite!!! I am right there with you.
Honestly, I very much struggle with that and with imposter syndrome. I don't think I'll ever get over it entirely, but I believe the only way to mitigate those feelings is to get yourself out there and practice.
Love that youtube channel idea, I may have to try it. 😰
Thanks, Austin.