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Do you follow build in public strategy for your project development?
Hey Product Hunters, do you follow build in public strategy or you prefer to complete the project before you launch it in public?
What do you think are pros and cons of building in public?
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Nithin C.P.
Thanks for the question. Even I've been thinking about it and had some conversation with the founders.
As the talks are still in progress, would love to know both pros and cons of it.
Most of the comments here seems to be inclined to positive sides. Do we have any cons as well?
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@nithincp I kinda feel like no one talks about how challenging it is to (at least begin to) publicly show what you’re building. Like I totally understand the benefits, but it’s taken me a while to find my voice as I’m going through the journey of building and creating.
@nithincp It's very difficult to start and get some audience, but once you get the momentum it can help a lot.
@nithincp @mila_dymnikova Yeah I agree, it's not easy as you are focusing on multiple things especially if you are solopreneur.
Building in public is a good strategy as it will help you get constant feedback. But if your research is strong and you already have beta testers then you can complete your project and then launch it in public.
We've tried, but I think this strategy is more affordable for indiehackers and solopreneurs!
@realvladgolub Yeah it depends what are you building. In my previous startup I raised $1M in pre-seed and we never even think to go public before the product is done, it would be ridiculous risk of investment because of the potential competitors. There is a great blog from veed.io CEO, they raised $30M in seed funding after building in public but they good like 2-3 competitors doing exactly the same thing, same features and raising more money than them for the same tech.
@realvladgolub I love Sabba from Veed.io, their story is incredible. They struggled almost 5 years, being rejected many times even from Y combinator and they reached $5M ARR bootstrapped. Now they are backed by Sequoia. Here is the blog, you can read the whole journey from struggling 3 years with 0 revenue to $5M ARR. https://www.veed.io/blog/
I think building in public is great for getting out there, getting feedback and potentially engaging with future users. If you are in the startup world, you know things go bad and out of whats planned. If you make it public you just show how much you've been learning.
Unless you're building something that needs stealth I don't think there is a downside to it.
@nuno_ms_reis Yeah, there are down sides of bip, but it's good to have community around your product from the early days.
Public building has its merits. Real-time feedback, community, and excitement. But there's also the downside: showing your cards to competitors too early, taking criticism in public, or setting expectations you can't meet.
I am currently using this strategy while building my new product. I am struggling in building a community, also I am not good at expressing my journey in words. I feel I miss a lot of key points when I am writing out my day's highlights.
I personally prefer the build in public strategy because it allows for valuable feedback and community engagement throughout the development process, although the downside is the potential for increased pressure and expectations before the project is fully ready.
At Encord, we've had so many good learnings with building in public. The feedback is invaluable to us! I'm all in for building in public.