---
title: "Building in public"
date: 2026-01-18
description: "What I learned from sharing the process, not just the product."
tags: ["indie","startups","transparency"]
lang: en
source: https://www.lincoli.me/articles/building-in-public/
author: "Lincoli Xavier"
---

For years I built in silence. Head down, code committed, product launched. Then silence until the next one.

Building in public changed that.

## What it actually means

It's not live-streaming your IDE. It's sharing:

- What you're working on and why
- Decisions you made and the trade-offs
- Numbers: users, revenue, failures
- Lessons from things that didn't work

The bar is lower than you think. A tweet about a bug you fixed. A post about why you chose one database over another. That's enough.

## Why it works

**Accountability.** When you say "shipping this feature Friday," you actually do it.

**Community.** People who follow your journey become invested. Some become users. Some become collaborators.

**Learning.** Writing about your decisions forces you to think them through. Half my best architectural choices came from trying to explain the alternatives.

## The uncomfortable part

Sharing failures is hard. Sharing revenue when it's $47/month is hard. But that's exactly what makes it valuable, for you and for everyone watching.

Nobody needs another success story. They need proof that the messy middle is normal.

## Start small

Pick one channel. Post once a week. Share something real. You don't need an audience to start. The audience comes from the consistency.