I think building in public is one of the most underrated shifts in how products get made and marketed. It's been around for a while, but it's hitting different now, and I want to talk about why.

The core idea

Building in public means sharing the process of creating your product with the world as it happens. Not after launch. Not in a polished case study. While you're in the thick of it. That includes things like product updates, lessons learned, decisions you're wrestling with, metrics, and even failures. The goal isn't to show off. It's to bring people along for the ride. Done well, it turns your build process into an interactive narrative that educates, inspires, and invites engagement. It's less of a tactic and more of a philosophy about how you relate to the people you're building for.

Why it actually works

The genius part about building in public is that you're marketing while you're building from day zero. You don't wait until the product is ready to start finding your audience. You build your audience while you build the product. Everything happens simultaneously. This is why you see something as basic as an expense tracker doing well. The product itself isn't revolutionary, but the creator built an audience around the journey of making it. By the time it launched, people already cared. There are a few reasons this works so well:

The storytelling angle

Here's the thing that I think a lot of people miss: building in public is storytelling. You're not dumping every detail at once. You reveal things piece by piece, like a TV show rolling out its season arc. Each update is an episode. Each milestone is a plot point. Think about how Fortnite handles its seasons. They drip-feed the narrative over weeks, keeping people engaged and guessing about what comes next. Building in public works the same way. The slow reveal keeps people hooked. This is also why the early "build in public" trend of just posting revenue screenshots eventually lost its punch. People would share how much money they were making, and it would get attention, sure. But it didn't really capture what the movement was about. It was a flex, not a story. The people who do this well focus on the how and the why, not just the how much.

The old objection (and why it doesn't hold up anymore)

The classic pushback used to be: "Why would you tell everyone what you're building? Someone will just copy you." I get why people thought that. But it turns out, the risk of being copied is massively overblown compared to the advantage of having an audience that's watching you execute. Ideas have always been cheap. What matters is the execution, and that's exactly what building in public puts on display. And then AI came along and made this even more true.

How AI changed the equation

AI has reduced the friction of building software to almost zero. Writing code is cheap now. Someone with no technical background can describe what they want in plain English and get a working prototype. The barrier to entry for making apps has essentially disappeared. So if anyone can build the thing, what actually matters? Two things: the idea and the execution. The idea gives you direction. But execution is where building in public becomes your superpower. When dozens of people can ship a similar product in a weekend, the person who's been sharing their journey, building an audience, and earning trust for months has a massive head start. The product might be replicable. The relationship with the audience is not. This is why building in public is more relevant now than ever. It's not just a marketing strategy anymore. It's a survival strategy in a world where the technical moat has collapsed.

Who should build in public

Building in public isn't for everyone, and that's fine. It tends to work best for:

If you're running an enterprise sales motion or building something highly regulated, a more private approach might make more sense. The key is matching your transparency level to your audience and your go-to-market strategy.

Getting started

If you're thinking about building in public, here are some practical starting points:

The bottom line

The way the scene has changed is so much different from what it used to be. In the past, the default was to build in secret and reveal with a big launch. Now, the smart move is often the opposite: start sharing from day zero, build your audience alongside your product, and let the journey itself become the marketing. Building in public isn't about giving away your secrets. It's about showing people you're worth paying attention to, one update at a time.

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