Build in Public: A smarter way to launch your product
Published on January 15, 2025
If you’re launching a new product or platform, you might default to the usual digital marketing playbook: stealth mode, polished landing pages, paid ads, and maybe a big reveal after launch.
But there’s another way — and it’s gaining momentum among founders building for a new kind of world.
Welcome to the build-in-public approach.
What does it mean to build in public?
At its core, building in public means sharing your journey openly while you’re still on it. That includes:
- Posting regular updates on progress, challenges, and lessons learned
- Sharing behind-the-scenes decisions — even the messy ones
- Inviting feedback from your early audience
- Letting people see you — not just your polished product
This is more than content. It’s a collaborative narrative — and your audience becomes part of the story.
Build-in-public vs traditional digital marketing
| Traditional Campaigns | Build-in-Public Campaigns | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Product launch and lead gen | Audience trust and early feedback |
| Start | After product is built | While product is being built |
| Transparency | Controlled messaging | Radical openness |
| Engagement | Transactional (ads, CTAs) | Relational (comments, feedback loops) |
| Audience | Customers | Community |
| Iteration speed | Slow, batch-based | Fast, continuous |
Why community comes first
In innovation-driven projects — from decentralized apps to AI startups — building community early isn’t just a bonus. It’s a requirement.
Why?
- Feedback loops: Your early adopters often become your best product advisors
- Trust: Transparency builds credibility faster than any ad campaign
- Momentum: When your first users feel ownership, they become advocates
- Direction: Community conversations often reveal needs you didn’t plan for
At Synthonyx Digital Media, we’ve seen this firsthand. By sharing our process in real-time — from ideation to prototypes — we’ve gained insights, attention, and allies that no agency-driven campaign could’ve generated.
It’s not about being perfect
One of the biggest myths in marketing is that your product has to be polished before you promote it.
The build-in-public approach flips that script.
It’s okay to share unfinished ideas, experiments that didn’t work, or even internal debates. That honesty is magnetic — especially in sectors like Web3, open-source, and AI, where authenticity matters.
The takeaway
If you’re building something bold — something new — don’t wait until it’s finished to tell the world.
Start now.
Build in public.
Invite your community in.
And let the feedback, trust, and momentum shape your success.
💡 Want to see how we do it? Follow our journey and explore the tools we use to support other projects doing the same.