Why Adopt
Building in public means sharing your journey openly: the wins, the struggles, the numbers. It feels vulnerable, but the benefits are substantial.
Why It Works
- Accountability - Public commitments are harder to abandon
- Marketing - Every update is content for potential customers
- Trust - Transparency builds credibility
- Feedback - Community catches blind spots
- Network - Fellow builders become supporters
My Implementation
This entire site is building in public:
- Build logs - Daily/weekly progress updates
- Metrics - Open revenue and traffic numbers
- Tech radar - Honest tool evaluations
- Articles - Lessons learned shared freely
Real Results
My first JoyCork customer came from a Hacker News comment where I explained my technical architecture. They’d been following my build logs and trusted the product because they watched it being made.
That’s the power of transparency: by the time you launch, you already have an audience that believes in what you’re building.
The Uncomfortable Parts
Building in public means sharing:
- Revenue when it’s embarrassingly low
- Failures and mistakes
- Ideas that might get “stolen”
- Progress when you feel behind
It’s exposure. It’s vulnerability. It’s uncomfortable.
But comfort and growth rarely coexist.
What to Share
Share freely:
- Progress updates
- Technical decisions
- Lessons learned
- Revenue milestones
- Struggles and failures
Keep private:
- Customer data
- Security details
- Competitive specifics
- Personal finances beyond MRR
Getting Started
Start small:
- Tweet when you ship something
- Write monthly retrospectives
- Share one number publicly
- Post your tech stack
You don’t have to share everything. Share what feels authentic while building the habit.
Transparency compounds. Start today.