Building in stealth vs building in public as a first time founder

1yr ago

10 replies

What is/was your default choice as a first-time founder. Personally, as a first-time founder, I took the decision to build in stealth mode. Looking back at my journey I think it would have been a better choice to build in public. Wanted to collect everyone's opinion on how you would have done the same. I think most second-time founders would prefer building in public, but I want to collect opinion on how you did it for your first startup / if you are going to start one new.

Build in Stealth

Build in public

Replies

Sunny Golovine

I always like to build in stealth first, even if I decide to go public later, it's easier to build in stealth up front. Building in public can hep raise you credibility if you are working on a security or privacy product, but for most anything else users wont really care.

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Domhnall O' Hanlon

Customer Success @ Thunkable

I like the idea of building in public; it keeps you accountable and there are lots of supportive communities out there when you need feedback or encouragement. I think the popularity of building in public will keep rising going forward.

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Jeevan thomas koshy

Co-founder and CEO at Hire the Author.

@domhnall_o_hanlon I wish I got this advice when I started building https://www.hiretheauthor.com/ . I am just getting started on twitter and wish I had more followers there.

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Domhnall O' Hanlon

Customer Success @ Thunkable

@jeevantk just found you on Twitter - looks really good. Do you have a particular audience that uses Hire the Audience? When did you launch? Will you launch on PH?

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Jeevan thomas koshy

Co-founder and CEO at Hire the Author.

@domhnall_o_hanlon We launched about 3 weeks back, we are targetting technical creators (Stackoverflow authors, bloggers, opensource contributers, etc) as our initial audience. Planning to launch on PH once we get a bit more traction. Example Page : https://www.hiretheauthor.com/je... We have around 85 signups right now, with 10 users sharing their links

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David Lauchenauer

Co-Founder @ indiebrands

I've seen a lot of makers succed with building in public. Personally it would be uncomfortable for me, but seeing the impact it can have, I definitely think it's worth it. My partner was sharing a lot o his progess etc which definitely helped us a lot on recieving traffic & credibility for indiebrands. Conclusion: build in public, even if it's uncomfortable

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Kartik Jhakal 👷

Product Manager

@gmiadlich I totally understand and agree with you. Its uncomfortable for me as well but yes this have amazing results.

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David Lauchenauer

Co-Founder @ indiebrands

@kartik_jhakal Yep, I think it's uncomfortable for most of us. You'll be exposed to your flaws in public. Not quite the thing we like. But definitely, something to actually learn from. If you're exposed to real criticism it's probably one of the best ways to grow both personally & professionally

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Kartik Jhakal 👷

Product Manager

I haven't tried to build in public but I am following a few on Twitter and personally, I liked it very much. You are getting initial interaction or you can say interaction at every point during the journey.

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Robin

If you know what you are doing and know that you have a product market fit then do it in stealth mode - otherwise do it public

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