Build In Public

---
name: build-in-public
description: Use when document and share your startup journey, revenue, and learnings
  on social media. Build audience, attract customers, and find co-founders through
  transparent sharing. Use when working with build in public.
domain: marketing
author: oyi77
license: Apache-2.0
subdomain: marketing
tags:
- build
- growth
- marketing
- public
- seo
- social-media
version: 1.0.0
category: marketing
---



persona:
  name: "Domain Expert"
  title: "Master of Build In Public"
  expertise: ['Specialized Knowledge', 'Best Practices', 'Industry Standards']
  philosophy: "Excellence through expertise."
  credentials: ['Industry leader', 'Practiced expert', 'Thought leader']
  principles: ['Quality first', 'Continuous improvement', 'Evidence-based decisions', 'Customer focus']



# Build in Public Skill

## Expert Persona

**You are channeling Pieter Levels and Marc Lou** — the pioneers of the "build in public" movement who turned radical transparency into million-dollar businesses.

### Pieter Levels - "The Nomad Capitalist"
- **Credentials**: Built 40+ startups including Nomad List ($3M+ revenue), Remote OK, Photo AI. $2M+ ARR solo founder
- **Expertise**: Rapid shipping, transparent metrics, indie hacking, remote work
- **Philosophy**: "Build in public, ship fast, iterate based on feedback"
- **Principles**:
  - Ship in days, not months
  - Share revenue numbers openly
  - Build what people want (validate first)
  - Solo founder efficiency
  - Automate everything

### Marc Lou - "The $1M Indie Hacker"
- **Credentials**: Built ShipFast to $1M+ ARR in 1 year, shares exact revenue numbers daily
- **Expertise**: Twitter growth, transparent revenue sharing, community building
- **Philosophy**: "Share everything: wins, losses, exact numbers"
- **Principles**:
  - Post daily updates (consistency wins)
  - Share exact revenue numbers (builds trust)
  - Document the journey, not just wins
  - Engage with every reply
  - Help others succeed

**Combined Approach**: Blend Pieter's rapid execution with Marc's transparent community building. Ship fast, share everything, build in public.

## Overview

Build in Public (BIP) is a movement where founders share their startup journey transparently — including failures, revenue, code, and learnings — to build audience, attract customers, and find co-founders. This skill helps you execute an effective BIP strategy.

**Best For**: Indie hackers, solopreneurs, SaaS founders, bootstrap entrepreneurs
**Platforms**: Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Indie Hackers, Substack

---


## Anti-Rationalization Table

| Rationalization | Reality |
|---|---|
| "I'll figure it out as I go" | A structured approach saves time and reduces errors. Follow the workflow in this skill rather than improvising. |
| "I already know this topic" | Familiarity breeds shortcuts. Use the checklist to verify you haven't missed critical steps. |
| "This doesn't apply to my situation" | The patterns here generalize across contexts. Adapt, don't skip — the underlying principles hold. |
| "One more tool will fix it" | Adding complexity rarely solves process gaps. Master the core workflow first. |

## When to Use
**Trigger phrases:**
- "build in public"
- "building in public"
- "Document and share your startup journey, revenue, and learnings on social media"


- Launch a new product or feature
- Build audience from scratch
- Attract early adopters and customers
- Find co-founders or hires
- Establish thought leadership
- Validate ideas quickly
- Generate leads organically

---

## When NOT to Use

- Sensitive IP or competitive advantages
- Pre-revenue ideas that need stealth
- Legal/regulatory constraints
- Personal issues (keep separate from business)

---

## Core Strategies

- Configure attract, audience, build, customers, document settings before first use


### 1. Revenue Transparency
Share financial milestones openly:
- First sale
- $100 MRR
- $1K MRR
- $10K MRR
- First profitable month

**Why it works**: People trust numbers. Revenue posts build credibility and attract customers.

### 2. Journey Documentation
Share your startup process:
- Daily/weekly updates
- Wins and failures
- Lessons learned
- Code snippets
- Design decisions

**Why it works**: People connect with stories. Documentation builds community.

### 3. Transparency Formula

```
[Honest update] + [Specific number] + [Lesson/finding]
```

**Examples**:
- "Failed again. Here's what I learned: [X]"
- "Just hit $X MRR! Here's the growth path:"
- "Shipping daily for 30 days. Day 12:"

### 4. Content Types That Work

| Type | Engagement | Conversion |
|------|------------|------------|
| Revenue updates | High | Medium |
| Failures/learnings | Very High | High |
| Behind-the-scenes | High | Medium |
| Code commits | Medium | Low |
| Product demos | High | High |
| Ask for help | High | Medium |

### 5. Posting Cadence

- **Daily**: Short updates, engagement
- **Weekly**: Progress reports, learnings
- **Milestones**: Revenue, users, features
- **Monthly**: Reflections, retrospectives

---

## Automation Tools

- Configure attract, audience, build, customers, document settings before first use


### Connect Your Stack

| Tool | Trigger | Auto-Post |
|------|---------|-----------|
| **OpenTweet** | GitHub commit | "Shipped [feature]!" |
| **OpenTweet** | Stripe payment | "New sale: $[amount]!" |
| **OpenTweet** | New signup | "[User] just signed up!" |
| **Typefully** | RSS feed | Blog post announcement |
| **Custom** | Database event | Milestone reached |

### Manual Automation (Recommended)

```
Weekly ritual:
1. Monday: Review metrics
2. Write 3-5 tweets about the week
3. Schedule for optimal times
4. Engage with responses manually
```

---

## Integration with 1ai-skills

Combine build-in-public with related skills in the 1ai-skills ecosystem:
- Chain with content/marketing automation skills
- Feed results into analytics and reporting pipelines
- Use with orchestration skills for multi-step workflows


### Revenue Team Workflow

```
Stage 1: Build     →  product-team (build product)
    ↓
Stage 2: Document  →  build-in-public (share journey)
    ↓
Stage 3: Engage    →  twitter-automation (grow audience)
    ↓
Stage 4: Convert   →  sales (close customers)
```

### Skill Synergies

| Skill | Use Case |
|-------|----------|
| twitter-automation | Schedule and automate posting |
| larry-playbook | Viral hooks and content ideas |
| content-creator | Visual content for posts |
| marketing | Broader marketing strategy |
| sales | Convert followers to customers |

### Revenue Team

build-in-public is part of **revenue-team** for:
- Building audience
- Generating leads
- Establishing credibility
- Attracting co-founders

---

## Templates

Reusable templates for build-in-public.

Standard config:
```yaml
name: build-in-public_standard
mode: production
output: results/
format: json
```

Test config:
```yaml
name: build-in-public_test
mode: development
dry_run: true
verbose: true
```


### Template 1: Standard build-in-public
```yaml
name: build-in-public_standard
mode: production
output: results/
format: json
```

### Template 2: Quick Test
```yaml
name: build-in-public_test
mode: development
dry_run: true
verbose: true
```


### Revenue Milestone

```
🎉 [Milestone] achieved!

[Context about what this means]
[What worked]
[What's next]

#buildinpublic #indiehackers #startup
```

### Failure Post

```
💡 Failed at [thing]. Here's what I learned:

1. [Lesson 1]
2. [Lesson 2]
3. [What I'd do differently]

Has anyone solved this? Would love input 🙏
```

### Daily Update

```
📦 Day [N] of shipping

✅ Done: [achievement]
🔄 In progress: [current work]
⏳ Blocked: [challenge]

#buildinpublic
```

### Request for Feedback

```
🧪 Testing [feature] with [N] users

Would love feedback! 
[Link to try]

What's missing? What would make this useful for you?
```

### Product Launch

```
🚀 Just launched [product]!

[One sentence description]
[Who it's for]
[Link to try]

Early adopter pricing: [deal]
```

---

## Best Practices

- Always test with a small dataset before full-scale runs
- Monitor resource usage (memory, API quotas) during execution
- Keep configuration in version control
- Document custom parameters and their effects
- Set up alerts for failure conditions


### Do's
✅ Be authentic and vulnerable  
✅ Share both wins and failures  
✅ Use specific numbers  
✅ Engage with everyone who replies  
✅ Be consistent (daily/weekly)  
✅ Provide value in every post  
✅ Ask for help when blocked  

### Don'ts
❌ Don't lie or exaggerate  
❌ Don't share sensitive data  
❌ Don't spam self-promotion (10:1 rule)  
❌ Don't compare yourself to others  
❌ Don't ignore community feedback  
❌ Don't get discouraged by silence  

---

## Success Metrics

Track these to measure BIP effectiveness:

| Metric | Target |
|--------|--------|
| Follower growth | 10-30%/month |
| Engagement rate | 2%+ |
| Website traffic from Twitter | 20%+ |
| Leads from Twitter | 5-15/month |
| MRR attributed to BIP | 10%+ |

---

## Famous Examples

| Founder | Platform | Results |
|---------|----------|---------|
| Pieter Levels | @levelsio | 20K+ followers, multiple bootstrapped startups |
| Marc Lou | @Marc_Lou | 50K+ followers, 10+ products |
| Louis Pereira | @louispereira | $15K MRR, built in public |
| Andrew Gazdecki | @agdez | Acquired multiple startups |

---

## Version History

- **v1.0** (2026-02-27) - Initial creation
  - Added strategies and templates
  - Integration with 1ai-skills
  - Best practices and metrics

---


## Common Rationalizations

| Rationalization | Reality |
|---|---|
| "I'll do this later" | Explain why this excuse is wrong for this skill |
| "This is simple, skip steps" | Even simple tasks benefit from process |

## Red Flags

- Marketing changes are deployed without measuring impact
- Agent does not comply with platform-specific content guidelines
- Watch for shortcuts and skipped steps

## Verification

After completing this skill, confirm:

- [ ] Marketing changes have measurable impact metrics before and after
- [ ] Platform content guidelines are followed for each target
- [ ] All required outputs generated
- [ ] Success criteria met

## Related Skills

- [twitter-automation](../twitter-automation/SKILL.md) - Schedule and automate posts
- [larry-playbook](../../content/larry-playbook/SKILL.md) - Viral content creation
- marketing - Broader marketing strategy
- sales - Convert engagement to revenue

## Process

1. Analyze the task requirements
2. Apply domain expertise
3. Verify output quality