To Build in Public or Not? A Realistic Assessment

You've seen the tweets. Marc Lou sharing another $80K month. Pieter Levels posting Stripe dashboards with six-figure MRR. Justin Welsh explaining how he built a $10M business with zero employees and no paid ads. The message seems clear: if you're not building in public, you're leaving money and distribution on the table.

But here's what nobody tells you while they're chasing engagement with those inspiring screenshots - building in public is a 5-to-10-year commitment¹ that most people abandon before seeing any return. It's not a growth hack. It's a lifestyle choice that happens to double as marketing.

So let's cut through the hype and figure out if it's actually right for you.

What "Building in Public" Actually Means

Building in public isn't just tweeting revenue screenshots on Sundays. It's the practice of sharing your product development journey transparently - the wins, the failures, the features you're shipping, the ones you're killing, and the reasoning behind your decisions.

Marc Lou laid out his approach clearly²: prioritize sleep, share everything transparently on Twitter, ship the smallest possible version of every idea, always launch and market aggressively, and focus on process goals rather than outcome goals. He didn't stumble into 215K followers by accident. He posted almost every day for years while building 20+ products in 12 months - most of which failed.

The real work happens long before the audience shows up. It's choosing transparency when nobody's watching. It's sharing the $500/month product when you'd rather hide it. It's admitting a feature you spent three weeks on got zero usage.

The Case For: Why It Works

Distribution Becomes Free

Justin Welsh built a $10M business in 5 years and 9 months³ through 100% organic social posting - never running a single paid ad. He reached $1M in 29 months, then hit $2M just 9 months later, $3M 6 months after that. His profit margins sit at 89-94% because his customer acquisition cost is essentially zero.

When you build in public successfully, your audience becomes your launch list. Pieter Levels spent 10 years building 600K followers⁴ before launching Photo AI in February 2023. The result? $5.4K in the first week, $28.7K by month two, and $132K MRR by month 33 - all with an 87% profit margin because his only real costs are GPU compute and VPS servers.

Accountability Is a Feature, Not a Bug

When you tell thousands of people you're building something, the social pressure to ship becomes real. Marc Lou's identity as someone who ships fast and shares transparently became self-reinforcing. When faced with decisions, he asks: "What would someone who ships fast do?". That identity pulls him forward on days when motivation is low.

Feedback Loops Accelerate Learning

Building in public generates valuable feedback from community members⁵ who spot issues you missed, suggest features you hadn't considered, and validate (or kill) ideas before you over-invest. Pieter Levels admits the first version of Photo AI had "terrible output quality. So bad. But people paid anyway." He improved it over time based on real usage, not hypothetical requirements.

The Case Against: Why It Might Not Be For You

It Takes Years, Not Months

Here's the timeline nobody wants to post: first 1,000 followers take 6-12 months of daily posting. Years 2-4 get you to 10K-50K. Years 5-8 push toward 100K. Only after 8-12 years do you reach the 350K-600K follower range where new launches generate $10K+ MRR in week one.

Marc Lou has 215K followers because he's been doing this consistently since 2021. Your first posts will get 5 likes. That's normal. The question is whether you'll keep going when the dopamine doesn't come.

It's a Second Job

Minimum commitment: 30-60 minutes daily of creating, engaging, and responding. That's 4-7 hours per week on top of building your actual product. If you're already working a full-time job and coding nights and weekends, those hours come directly from your building time - the one activity that actually creates something people can pay for.

Authenticity Can't Be Faked

If you're naturally private, shy, or uncomfortable sharing imperfect work, audiences will sense the inauthenticity. The whole point of building in public is radical transparency - "a costly signal that proves the system works," as Paul Syng described Justin Welsh's approach⁶. If that transparency feels like performing, you'll burn out on both the building and the broadcasting.

Competitors Are Watching

When you share strategies, revenue numbers, and feature roadmaps publicly, competitors see everything. For most indie products this doesn't matter much - competitors can copy features but they can't copy the personal brand and trust that transparency builds over years. But if you're in a highly competitive space where speed of execution relative to competitors matters, broadcasting your playbook has real costs.

The Realistic Framework: Should You Do It?

Building in public makes sense when: - You're a solo founder who needs distribution advantages - You can commit to consistent posting for years, not months - Your target customers are actually on Twitter/X and LinkedIn - You have a personality or story people can connect with - You're building multiple products that can leverage the same audience

Building in public may NOT make sense when: - You're in a market where secrecy provides a real competitive edge - Your customers aren't on social media (enterprise B2B, regulated industries) - You need results in under 12 months to survive financially - Radical transparency makes you deeply uncomfortable

The Alternative: Build in Private, Launch in Public

There's a middle path that more builders should consider. Build quietly until you have something worth showing. Launch publicly when you're ready. Then share the journey retroactively.

This approach sacrifices the compounding audience effect but preserves your time, emotional energy, and strategic flexibility. For builders without an existing audience, realistic month-one revenue is $500-2,000⁷ - and that comes from paid ads ($2K-5K/month investment), niche distribution channels, or dramatic niche specialization, not from a Twitter following that doesn't exist yet.

The honest math: building in public is a long-term distribution strategy, not a short-term revenue strategy. If you need revenue in 90 days, spend your time on direct outreach, paid ads, and SEO - not on growing a Twitter following.

What to Share If You Do Start

Successful builders in public typically share a balanced mix: milestone updates (20%), lessons learned (30%), behind-the-scenes content (20%), struggles and failures (15%), and observations or hot takes (15%).

The golden ratio: 80% value, 20% promotion. If every post ends with "Try my product!", you're doing advertising, not building in public.

Bottom line: Building in public works spectacularly well for a specific type of founder with a specific temperament and timeline. It's not a universal strategy. If the commitment of daily public sharing energizes you, start today and don't stop for three years. If it drains you, build in private, find your distribution elsewhere, and save your energy for the work that matters.

However you choose to build, GetLaunchBuddy helps you get from "almost ready" to launched. Take the free launch readiness assessment at launchbuddy.com.

Related Content

• How Much Does It Matter If Your Idea Is Original? - Execution beats originality, every time
• Why Haven't You Launched Yet? (And How AI Agents Fix It) - Breaking through the mental blocks that prevent shipping
• The Best Build in Public Builders to Follow Online - The accounts worth your attention

Sources and notes

1. building in public is a 5-to-10-year commitment: https://www.buildinpublic.so/blog/indie-hacker-marketing
2. Marc Lou laid out his approach clearly: https://marclou.com
3. Justin Welsh built a $10M business in 5 years and 9 months: https://justinwelsh.me
4. Pieter Levels spent 10 years building 600K followers: https://levels.io
5. Building in public generates valuable feedback from community members: https://vibrantsnap.com/blog/build-in-public
6. Paul Syng described Justin Welsh's approach: https://paulsyng.com
7. For builders without an existing audience, realistic month-one revenue is $500-2,000: https://www.indiehackers.com