Building in Public: The Complete Guide for Indie Hackers

Building in public has transformed how solo founders and small teams grow their startups. Instead of working in stealth mode for months, you share your journey openly. Here's everything you need to know.

What is Building in Public?

Building in public means sharing your startup journey transparently:

Revenue numbers

User growth

Challenges and failures

Technical decisions

Lessons learned

It's the opposite of "stealth mode" where founders hide everything until a big launch.

Why Build in Public?

1. Free Marketing

Every post about your progress is content that attracts potential users:

People love following founder stories

Your journey becomes a narrative people invest in

You build audience before you need it

2. Accountability

Public commitments are harder to break:

Sharing goals creates pressure to deliver

Your audience holds you accountable

Less likely to abandon projects

3. Feedback Loop

Real-time input from potential users:

Validate ideas before building

Catch mistakes early

Understand what features people actually want

4. Network Effects

Connect with other builders:

Find collaborators and co-founders

Get introduced to investors

Build relationships with journalists and podcasters

5. Trust Building

Transparency creates trust:

People buy from people they know

Your openness differentiates you from faceless companies

Customers become advocates

Where to Build in Public

Twitter/X

The default platform for indie hackers:

Fast-paced, real-time updates

Large builder community

Easy to share quick wins and learnings

Best practices:

Post 1-3 times daily

Mix updates with valuable insights

Engage with other builders genuinely

Indie Hackers

Community of bootstrapped founders:

Share milestones and revenue

Get detailed feedback

Connect with like-minded builders

Underrated for B2B founders:

Professional audience

Longer-form posts perform well

Great for enterprise SaaS

Personal Blog

Own your content:

SEO benefits

Deeper, more detailed posts

Build an email list

Cut & Ship

Showcase your project and updates:

Submit your project for visibility

Share your builder story

Connect with the AI/SaaS community

What to Share

Weekly Updates

What you built this week

Key metrics (users, revenue, traffic)

Challenges you faced

Plans for next week

Milestones

First user

First paying customer

Revenue milestones ($100, $1K, $10K MRR)

Feature launches

Behind the Scenes

Your tech stack and why

Design decisions

Pricing strategy

Marketing experiments

Failures and Learnings

What didn't work

Pivots and why

Money lost on bad decisions

Technical mistakes

Revenue and Metrics

The ultimate transparency:

Open metrics pages

Monthly revenue reports

Conversion rates

Churn numbers

Fundraising Journey

If you're raising funds, building in public gives you leverage:

Share your investor outreach progress

Document your pitch iterations

Use Charlia.io to generate professional investor materials and share your preparation process

What NOT to Share

Building in public doesn't mean sharing everything:

Proprietary competitive advantages - Don't reveal your secret sauce

User data - Never share customer information

Unverified claims - Only share real numbers

Drama - Keep personal conflicts private

Others' information - Don't expose partners or customers

Building in Public Framework

Week 1-4: Foundation

Choose your primary platform (Twitter recommended)

Set up your profile with a clear builder identity

Start documenting your journey

Submit to Cut & Ship for initial visibility

Month 2-3: Consistency

Post daily updates

Share your first milestone

Engage with 10+ builders daily

Write your first long-form piece

Month 4-6: Growth

Your audience starts growing

Share detailed behind-the-scenes

Consider starting a newsletter

Do podcast interviews

Month 6+: Compound Effects

Your audience becomes a distribution channel

Product launches get automatic attention

Opportunities come to you

Community supports your growth

Case Studies

Pieter Levels (@levelsio)

Built 12 startups in public

$2.7M+ ARR from products like Nomad List

400K+ Twitter followers

Open about revenue from day one

Jon Yongfook (@yongfook)

Shares Bannerbear journey openly

Monthly revenue reports

$1M+ ARR milestone shared live

Technical deep dives

Tony Dinh (@tdinh_me)

Vietnamese indie hacker

Built multiple products in public

Shares revenue and failures equally

Community-driven growth

Common Mistakes

1. Only Sharing Wins

People connect with struggles. Share failures too.

2. Inconsistency

Building in public requires consistency. Daily or weekly, but stick to it.

3. Being Too Promotional

Ratio should be 80% value, 20% promotion.

4. Comparing Yourself

Focus on your journey, not others' numbers.

5. Sharing Too Early

Have something built before starting. An idea isn't enough.

Tools for Building in Public

Twitter Analytics - Track engagement

Indie Hackers - Milestone tracking

Plausible/Fathom - Privacy-friendly analytics to share

Stripe Dashboard - Revenue screenshots

Notion - Public roadmaps

Charlia.io - If you're raising funds, generate your investor materials to share your fundraising journey

Starting Today

Building in public is a long game. Start now:

Today: Post your first update about what you're building

This week: Submit to Cut & Ship for your first visibility

This month: Commit to daily or weekly updates

This quarter: You'll have an audience that cares about your launch

The best time to start building in public was when you started your project. The second best time is now.