What is Building in Public?

Building in Public is exactly what it sounds like. It means building a company, a product, or anything and sharing a lot of the transparent "behind the scenes" with its public audience.

Going back a decade, we find that creators loved working in stealth mode, treating everything from the idea to an operating procedure, to how much money they were making as trade secrets. None of us wanted to show our vulnerability and let other people judge us. We also didn't want other people to copy our innovative ideas, and we were careful in sharing to protect ourselves. That was fair back in the days.

But the evolution of the Internet has changed the whole game. Ideas are now everywhere. Starting a business or building anything has become a lot easier. You can literally create a website in less than a day and declare you're in business. Easier to start, however, doesn't mean easier to stay. Competition is over the roof, and it is much harder to differentiate purely by ideas. A lot more focus is now placed on execution and things that aren't easy to be copied, such as culture, brand, community, and of course, personality.

With Building in Public, creators share their entrepreneurial journey publicly via their favorite channels. This includes learnings, struggles, anecdotes, and even key business metrics, to build authenticity and trust with their audience.

You'll find two groups of audiences mainly. One group is friends and other creators who share a similar vision and want to learn from each other. Another group is users and customers who use your product. When you're Building in Public, you're creating camaraderie and support groups as well as attracting potential customers. They're both essential to your product's growth.

Building in Public is a strategy and mindset. A lot of creators misinterpret that "share your journey, and they'll come." This is not the case. There must be a strategic plan behind why you're Building in Public and what you want to achieve. Without clear goals, you'll find the sharing to be a waste of time and you'll give up.

With this new mindset, not only can you create a strong trustworthy brand, but you can also unlock communication and distribution channels for your product development, marketing, sales, and community support all at once. Does it sound too good to be true?

The last thing you should know is that you'll learn all about Building in Public in this guide, but to achieve success, you must internalize the principles, best practices, and interesting hacks and form your own style around it. Only when you're showing your true self, not copying someone's identity and style, and creating your own master plan, will you find success.