Build in Public
Hello there,
It has been 7 months since I started out and I am grateful for your encouragement. It is a genuine endeavour to bring to you original trends around the Future of Work. Since we now have a growing audience, it will be great to connect more often and also share thoughts, feedback and more. Please join this private Telegram channel (for Zoom-Out subscribers only):
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Now, back to the story.
Nisha
Imagine a Michelin star chef sharing her secret recipe with you, a movie star revealing casting secrets or finding a note by Da Vinci decoding MonaLisa's smile. There are some secrets we are all curious about, but are better left unsaid (or are there?)
Secrets are the classified weapons of most businesses. They intrigue and lure. Though, not any longer. Today, you merely ‘ship’ it. According to Seth Godin; Author, Serial Entrepreneur, Marketer, 50 years ago, you had to reach the entire audience before you got any feedback. Now, you can have 100 people read your book and find out what happens. Now, you can put something on YouTube for a day and then take it down. There are so many ways to engage with your market. Say, ‘Here it is,’ and then see what they do.”
You do your best work and just put it out there. There is no longer a pursuit of perfection, if you want a great product, you work with your audience to get there. This concept of evolution with your audience/ community is now coming to be known as ‘Build in Public’ (BIP).
There is a new breed of Founders and Companies emerging that are baring it all from day one. In fact they have the gumption to put out the very idea of a bare bones company structure to the world and not fret. While the idea maynot be new, many companies like GitLab, Gumroad, Lambda School, Product Hunt have been public from day one, Founders now BIP with aplomb, wearing their heart on their sleeve.
5 reasons to Build in Public.
Build an Audience
According to KP (Karthik Puvvada), Program Director of On Deck and the ‘Build in Public’ guy on Twitter, while the concept of Build in Public has existed in various avatars, the current format is new. Technology is no longer the moat, your community is. As the internet becomes the city you live in, gaining trust of your audience is getting attention. If you want to reach an infinite number of people, you have to show your cards and be vulnerable. It helps you build an audience and with an audience you can do whatever you want.
Get the word out there
Vindhya C, Founder On That Job and Freelance Product Manager has announced her first venture On That Job (OTJ) only on Twitter as it seemed better to share in public. She says 1) It helps keep the interest alive and 2) It reduces the number of people she has to individually respond to. The core of OTJ is to help people understand what the scope of a job is actually like, especially in the early stages of a startup and she has already received a lot of feedback and has been able to garner mentors and interest for the first cohort.
Launches are overrated
Palak Zatakia, Founder Sublist (micro-newsletters for the next billion) has been sharing in public from day 1, with his WhatsApp newsletter Read This Today (that has 67,000 subscribers). Only he did not know that he was ‘Building in Public’. ‘Our product approach from day one was to build the MVP (minimal viable product) first, take feedback and keep iterating. We started talking to a lot of people in public. I didn't know that we were building public, until I discovered this term. Then I realised we could document this journey. Launches are overrated! What really matters is real feedback from real users and the iterations you make based on that.’
Not a choice - the only way ‘for us’
Born and raised in Goa, Raj Kunkolienkar initially felt he was disadvantaged that he did not hail from a Metro. He made it his life’s mission to ‘unlock human potential through the internet.’ His second education startup, Stoa School (12 week MBA bootcamp), has been Built in Public and has already assembled it’s first cohort of 25 students. This cohort came from Twitter. Kunkolienkar believes that it is integral for an education venture to put out its vision, the change they want to create and why in public. He also says that in the Indian landscape people are fed polished stories and in his case he wanted to keep it raw, as he wants to take his audience along on his journey and appreciate the entire process.
Serendipity
Dhrupad Karwa, Founder of HaikuJAM (a collaborative writing platform) and now INSPO, an AI Inspiration platform decided to fund raise in public. While they had already raised $1.5 million they decided to raise $250K in public by sharing their thesis and investment deck online. Says Karwa, “When you share your progress and write it down, it crystallises your own thinking.” Founders are protective about their secret sauce, however, sharing in public opens them up to serendipity. The internet is a serendipity and connection machine. Even for Karwa, Build in Public wasn't a conscious decision but it has laid the ethos of the company to document what they are doing, sharing their thinking and challenges internally and externally.
The pitfalls.
It is always difficult to be vulnerable in public. People can be sceptical and cynical. Ultimately there will always be naysayers and BIP is about connecting with people who are sharing or helping in public.
It also creates a lot of expectations and it is easier to become a ‘failure in public’.
There are many lurkers who can also copy a unique idea and do the exact same thing.
With Build in Public, motivation and demotivation are associated with people talking about you. For a Founder in the early stages, this can get quite stressful.
There is a risk in developing too big a brand image. Changing perceptions then becomes hard.
That said, Founders I spoke to agreed that the benefits far outnumber the pitfalls and therefore it is important to Build in Public with the right approach.
How to Build in Public?
Be authentic. People tend to treat Social Media as a different personality. It works best when the audience can see you for who you are. Derive the most value by being authentic.
You have to create value, share specific knowledge that is proprietary to you.
Start-ups have peaks and troughs. When you are in a peak it is all easy to share, it is OK to share the challenges too. There are well meaning people who can help you think through difficult times. The internet seems like a successful place so it is humanising to know that everyone has their own challenges. Many people have the same challenges and Sharing in Public puts everyone on the same plane.
Create a virtuous cycle of giving back.
Be organised. Once you start Building in Public, you will start receiving inbound leads. Be prepared to appropriately take these conversations forward.
Investors are watching.
“We have a mandate where Twitter is part of our sourcing strategy”, says Sathya Sampat, Co-Founder of WeKan, a Future of Work accelerator. Twitter is the new Product Hunt, however, with a more social format. Building a startup is tough and if a Founder is able to talk to strangers and tell them why they are building something of value, I believe that requires confidence and as a VC we should adapt to the format that makes the Founder better.”
WeKan has recently reached out to a company on Twitter and are taking this conversation forward, as with First Cheque, a Fund that focuses on very early-stage startups. They have found three companies on Twitter and are in advanced conversations with two.
Says Kushal Bhagia, Founder of First Cheque, “BIP helps with three aspects 1) it validates the idea 2) finds people you didn't know earlier and 3) gets you investor attention.” He believes it helps Founders jump the queue. However, adds that you do not land a cheque immediately. With BIP, the investor comes in knowing what you are building. The process is still the same after that, I would still like to understand your market size, growth and where your insights are coming from.
Investors (I spoke to) collectively believe that if Founders are putting out great content, they have the ability to think clearly and are articulate. Sajith Pai Director, Blume Ventures adds that BIP is still a phenomena with first time Founders. Second time Founders have a large enough network and would not have to go down this route he says.
Other Use Cases.
The concept of Build in Public creates transparency and is associated with authenticity. While in its new avatar Founders have started adopting it to build their business, it can also be used in fields that demand mobilising public opinion. A few such examples are:
Education where it is important to share a vision and create an open platform for learners and educators to collaborate.
Social platforms and startups that need to build an engaged community that can be involved in building the product.
Mutual funds and other financial institutions whose transparency and theses can comfort their audience base.
Investors (in the Valley) are building their theses in public and garnering funds (example Sahil Lavigna)
Conclusion
Building anything is hard. It takes guts and clear articulation to share your vision and continuously hold yourself responsible. That too in public, on social media where cynicism and trolls thrive. Therefore, while BIP might be a great idea for some, it may not work for many. I endorse this only for the fact that it is concise storytelling and a window into someone’s world. It also creates online bonds in an otherwise lonely and isolated world.
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BIP Resources:
BIP icons:
Austen Allred (@Austen), Cofounder and CEO Lambda School
Sahil Lavingia, Founder Gumroad (read his post about building Gumroad and all the failures he had to face)
Ryan Hoover, Product Hunt (Still) Building in Public
Josh Pigford - I sold Baremetrics (most recent)
BIP examples:
Indie Hackers: https://www.indiehackers.com/group/building-in-public
Read more about BIP: