Why build in public

A few people have asked me recently why “build in public”. The most common concern seems to be that ideas will be stolen. This has forced me to think it through.

I think for me the biggest benefit is just that – that writing about what you’re doing makes you think about it more. For example it was in the process of listing my ideas in the previous entry that I realised I was acting like a key in search of a lock. A solution in search of a problem (in search of a community). Backwards. Since then my thinking has been more that I need to go back to first principles and follow the path of

Audience > Problem > Solution

So writing helps with the old thinking (teach what you learn, learn what you teach).

Storytelling engages people and builds trust, it brings people along for the journey. It will also potentially build an audience, and begin to generate some interest around what I’m doing. I mean, you’re reading it, aren’t you. And if you are maybe other people will too. This blog will become a platform from which the first of my products is launched.

There are two audiences involved – the one for whom my product will solve a problem (e.g. campsite owners) and the audience of fellow founders – and building in public has the potential to serve both.

And won’t people steal your ideas?

Actually, startup ideas are not million dollar ideas, and here’s an experiment you can try to prove it: just try to sell one. Nothing evolves faster than markets. The fact that there’s no market for startup ideas suggests there’s no demand. Which means, in the narrow sense of the word, that startup ideas are worthless.

~ Venture Capitalist Paul Graham (emphasis mine)

Ideas, until they have been validated, are easy to come by. They are untested hypotheses. And if someone else can build your idea better than you can, then maybe you should let them.