Build in public / personal brand → product

Who this is for

This is for builders who are willing to post about their work in public for months before it pays, usually on X or LinkedIn, and who want the audience to become their first customers. It is not a quick route. Even its advocates say the first two or three months are mostly practice (Yasser Elsaid · Yasser Elsaid (Jul 2025) ▶ 03:45), and several of the biggest success stories started with very large audiences (see “What can go wrong”).

The route at a glance

1. Build an audience before you build the product.
2. Post your progress daily, unpolished, for months.
3. Beat the cold start by replying to peers and doing free work in public.
4. Let the audience name the product, then pre-sell it with a post.
5. Own the relationship: free content, then an email list, then an offer (thin evidence).
6. Productise what you already know or have built.

Step 1 — Audience before product

This is one of the channel’s most repeated lessons.

(Ramsri Goutham · Ramsri Goutham (Jun 2025) ▶ 07:45)

That line comes from Ramsri Goutham. Alex Finn made content consistently for three years before launching (Alex Finn · Alex Finn (Jun 2025) ▶ 09:47). Ben Bozzay says not to wait for the product before building the audience (Ben Bozzay · Ben Bozzay (Jul 2025) ▶ 08:33). Greg Isenberg’s ACP funnel (Audience, Community, Product) is the named version of this idea (Greg Isenberg · Greg Isenberg (Jun 2024) ▶ 06:24).

The newer argument is that AI makes products easy to copy, so the audience becomes the moat. Alex Finn says “the moat is your distribution” (Alex Finn · Alex Finn (Jun 2025) ▶ 11:55), and Gil Hildebrand says people buy because they believe in a brand or a person (Gil Hildebrand · Gil Hildebrand (Dec 2025) ▶ 09:12). Pat takes the same line (presenters’ view) (presenter · Katie Keith (Feb 2026) ▶ 14:59). If you already have influence somewhere, start there, as one of the 3AK co-founders (Christian or Braylin) did (unnamed guest · Christian & Braylin (Jun 2026) ▶ 05:08). See Audience first, then product.

Step 2 — Post progress daily, unpolished, for months

Share what you are doing every day. Show your face, and don’t be boring (Yasser Elsaid · Yasser Elsaid (Jul 2025) ▶ 03:38). Dustin Stout says people want to see the journey:

(Dustin Stout · Dustin Stout (Oct 2025) ▶ 04:49)

Ramsri posted on LinkedIn every day, even when a post got 10 likes (Ramsri Goutham · Ramsri Goutham (Jun 2025) ▶ 08:03). Thomas Sanlis says every post builds momentum and that pausing for weeks resets it (Thomas Sanlis · Thomas Sanlis (Aug 2025) ▶ 03:29). Dickie Bush ran a 30-day publish-every-day challenge (Dickie Bush · Dickie Bush (Jul 2024) ▶ 05:48). Alex Garcia wrote 50 threads in 50 days and grew from about 500 to 40,000 followers (self-reported) (Alex Garcia · Alex Garcia (Jul 2023) ▶ 05:47). For David, co-founder of a micro-SaaS, X started working around day 50 (David · David (May 2026) ▶ 06:59). Share the lows as well as the wins:

(Jeremy Redman · Jeremy Redman (Apr 2026) ▶ 14:28)

The payoffs guests report are free growth and feedback. Dustin Stout says Magai grew with no advertising beyond building in public (Dustin Stout · Dustin Stout (Oct 2025) ▶ 05:03). John Rush says feedback from building in public cut his failure rate from 90% to 10% (self-reported) (John Rush · John Rush (May 2025) ▶ 15:36). Pat calls documenting and sharing his number-one advice for new builders (presenters’ view) (presenter · Rob Hallam (Dec 2025) ▶ 19:20).

Step 3 — Beat the cold start: reply to peers, do free work in public

New accounts have a cold-start problem (Julien Nahum · Julien Nahum (Nov 2024) ▶ 07:43). The fix guests describe is to reply thoughtfully and consistently to the same people in your niche, “like building any friendship”, rather than spraying AI-written replies (Rob Hallam · Rob Hallam (Dec 2025) ▶ 14:46). Mark Vassilevskiy left about 50 comments a day on other designers’ posts (Mark Vassilevskiy · Mark Vassilevskiy (Oct 2025) ▶ 04:32).

Show what you can do for free. Mark posted unsolicited redesigns of big brands’ landing pages (Mark Vassilevskiy · Mark Vassilevskiy (Oct 2025) ▶ 03:04). Nick Buzz quote-tweeted people’s landing pages with “roasted” and his suggested improvements (Nick Buzz · Nick Buzz (Sep 2024) ▶ 12:00). CJ Zafir writes tutorial threads that state the problem, show an ideal solution and position his product within it (CJ Zafir · CJ Zafir (May 2025) ▶ 11:32). You don’t necessarily need followers first. Yasser Elsaid’s third-ever tweet, a demo shown to 16 followers, went viral (Yasser Elsaid · Yasser Elsaid (Jul 2025) ▶ 01:41).

Step 4 — Let the audience name the product; pre-sell with a post

Listen for what people keep asking for. Kevin Espiritu’s viewers kept asking about a metal raised bed. He put it up on a basic Shopify store, and it sold out in two weeks (Kevin Espiritu · Kevin Espiritu (Mar 2024) ▶ 07:11). Sarah Pearl “works backwards” and looks for the product gap in her comments (Sarah Pearl · Sarah Pearl (Jul 2026) ▶ 13:00).

Then test demand with a single post. Iuliia, a co-founder, tweeted a plan to build an open-source alternative to DocSend, and the team shipped over a weekend once the tweet got traction (Iuliia · Marc & Iuliia (Aug 2025) ▶ 01:25). CJ Zafir’s tweet about his Cursor workflow brought about 300 signups (self-reported) (CJ Zafir · CJ Zafir (May 2025) ▶ 06:07). Alex Lieberman asked in a tweet for executives willing to pay $5–10k a year to DM him, and got 25 DMs before any product existed (Alex Lieberman · Alex Lieberman (Nov 2023) ▶ 08:19). When Isenberg’s Dispatch account reached a couple of thousand followers, his team launched a design subscription within 72 hours (Greg Isenberg · Greg Isenberg (Jun 2024) ▶ 08:11). Pat adds that you still have to build something (presenters’ view) (presenter · Sarah Pearl (Jul 2026) ▶ 16:21).

Step 5 — Own the list: free content → email → offer (thin)

Only a handful of guests explain this step in any depth. Justin Welsh uses social media for discovery, a longer newsletter for trust, and then an offer (Justin Welsh · Justin Welsh (Apr 2023) ▶ 06:35). Thomas Frank sends YouTube viewers to free templates and then upsells a premium template with email autoresponders (Thomas Frank · Thomas Frank (Apr 2024) ▶ 07:51). Gil Hildebrand explains why the list matters:

(Gil Hildebrand · Gil Hildebrand (Dec 2025) ▶ 09:57)

Lara Acosta says to build the list before you need it, in case you lose access to social platforms (Lara Acosta · Lara Acosta (Jan 2026) ▶ 16:44). Dustin Stout launched into a list of over 100,000 subscribers that he had built through his blog (self-reported) (Dustin Stout · Dustin Stout (Oct 2025) ▶ 04:58). See Free content → email → offer funnel.

Step 6 — Productise what you know

Package what you already built for yourself. Thomas Frank’s templates began as the systems he used to run his own channel (Thomas Frank · Thomas Frank (Apr 2024) ▶ 07:10). Marc Lou put a price on the boilerplate code he kept reusing (Marc Lou · Marc Lou (Aug 2024) ▶ 15:40). Validate cheaply. Dickie Bush charged $50, refundable on completion, for a Slack-based writing challenge, then interviewed buyers before designing a $99 product (Dickie Bush · Dickie Bush (Jul 2024) ▶ 08:51). Nick Buzz sold a $9 design kit before offering paid design work (Nick Buzz · Nick Buzz (Sep 2024) ▶ 12:38). Find the price by testing. Matt Giovanisci’s first PDF sold nothing at $50 and sold well at $24 (Matt Giovanisci · Matt Giovanisci (May 2024) ▶ 05:27). Pat says a five-minute Loom video of his email flows took pre-orders in a day, though the transcript gives both $20,000 and $220,000 (conflicting) (presenter · 9 Things That Make Me $1.8M/Ye (Oct 2024) ▶ 01:13). See Info products & templates.

Where guests disagree

• Do you need an audience at all? Yes: Hassam says “zero audience means zero distribution” (Hassam · Hassam (Jan 2026) ▶ 03:53). No: Angus Cheng calls building a following first “a waste of time” (Angus Cheng · Angus Cheng (Jul 2025) ▶ 09:41). Sebastian Ghiorghiu says you can do it with or without one, though an audience “makes everything way easier” (Sebastian Ghiorghiu · Sebastian Ghiorghiu (Sep 2025) ▶ 07:42). Pat has argued both sides in different episodes (presenters’ view) (presenter · Diego Roshardt (Jul 2025) ▶ 12:26) (presenter · Katie Keith (Feb 2026) ▶ 14:59).
• Should the business be tied to your face? Sebastian warns that a face-tied business leaves you “cuffed to the camera” (Sebastian Ghiorghiu · Sebastian Ghiorghiu (Sep 2025) ▶ 09:01).
• Is Twitter-style building in public worth it? Sam Adeniyi calls it “a whole bunch of rubbish” and builds with users in Discord instead (Sam Adeniyi · Sam Adeniyi (Jan 2026) ▶ 10:43). Angus Cheng found that his users were not on Twitter (Angus Cheng · Angus Cheng (Jul 2025) ▶ 04:30).

What can go wrong

• Big audiences skew the stories. Sarah Pearl has 2.8 million TikTok followers (Sarah Pearl · Sarah Pearl (Jul 2026) ▶ 02:25), and Pat and Gus themselves raise that objection (presenter · Sarah Pearl (Jul 2026) ▶ 15:48). Alex Finn concedes that his audience is a big reason he made so much money (Alex Finn · Alex Finn (Jun 2025) ▶ 10:02).
• It stops scaling. Tibo says building in public is not enough beyond about 20K a month (Tibo · Tibo (Dec 2025) ▶ 14:03).
• It is not for everyone and can feel cringe (presenter · Rob Hallam (Dec 2025) ▶ 09:07).
• Link-based digital products are easy to pirate (Thomas Frank · Thomas Frank (Apr 2024) ▶ 09:28).

How strong is the evidence

The rating is medium. Steps 1–4 each draw on roughly ten to sixteen independent guests. Step 5 rests on about five (Welsh, Frank, Hildebrand, Acosta, Stout), and Step 6 on about six. Brett Williams appears in two episodes, and Rob Hallam and Tibo each appear in two; each counts once. Commercial interest: several of the loudest advocates sell growth tools or courses. Rob Hallam co-founded SuperX, an X-growth tool, and Tibo built TweetHunter and Taplio and runs SuperX. Alex Finn’s Creator Buddy coaches X posting, and Lara Acosta’s Kleo is a LinkedIn ghostwriting tool. Justin Welsh sells courses on LinkedIn and content systems, and Dickie Bush runs writing courses. Pat’s endorsements are the channel’s editorial line. Follower, view and revenue figures are self-reported.

Go deeper

Building in public · Personal brand & audience first · Growing on X (Twitter) · Audience to product · Info products & templates · Audience first, then product · Free content → email → offer funnel · How did you grow it / what marketing channel works? · What advice would you give your younger self or someone starting out? · Greg Isenberg · Justin Welsh · Portfolio, app flipping & selling