Building in public

If you're into startup movements and entrepreneurship, back in 2016-2017, the "Build in Public" movement was a sexy movement. The concept revolves around openly sharing every step of the journey with the world. This approach is in stark contrast to the general movement, which tends to keep things under the radar and often shrouded in secrecy.

It presumes that a founder or a team shares the whole ideation process, then building a product, validating, customer acquisition, etc. What you should know when joining Build In Public movement

Welcome to my brain dump, it's morning and when I can sit down, sipping a cup of coffee while contemplating life and emptying it out a little.

There are a couple of well-known founders, like Levelsio on X, who used to be famous for building anything in public. Then there's Marc Lou, who is also famous for building and sharing everything on X or whichever platform they most aligned themselves with.

The most advantageous aspect of building in public is not simply transparency but also accountability and feedback from people who are actually going to use our product/service.

Aren't they afraid of copycats? If you've followed this movement as long as I did, there will be copycats, but the execution is going to be different. Most people who build in public care more about taking up a challenge and feeling satisfied after taking said challenge, and they think that the monetary side of it all is just extra on the side. Obviously, they do care about it, but quality comes before anyone is able to purchase/use their service.

I've always been passionate about this movement because it brings much-needed transparency while also gathering constructive feedback. Accountability is also something I love about this movement.

It's like making a promise to someone and being required to deliver on that promise within a specified timeframe. This also means we take on additional responsibilities and owning up to it.

In the past, there were not many how-tos on building in public and it was mostly fail and try approach. These days there are websites that talks about it and I learned one important lesson. As much as public we can get, there are some things that we need to keep in mind. I mean, it's basic things such as usernames and passwords, not too detailed financial information. However, just like any public company, there has to be some type of financial statement.

https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/how-to-build-in-public-without-revealing-too-much/

I think it's really important that especially when they're not our money and are gathered from other sources. The expenses must be clear and
this is why if you're not clear about it, the fail rate is going to get high. I learned from this and this is what I roughly use whenever I tried doing anything. This has clear approach and I love it.

https://foundersnetwork.com/blog/startup-financials/

I mean, just imagine your parents gave you $1000 to fund your project or whatever is going on. You have to mentioned the expenses and the burn rate(like how long will you last with that kind of money). You need a proper budgeting and sometimes cut costs on unnecessary spending.

Then you have to know the valid data on retention that are like this. In case you didn't know, this is how to calculate it. In hive related you can simply replace this with user and there you go, you got the user retention in terms of number

Customer retention = (Customers at the beginning of period – New customers gained over the period) / Customers at the beginning of period)

ref https://foundersnetwork.com/blog/startup-financials/

Knowing all these really helps with your project/whatever you're doing. I am not sure if this is basic knowledge but it's interesting even when applied to your normal life. Based on financial stats and the overall success rate measurement, it would be a good reason to either stop or continue the project. This is also something I believe in.

In another point, there's also the dark side of this building in public and even more so bootstrapping.

In bootstrapping and building in public movement, there's something called "Ramen Profitability," which means the profit is only enough to cover basic expenses.

So, to survive during the building phase, you must use money at your expense, get creative with food, and rent at the cheapest place possible. It is brutal and not for everyone. I reckon this isn't what most people are into, but for some, there's something far more important than a mere lifestyle.

Everyone has ways of doing all these things, and their personal lives warrant some type of responsibility, and startup/bootstrapping isn't for them.

That being said, this is where I come from and the culture I get to know and genuinely believe in. Before I was on Hive, I tried jumping into this movement, but I was so tied to my education that I couldn't make many more moves. I used to know many people in this sphere in their early phases, but I was not in the right mindset to continue developing my app further.

Looking back, I've experienced life a little faster than I'd like it to be. During my depression phase, I slowed down, but even then, my mind couldn't seem to be resting, and I tried learning about life and the people in it. Today, though, I am trying to use whatever experience I had to try to take up new challenges.

	𝘔𝘢𝘤 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘢 & 𝘤𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘳 . 𝘈 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨, 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴, 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘖𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘣𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺. 𝘚𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴. 𝘍𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘫𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯! 𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘱𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘈 𝘳𝘦-𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘰.