Building in public means documenting the process of building a company while it is still happening, rather than waiting until the story is finished and safe to tell. Founders who adopt the practice publish regular updates on what they are making, what is working, what is not, and what they are learning. The approach has real appeal, because it can build an audience, attract collaborators and create a record of how a company actually develops.
It also carries risks that are easy to overlook in the enthusiasm of the first few posts. Some information helps a company when it is shared. Some information quietly damages it. This breakdown sets out how to tell the difference, so that building in public supports the business rather than exposing it.
What building in public actually means
The phrase is used loosely, and it is worth being precise. Building in public is not the same as marketing, and it is not the same as publishing a diary. It is the deliberate sharing of the work, the reasoning and the setbacks in a form that others can follow and learn from.
The spectrum runs from full transparency to selective openness. A founder might share revenue and user numbers, or only qualitative progress; post daily, or publish a monthly reflection. There is no single correct level, and it depends on the company, the market and the founder's appetite for scrutiny.
The key point is that building in public is a choice about disclosure, and disclosure should be deliberate rather than accidental.
The genuine benefits of an open approach
When it is done carefully, openness produces real advantages. Writing regularly forces a founder to think clearly, because a vague internal idea is difficult to explain to an audience. That discipline improves judgement in its own right.
Public building also creates a body of work that demonstrates competence over time. A reader who has watched a founder work through a problem is far more convinced than one who has only read a marketing page. This can help with hiring, partnerships and customer trust.
There is a practical benefit too. Sharing a problem publicly often brings in useful help, whether that is a customer offering context, a peer suggesting an approach, or a candidate deciding the company is worth joining. The audience can become a source of information rather than just a spectator.
The risks that founders underestimate
The costs of building in public are less obvious than the benefits and tend to appear later. The first is competitive exposure. Describing a strategy in detail tells competitors what you are doing before you have built an advantage, and in fast-moving markets that timing can matter.
The second is the permanence of the record. A post written in a difficult month remains visible years later, when the context has changed. Casual predictions can be read back as promises, and a failed experiment can look like a failed judgement.
The third is the strain on the team and on customers. A founder who narrates internal decisions publicly can unsettle employees who expected confidentiality, or customers who see their project discussed without consent.
Sorting information into categories
The practical way to manage these risks is to sort information into a small number of categories before sharing anything. The categories should be defined in advance, because deciding in the moment tends to go wrong.
Some information is safe and useful to share. This includes general lessons, methods, tooling choices, hiring approaches and reflections on process. It helps others without giving away anything that a competitor could exploit.
Some information is safe only in a reduced form. This includes progress updates, product decisions and market observations, which can be shared if names and numbers are removed and if the company can live with the scrutiny.
Some information should be held. This includes precise financials, unreleased strategy, customer identities, legal matters and anything that a contract protects. Holding this back is not secrecy for its own sake. It is a normal part of running a business responsibly.
A simple disclosure framework
A useful habit is to run every post through three questions. Would a competitor gain an advantage from this? Would a customer or employee be uncomfortable seeing it? Could this be read back as a promise if the outcome changes? If the answer to any of these is yes, the material belongs in a different category, or it needs editing before it goes out.
Sharing in a way that protects customers and partners
Building in public works best when it describes the founder's own experience rather than the private business of others. Customers, partners, employees and investors have their own interest in confidentiality, and a founder's decision to be open does not extend to them.
In practice this means describing types rather than names, patterns rather than specific deals, and personal lessons rather than other people's details. It also means checking any agreement that might cover the material. A customer contract or a partnership term may place limits on what can be said.
Where a story genuinely needs a specific example, it is worth asking the person involved for permission. Consent turns a risky disclosure into a shared one, and it usually strengthens the relationship rather than straining it.
Matching disclosure to company stage
What is sensible to share changes as a company develops. Early on, when the main tasks are customer discovery and building an initial product, sharing process and learning is low risk and often useful. There is little for a competitor to take and a lot for a supportive audience to give.
As the company grows, the stakes rise. Commercial details become more sensitive, the team grows and expectations of professionalism increase. Founders often find that the content naturally shifts from progress updates towards considered reflection and sector insight.
At a later stage, the founder's public voice may represent a larger institution, and questions of governance and legal exposure become more pressing. The habit of deliberate disclosure, established early, makes that transition far easier.
Practical checklist
- [ ] Define, in advance, which categories of information you will share and which you will hold.
- [ ] Remove customer names, exact figures and unreleased plans before posting.
- [ ] Check contracts and agreements for confidentiality obligations.
- [ ] Ask permission before describing a specific customer or partner.
- [ ] Avoid casual predictions that could later read as promises.
- [ ] Write lessons and methods rather than internal decisions.
- [ ] Review the level of disclosure as the company grows.
- [ ] Keep the record consistent and accurate across every platform.
Contributing to BGTC Voice
Building a company in the open is a discipline as much as a marketing choice, and the founders who do it well have thought carefully about where the line sits. If you have built in public while protecting your customers, team and strategy, we would welcome your perspective in BGTC Voice. Share practical accounts and frameworks that help others balance openness with sound commercial judgement.