Build in public : Yes or No?

Some of the most inspiring startup journeys of the last few years happened in plain sight.

@levelsio built Nomad List and Remote OK live on Twitter sharing revenue numbers, failures, and pivots in real time. @marclou does the same, shipping products publicly and turning his audience into his distribution. Both have built massive followings and real businesses partly because of how openly they build.

The case for build in public is strong. You get distribution before you have a product. You attract early users, feedback, and sometimes investors. Just from sharing the journey honestly.

But there's a real downside that doesn't get talked about enough.

When you share too early, you hand your roadmap to every competitor watching. And in 2026, with AI lowering the cost of building dramatically, a competitor can take your exact idea, your positioning, even your messaging and ship a version of it in days.

What used to take effort to copy now takes a prompt.

So the question isn't really "should I build in public?" It's "what should I share and when?"

There's a difference between sharing your journey and sharing your playbook. The best builders seem to know that line instinctively.

So I'm curious:

• Are you currently building in public: and has it helped or hurt you?

• Have you ever had an idea copied because you shared it too early?

• And where do you draw the line between transparency and giving too much away?