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Does “building in public” work?

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Re: Does “building in public” work?

#161

Post by bruce511 »

harshaxnim wrote: post #18
sokoloff wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If no one will pay for the solution, the problem might not be that important.

While this is true in broad strokes, I think money fails to capture non quantifiable quality of life improvements. Hacker culture being close to the users could solve them, but being driven by money would definitely hinder that development

In broad strokes, yes you are right in some cases.

But in most cases you don't see quality of life improvements unless you also get users.

In other words building it is not enough. Lives need to use it to be improved.

Monetizing an app forces you to concentrate on articulating that value. It frees up resources (ie money) to spend on spreading the word. It offers you feedback on whether this is a meaningful use of your time or not.

Dont get me wrong. An app can add value to a single person. You can give it away for free. There's nothing wrong with that.

Re: Does “building in public” work?

#162

Post by johnnyanmac »

stonethrowaway wrote: post #33
charlie0 wrote: post #27

If I have to think on first principles, the reason why people are building things in public is because that's just a form of marketing and self-promotion. We're way past tech being the hard part of launching a product. The harder part is building the audience and trying to stand out. Building in public is probably the easiest way to build buzz, gain an audience, and name recognition.

The elephant behind the elephant in our room is an inability to be honest and upfront about this kind of stuff and instead we have to dance around it. This essentially means we can’t have a decent discussion on any topic that carries actual risk and instead we focus on low-risk banalities. Also I should add there are a lot of young posters who are, and I won’t sugarcoat it, hopelessly naive at times - certainly sayin…

I think there are a lot of honest people out there that just wanna make and share cool stuff. I also think the well was poisoned by grifters who wanted either clout of a quick buck. That seems to be a story that encompases the last 30 years of the tech industry as we know it.

>there are a lot of young posters who are, and I won’t sugarcoat it, hopelessly naive at times

I don't mind those people. No one really wants to mentor these days, but people LOVE to correct. I'd treat that incoming flaming as an opportunity to learn from people who'd never speak up otherwise (after inevitably discarding 80% of replies that are simply non-constructive insults).

Re: Does “building in public” work?

#163

Post by senko »

Ma8ee wrote: post #150
comprev wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“hacking” is the challenge of making something work in ways it was never intended - for example unlocking a car with wireless entry using a laptop and DIY electronics instead of the normal car key. Doing it to your own car is obviously very different from stealing someone else’s, however it’s not illegal to “hack” your own car. The theft part is what gets you in trouble.

> it’s not illegal to “hack” your own car I'm certain some car company will sue you if they get to know that you did.

Maybe it’s not really your car, then. (Same with some mobile phones, tractors, etc.)

Re: Does “building in public” work?

#164

Post by bemmu »

I used to build in public (Candy Japan), and now don't.

Good things. It does bring customers directly. At least for blogging, building in public posts can get some backlinks, which is great for SEO. For some time I had the #1 result for my top search term. That might make it worth it overall.

Negative things. It motivates others to clone your project, as now people know that $X/month can be made doing that. Almost no-one will, but if your posts are seen by say 100k+ people then you'll have a few in there who might.

It warps your own thinking, as now you have a bunch of people on social media who see your project as your identity. You start buying into the narrative of being this X project guy so you can't just go away to do Y, even if on a rational level you know no-one actually cares that much whether you do X or Y.

Seems @levelsio has been immune to this, as he's been smart to have his identity be a guy who ships a variety of things quickly vs. just being say the "Nomadlist Guy" forever.

Re: Does “building in public” work?

#165

Post by johnnyanmac »

kelnos wrote: post #154
nicbou wrote: post #59

I build in public, but I never share numbers. I find that it attracts the wrong sort of people, and a particularly boring kind of conversation about money and growth and the icky business-y bits. I do work with the garage door open though. I share screenshots, ask for feedback, and show off the little details I spent a lot of time on. It’s basically a DVD commentary for the stuff I am about to release This attracts t…

This is the thing that was weird to me about the article: it seemed to focus very heavily on the idea of sharing financial details. To me, that's not "building" in public. That's just... sharing your finances. Building in public is sharing all little details about your product development process that most outsiders would never know or hear about otherwise. It's about sharing the dead ends that never saw the light of…

I'm ambivalent. Especially in my domain of games where sharing the financial breakdown can indeed help those "wrong" kind of people realize how little money there is in non-AAA games once all the cuts come in.

So instead they make up shaky heuristics, see reviews and wishlists and must think "wow that game made a lot of money"... missing important context on how much was spent on labor/profit splits, or the area the team is in. Which muddies discussion on what a "successful" game even is (a topic already muddy even with all context).

BUT, then again the tides have shifted so much in that people just take a "should have" approach. "you shouldn't have done it in X genre. You shouldn't have used Y software. Your game sucks so it obviously failed". So maybe bringing up any finances will always attract that crowd, not cause them to look into another place to make money.

Re: Does “building in public” work?

#166

Post by johnnyanmac »

OmarShehata wrote: post #25

> Let's admit it, the main purpose of build in public is to attract attention and build a community It's more like open sourcing your code. On one hand: yes, it's good marketing. On the other hand: you're creating positive externality, so random people show up, thank you for your contribution, and help you, monetarily, or by giving you valuable leads & feedback. it's the same benefit of going to a conference & networ…

that's also just how you make friends. An increasingly hard aspect in western society these days as third places decrease. Yeah, you need to do something to attract attention, especially in a digital domain where all you are are a handle and maybe an avatar. building a community means more of a like-minded pool to potentially become friends with.

I'd kill for some local meetup spot to have already done all this for me, but this is the next best approach.

Re: Does “building in public” work?

#168

Post by fsndz »

True, most indie hacker apps serve the needs or curiosity of other indie hackers or tech-curious people (think PhotoAI, SaaS boilerplates, etc.). The unwillingness of their creators to scale the business by hiring more developers and shipping additional features—making the apps B2B-worthy, for example—means these apps often remain within that niche. However, when you're already making millions per year, like Levels.io, you might decide that's enough. This is especially true since indie hacking often embraces an ethos opposed to strategies like VC funding or building large teams, which typically drive scaling.

Some indie hacker projects do scale into successful bootstrapped businesses with teams of developers or receive VC funding, but that is the exception. Scaling requires the founder to have a larger vision beyond just making quick bucks and remaining independent—independence being a core motivation of indie hacking in the first place. https://www.lycee.ai/blog/levelsio-and-the-dilemma-of-premat...

Re: Does “building in public” work?

#170

Post by surfingdino »

pipes wrote: post #91

Every time I see "building in public" I cringe. Not sure why. Anyway I have an app idea for a very small annoyance in my daily life. Listening to Pieter Levels inspired me to at least try and ship it. But there's no way I'm comfortable with all the other indy hacker shite I'd need to do to, like build a twitter profile etc. My only hope is probably showing it on a sub Reddit and seeing if anyone finds it useful. Anyw…

I post on LinkedIn where people who make procurement decisions spend more time than on Twitter. LI is even weirder than Twitter.
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