Should you build in public as a solo founder?

Should you build in public?

Build in public if your customers are other founders, developers, or creators who follow that kind of content, or if you want honest feedback faster than you can get it alone. Think twice if your customers are not online in those places, because then you will build an audience of other builders instead of buyers. In either case, treat it as a marketing test with a decision rule, not as a habit you keep because everyone else does.

Building in public means sharing your progress openly: what you are building, what you tried, what worked, what did not, and sometimes your numbers. It is cheap, it can bring early users, and it can also take hours a week with nothing to show for it.

When building in public helps

• Your customers are builders. If you sell to indie hackers, developers, designers, or other founders, your progress posts reach the exact people you want.
• You need feedback quickly. Posting a screenshot or a decision often brings replies within hours. That is faster than booking interviews.
• You have no audience yet. Regular, specific posts give people a reason to follow you before you have a product.
• You want accountability. Saying in public that you will ship by Friday makes it harder to slip.

When it does not help

• Your customers are not online in those places. A tool for dentists or plumbers will not find many buyers among people following startup threads on X.
• It replaces work that would show demand. Posting about the product is easier than writing to customers. If the posts take the time you would spend on outreach, the trade is usually bad.
• Your idea is easy to copy and the value is in being first. That is rarer than founders think, but it happens.
• You are uncomfortable sharing numbers. You do not have to share revenue. But if you share nothing specific, the posts are hard to care about.

What to share when you build in public

Specific posts work better than general updates. Useful things to share:

1. A decision and why. "We dropped the free plan. Here is the test that convinced us."
2. A test and its result. "Sent 30 messages to agency owners. 7 replied. Here is the message."
3. A mistake. "We built a feature nobody used for three weeks. Here is what we missed."
4. A screenshot of something real. A new screen, a customer email (with permission), a chart.
5. A question. "Which of these two headlines would make you click?"

Avoid posts that only say you are working hard. "Day 47 of building" tells readers nothing they can use.

Treat building in public as a test

Before you start, write down what you will post, where, for how long, and what would make you continue. For example:

• Action: Three specific posts a week on X and LinkedIn for four weeks.
• Count: Replies from people in your target audience, direct messages, and signups from links in your bio.
• Rule: 3 or more conversations with people in your audience: continue. Only replies from other founders outside your audience: change the topics or the platform.

This is an illustrative rule. Track it like any other channel with the growth experiment template, and count conversations rather than likes. Likes from other founders feel good but rarely turn into customers if they are not your customers.

How we do it

We are building Marketing Loop in public through this journal. Why we are building Marketing Loop explains the starting point. We share what we build and what we test, and we try to label guesses as guesses. We have not published results from our own marketing tests yet. When we do, we will include the ones that miss.

How much time should building in public take?

Less than the time you spend talking to customers. A useful limit is 20 to 30 minutes a day, most of it on replying to people, not on writing posts. If posting starts taking more time than outreach and building, cut it back.

Marketing Loop is in development

Marketing Loop is being built to keep each test, its result, and the decision it led to in one place, which also makes them easy to share. If you want to know when it is ready, join the build updates.

FAQ

Is building in public good for B2B startups?

It can be, if the buyers are active on the platforms where you post, such as LinkedIn for many B2B roles. If they are not, building in public helps more with recruiting, feedback, and investors than with sales.

Should I share revenue numbers when building in public?

Only if you are comfortable with it. Revenue posts get attention, but the posts that bring customers are usually about the problem you solve and the decisions you make.

Which platform is best for building in public?

The one where your customers spend time. For developer tools, that is often X, Hacker News, or GitHub. For B2B services, LinkedIn. For indie products, Indie Hackers and X.

Can someone steal my idea if I build in public?

They can, but ideas are rarely the hard part. Execution, customer knowledge, and speed matter more. If your value is mostly in one secret, keep that part private and share the rest.

Write your first post this week

Pick one decision you made recently and the reason for it. Write it in five sentences, post it where your customers are, and reply to everyone who responds. Then decide, after four weeks of posts, whether the conversations justify the time.