Fuck Building in Public

#BuildInPublic started off and was mainly a way for companies to be more transparent, Buffer's transparent salaries is one example.

Other startups took this and manifested it in their own ways, such as sharing their metrics and revenue online for everyone to see. Here's a list of these.

Founders being more transparent with their employees, customers, and well-wishers is great. So far, so good.

I think the movement eventually changed to be a crutch for lack of good marketing skills. It's touted as almost a must-do in the indiehacker universe, which is where my disagreement lies.

I don't think everyone should build in public. I think everyone should build in private with a few early customers. Identify and solve the problems they truly have instead of building a useless tool in public.

I think building in public is valuable once you reach a certain level of success, or at-least start making some revenue from your business. At that point, you'd have gone through with the hardest part which is making your first dollar from your product. Which means you'll have something useful to share.

Building in public, especially when starting out, is a huge drain on your time and resources as an early-stage founder. Here's what you should do instead.

Find a group of enthusiastic customers who have a burning problem.
Talk to them, and start building a solution for their problem.
Share it with them week on week, get feedback, and improve.
Launch earl with customers ready to buy.
Scale it with confidence as you know you built a useful tool and don't have to scramble to "find product market fit" and tweet about it for months.

Building in private with a few early customers trumps building in public.