Building in public means sharing your work — the progress, the setbacks, the decisions, the numbers — while you are still building. It is not the same as marketing. It is more honest and, in many ways, more effective.
Why Makers Resist It
The most common objections:
- Someone will steal my idea. Ideas are not the scarce resource. Execution is. Sharing your process does not give anyone your ability to execute it.
- I have nothing interesting to say yet. The most engaging content is usually from the earliest stages, before the product exists, when the problem and the thinking are raw.
- I will look foolish if it fails. You will look human. People root for makers who share their real experience.
What to Share
Building in public does not mean sharing everything. It means sharing the things that are useful or interesting to the audience you are trying to reach.
Useful things to share publicly:
- Why you are building the thing and what problem it solves for you personally
- Milestones: first user, first paying customer, first churn
- Decisions and the reasoning behind them
- Things that did not work
- Revenue numbers, if you are comfortable with it
- User feedback that changed your direction
The Distribution Effect
Every post is a small surface area for people to find you. Over time, those surfaces compound.
A maker who shares consistently over six months has a body of work that attracts users, collaborators, and press without any paid promotion. The audience builds in parallel with the product.
When you eventually launch, you are not starting from zero. You have people who have been following the story and are already invested in seeing it succeed.
Where to Build in Public
- Twitter/X and Bluesky — short updates, milestone posts, revenue screenshots
- LinkedIn — more formal updates, good for B2B products
- A personal blog or newsletter — longer reflections and decision write-ups
- Hacker News — for technical decisions and significant milestones
- LiftOff — for product launches at each significant stage
You do not need to be everywhere. Pick one or two channels and be consistent.
Find More on LiftOff
LiftOff is built for makers who ship. When you are ready to launch publicly, submit your product and share the next chapter of the story.
