Building in public means documenting your business openly while you create it. You post what you are working on, what you are learning, the numbers behind it and the decisions you are weighing. Instead of revealing a finished product on launch day, you let people watch it take shape.

It concerns solo founders, creators and small brands who have more time than marketing budget. A coach writing a course, a potter opening a shop or a developer making a small tool can all use it to grow an audience that already cares about the product before it exists.

What is building in public?

Building in public is a content strategy based on transparency. The raw material is your own work: progress updates, revenue figures, failed experiments, customer feedback, design choices, pricing debates. You publish it regularly on the channels your future buyers read, such as X, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube or a newsletter.

It is not the same as oversharing. You choose what to show and what to keep private. Customer data, personal finances unrelated to the business and anything a partner has not agreed to share stay off the feed.

It is not a launch campaign either. A launch lasts a week or two. Building in public is continuous and starts long before there is anything to sell.

Related vocabulary:

  • Open startup: a company that publishes its metrics, such as revenue or users, on a public page.
  • Learning in public: the same idea applied to a skill rather than a business.
  • Audience building: growing a group of people who follow you, which building in public feeds. See audience building.
  • Builder energy: the bias toward shipping that gives you something to share. See builder energy.

Why it matters

Most first launches fail for a simple reason: nobody knew the product was coming. Building in public solves that by turning the months of work into months of marketing.

Here is a worked example. A designer decides to create a $79 course on brand identity for freelancers. She has 1,200 followers on LinkedIn and no email list.

  • For 12 weeks she posts three times a week: module outlines, before-and-after client work, the pricing she is considering, a poll on the course title.
  • Each post ends with a link to a waitlist. By launch, 640 people have joined, and her follower count has grown to 3,100.
  • On launch day she emails the waitlist with a 48-hour founding price of $59. 7% of the list buys, that is 45 sales and $2,655.
  • Over the next month, followers who watched the process but did not join the list add 30 more sales at $79, $2,370.

Total: $5,025 from a course whose marketing cost was her time. Just as useful, she has 640 email contacts she owns and a feed full of proof that she knows her subject.

How it works

Building in public is a loop of work, share and listen. A simple version looks like this.

  • Pick one or two channels. Choose where your buyers already spend time. Being present twice a week on one platform beats sporadic posts on five.
  • Define your share list. Decide in advance what you will publish (milestones, lessons, revenue, screenshots) and what stays private (client names, costs you would rather keep, personal matters).
  • Post on a rhythm. Two to four updates a week is enough. A short weekly recap works well for busy people.
  • Show numbers. "Crossed 100 waitlist sign-ups" or "first $1,000 month" gives your story a spine and makes progress concrete.
  • Ask questions. Polls on names, prices or features pull followers into decisions and give you feedback for free.
  • Capture the attention. Every update should point somewhere you own, usually a waitlist or email list, so the audience does not stay locked inside one platform.
  • Launch to the people who watched. When the product is ready, they are your first buyers.

Benchmarks and examples

Results depend on your niche and consistency, but some ranges are common.

  • Follower growth: creators posting build updates three times a week often grow 10% to 30% per month early on, starting from a small base.
  • Waitlist conversion: a warm waitlist built from months of updates typically converts at 3% to 10% on launch week, well above a cold audience.
  • Time horizon: most people see real traction after 8 to 12 weeks of steady posting, not after the first week.

Typical situations:

  • A candle maker shares scent tests, supplier choices and packaging mock-ups on Instagram, then opens pre-orders for a first batch of 100 units that sells out in four days.
  • A newsletter writer with 2,500 subscribers publishes her monthly revenue and what she is testing, which draws other creators and becomes her main acquisition channel.
  • A developer posts the progress of a small tool, weekly users and bugs fixed, and gets his first 50 paying customers from people who followed the thread.

Common mistakes

  • Only posting wins. A feed of pure success reads as an advertisement. Setbacks and lessons build more trust.
  • Sharing without a way to follow up. Likes disappear. Without a waitlist or email sign-up, you cannot reach people on launch day.
  • Sharing sensitive data. Client names, private conversations or detailed supplier terms can hurt partners and competitors can use them.
  • Stopping after two weeks. Building in public compounds. Most of the reward comes after months, not days.
  • Talking more than building. If updates become the main job, there is soon nothing new to share.

Best practices

  • Use a fixed format. A weekly "what I shipped, what I learned, what is next" post is easy to write and easy to follow.
  • Lead with a number or a question. "42 sign-ups in 3 days, here is what I changed" earns more attention than a vague update.
  • Show the product, not just the founder. Screenshots, samples, drafts and customer quotes make the offer real.
  • Keep a single call to action. One link to the waitlist or the product, every time.
  • Reply to every comment early on. Those first conversations turn followers into your first buyers and testimonials.
  • Repurpose your updates. A month of posts becomes a newsletter issue, a case study or a section of your personal brand story.

In Roctify

Roctify gives you a place to send the attention you build. Your link-in-bio page, with built-in checkout, can point to your waitlist while you build, then sell the product itself on launch day, all from the same shared catalog as your full online store. Forms and email marketing, available from the Creator plan, let you collect waitlist sign-ups and email them when the product goes live.

Discount codes make it easy to reward early followers with a founding price. With 0% transaction fees on every plan, what your audience pays stays with you, minus the payment provider's processing fee. On the Pro plan, audience analytics and reports help you share accurate numbers in your updates.

FAQ

Do I need a big audience to build in public?

No. It is one of the few strategies that works from zero, because the content is your own progress. Many people start with a few hundred followers and grow alongside their product.

Should I share my revenue?

Only if you are comfortable with it. Revenue figures attract attention and credibility, especially among other creators. Round numbers or percentages of growth are a good middle ground if exact amounts feel too personal.

Will competitors copy my idea?

Some might see it, but execution, audience trust and speed are harder to copy than an idea. The attention and feedback you gain usually outweigh the risk. Keep truly sensitive details, such as suppliers or unreleased deals, private.