How to Build in Public and Win

Don't #buildinpublic blindly...

Thank you to one of this publication’s latest subscribers, and first commenters, Jorge Medina, for your comment that inspired this article. Want a spotlight like Jorge? Make an insightful comment like Jorge. :)

What is #buildinpublic?

If you’ve been around SaaS / indie-hacker Twitter much, you likely have seen the #buildinpublic hashtag used. You may already know it’s origin and what’s going on there, but real quick for those of you who don’t, let’s start there.

KP and Kevon Cheung started using the “#buildinpublic” hashtag on Twitter with a purpose.

It is a powerful marketing strategy that enables creators to build trust, credibility, and long-term relationships with their audiences.

That’s the goal. Be transparent. Earn trust and credibility. Get long-term relationships with an audience who wants to see you win.

It’s part discovery, part marketing, part conversation, and part community building.

But does it work?

60% of the time, it works every time
~ Brian Fantana, Anchorman

In short, yep, it works.

We wouldn’t be talking about it if it didn’t.

But, as with everything in life, there are asterisks, nuances, and ways and times that will help you be successful with it.

Anyone you see succeeding is only succeeding at the things you're paying attention to
~ Ray Dalio

When/where should you do it?

Should I build in public?

As with everything good in life, the answer is “it depends.” And that means it’s harder than a pat answer.

I suggest asking a couple other questions first.

1. Do you know who your ideal customers are?

   If you don’t know who your ideal customers are yet, #buildinpublic can be a great tool to help you figure that out.
   
   You earn trust with an audience who are interested. People self-filter into that audience, and engagement with you while you’re building means they’re likely invested in some capacity in your product becoming what they want/need. It’s a good first step in figuring out who they are.
   

2. Do you know which platform your customers they use?
   If not, #buildinpublic can be a good strategy to figure that out. It could also be a waste of a lot of time.
   
   Personally, I’d do some quick research to find that out before spending any time doing it.

   
   Test/research on each channel you think your ideal customer uses: Reddit, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, whatever. First, think where do they spend time. Then, consider whether building in public might work there.
   
   Do a small test first, and where there is engagement, double down there. Ignore the rest.
   

3. Do you know if they’ll want to engage?
   The product you’re building may not suit building in public. If you’re building an enterprise B2B app that embeds inside the Fortune 500’s and integrates with their financials, you’ll likely not find many people who want to engage on that product on any platform.
   
   You’ll need a different strategy for that type of product.
   
   Building in public would not give you the engagement you’re hoping to get. And being public, with any part of that process, would likely do the opposite of earning you trust simply because you’re talking about very sensitive data and workflows - things corporations want to be private, not public. They may not even want to indicate they’re using you as a vendor, so engaging would be against their own interests.

Conclusion / TLDR;

1. If you don’t know your ideal customer yet, it can be a good discovery tool to start that process of finding out.

2. Once you have some idea of where your customers live online, consider building in public there only. Stay focused.

3. Consider the product you’re building and if your customers WANT you to build in public or not.

Now, if you’re not building in public and should… get going. Why are you sitting here reading this article? 🚀

And hey, if you want to dive deeper into strategies like this for growing your agency with recurring revenue, or getting your SaaS business unstuck, grab some time and let’s chat.