Trends PRO #0084 – Build in Public

Description

Trends PRO #0084 – Build in Public

Why It Matters
Building in public helps you:

Validate ideas
Stay top-of-mind
Get fast feedback
Build connections with stakeholders

 Problem
You need to break through noise to share your story.

 Solution
Make a habit of sharing struggles, wins, milestones, questions and lessons.

 Players
People Building in Public

Dru Riley • Trends.vc creator who shares progress and failuresin public.
Arvid Kahl • Sharing lessons on bootstrapping and building in public.
Aaron Aalto • Designer and artist building Wagmi Table.
Sharath Kuruganty • Co-founder of Shoutout. Shares insights around no-code, community and product.
Naya Moss • Building Frauvis. A newsletter, community and job board.
Maciej Cupial • Building Calendesk. An online booking system.
Zoe Chew • Shares projects on her personal site.
Karthik Puvvada (KP) • The “Build In Public” Guy. He was offered a job with OnDeck in public.
Justin Jackson • Building Transistor.fm. A podcast publishing platform.
Brian Casel • Building ZipMessage. A video messaging tool for async conversations.
Janel Loi • Building Newsletter OS. A framework to launch and run your newsletter.
EK • Building Appbasics and RubyOnRemote
Damon Chen • Building Testimonial, Embed, Supportman and See Ya Future.
Brett Williams • Building a one-person, million-dollar design service – Designjoy.

 Predictions
Creators will use podcasts as a channel to build in public. See examples:
The Build in Public Podcast where KP interviews creators.
Startups for the Rest of Us where Rob Walling shares his journey building MicroConf and TinySeed.
The Bootstrapped Founder where Arvid Kahl opens up about the process of writing books, making courses and building PermanentLink.
Lunch Pail Daily where Lola talks about no-code and growing a solo business.
Product Journey Podcast where Noah Bragg and Ben Mann talk about the journey of building bootstrapped businesses.
Bootstrapped Web where Brian Casel shares his journey building ZipMessage.
Software Social where Colleen Schnettler and Michele Hansen jam on building Simple File Upload and Geocodio.
The Art of Product where Ben Orenstein and Derrick Reimer share updates on SavvyCal and Tuple.
More companies will be built around accountability challenges.
Creative Companion Club is for creators.
100 Days of No-Code is for builders.
Ship 30 for 30 is for writers.

 Opportunities

Get Trends PRO #0084 – Build in Public download
Find your tribe. Engage with subcommunities.
#fintwit is for finance.
#retwit is for real estate.
#100DaysOfNoCode is for builders.
Share more than revenue. There are other ways to build in public. You can:
Share Lessons • Cameron keeps a thread of mistakes.
Share Goals • Pat Walls added his goal to his Twitter bio.
Build Waitlists • EK built a 50-person waitlist for Appbasics.
Request Help • Dru Riley asks Twitter who should he talk to for reports.
Share Milestones • Jacky reached ramen profitability ($5,000 MRR).
Reflect on Progress • Noah Bragg shared his one-year update on Potion.so.
Offer Help • Stripe offered to help developers building in public using their API.
Share your Roadmap • Filip shared a preview of an upcoming Tally release.
Show New Features • Brian Casel reveals new ZipMessage features on Twitter.
Share Struggles • Danny shared the process behind shutting down Rareblocks.
Join a challenge. Social accountability works.
12 startups in 12 months helps you launch a startup every month for 12 months.
100 Days of No-Code helps you bring your ideas to life in 100 days.
Ship 30 for 30 helps you get started writing online in 30 days.
Repurpose content.
Dru Riley wrote How I built a paid community to 1,000+ members in 10 months as an essay before turning it into a Twitter thread and sharing the story on podcasts.
Arvid Kahl turns blog posts into tweets, threads, podcast episodes, books and courses.
Nathan Barry turned his iconic blog post into a Twitter thread.

 Risks
Person > Persona • Don’t lose yourself while building in public. It’s easy to become obsessed with crafting narratives. Building in public is performative but find balance.
Copycats • Sharing success and strategies will lead to copycats. Feature parity is possible in SaaS. While creators and communities are categories of one.
Competitors • Oversharing can allow incumbents to frontrun your roadmap. Buffer, one of the most open companies, throws caution to the wind and shares their full roadmap.

 Key Lessons
Building in public has benefits beyond reaching customers. You can:
Recruit team members
Get fast feedback
Meet new friends
Find evangelists
Meet mentors
Find investors
Early followers become invested in your journey when you involve them by asking for feedback and sharing struggles. See the Endowment Effect.
Building in public works because transparency is scarce. We value authenticity and vulnerability. As Brené Brown says “Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. Vulnerability is not weakness; it’s our greatest measure of courage.”

 Hot Takes
If building in public feels like a job to you. It won’t last. Choose a strategy that you can maintain. Don’t like Twitter? No problem. Podcast or make videos.
Building in public is performative. Embrace it. Be authentic. Tell honest stories and build connections.

Get Trends PRO #0084 – Build in Public download