21 building in public examples (real posts that actually worked)
stop guessing what 'build in public' looks like. here are 21 real examples of founders sharing their journey — with breakdowns of why each post worked.
“Build in public” is easy advice. “Share your journey.” “Be transparent.” “Post about what you’re building.”
But when you sit down to actually write a post, you freeze. What exactly do you share? How much detail? What tone? What if it’s boring?
Here are 21 real examples of building in public — organized by category, with breakdowns of why each works. Steal the frameworks, adapt them to your product, and start posting.
Revenue and metrics posts
These are the posts that get the most engagement in build-in-public communities. People love specifics.
1. The milestone post
“Just hit $5K MRR with my SaaS. Took 11 months. Here’s what each month looked like:
Month 1-3: $0 (building, no users) Month 4: $49 (1 user, a friend) Month 5-7: $200-400 (slow grind) Month 8: $1.2K (one Twitter thread went semi-viral) Month 9-11: $5K (word of mouth + SEO kicked in)
The gap between month 7 and month 8 almost made me quit.”
Why it works: Specific numbers. Honest timeline. The emotional hook at the end (“almost made me quit”) makes it relatable. According to a 2025 SparkToro study, posts with specific revenue numbers get 3.1x more engagement than vague “we’re growing” updates.
2. The anti-milestone
“Month 6. $340 MRR. 12 paying users. Burned through $8K of savings.
Every ‘I hit $10K MRR in 3 months’ post makes me feel like I’m doing something wrong.
But my 12 users love the product. Churn is 0%. NPS is 78.
I’m not failing. I’m just early.”
Why it works: Counters survivorship bias. Most founders relate to slow growth, not hockey sticks. The reframe at the end (“not failing, just early”) gives others permission to be patient.
3. The failed experiment
“Tried pricing at $49/mo for 30 days. Result: 0 new signups. Dropped back to $19/mo. 7 signups in the first week.
My product isn’t worth $49 yet. And that’s fine. I’d rather have 7 users giving me feedback than 0 users at a ‘better’ price point.”
Why it works: Failed experiments are underrepresented in build-in-public content. Sharing what didn’t work builds trust and teaches others.
Product decisions posts
Sharing your reasoning process is some of the most valuable build-in-public content you can create.
4. The “why we built X” post
“We just shipped a feature nobody asked for: automatic progress summaries.
Here’s why: I watched 8 users use our product. 6 of them generated content, liked it, then… didn’t post it. They forgot. Life got busy.
So we built a weekly email that summarizes what you generated and nudges you to post.
Engagement went up 40% in the first week.”
Why it works: Shows the observation → hypothesis → build → result loop. This is product thinking made visible.
5. The “why we killed X” post
“We spent 3 weeks building a content calendar feature. Then we killed it.
Here’s what happened: we built it, shipped it to beta users, and nobody used it. When we asked why, the answer was consistent: ‘I don’t plan content in advance. I just post when I have something to say.’
We built the feature WE wanted, not the one our users needed. Classic mistake.”
Why it works: Admitting mistakes is magnetic. Other founders learn from your expensive lessons for free.
6. The tradeoff post
“This week’s decision: should we build for LinkedIn or Twitter first?
LinkedIn: bigger professional audience, longer shelf life, higher conversion Twitter: faster feedback loops, stronger indie hacker community, easier to go viral
We chose LinkedIn. Reason: our users are B2B founders. They sell on LinkedIn. They need content there first.
Twitter is next. But focus beats breadth at our stage.”
Why it works: Shows structured thinking. Gives the audience a framework they can use for their own decisions.
Behind-the-scenes posts
These posts pull back the curtain on what building a product actually looks like day-to-day.
7. The weekly update
“Week 14 update:
✅ Shipped: GitHub integration (finally) ✅ Shipped: New onboarding flow 🔨 In progress: Content scheduling 📊 Numbers: 47 users, $890 MRR, 3% weekly growth 📝 Learned: Users who connect GitHub generate 2x more content
Next week: finishing scheduling + first paid ads test”
Why it works: Consistent format. Easy to scan. The “learned” section adds value beyond just a status update.
8. The tech stack post
“Our stack for reaching $5K MRR:
Frontend: Next.js + Tailwind (fast to build) Backend: Supabase (auth + db, no server management) AI: OpenRouter (multi-model, flexible) Hosting: Vercel ($0 at our scale) Analytics: PostHog (free tier is generous) Payments: Stripe (obvious choice)
Total infra cost: $47/mo. The ‘you need to spend money to make money’ crowd is wrong at this stage.”
Why it works: Founders are endlessly curious about other founders’ tech stacks. The contrarian ending adds personality.
9. The day-in-the-life post
“What a typical Tuesday looks like as a solo founder:
7am: Coffee + check overnight signups (2 today) 8-10am: Deep work — building the scheduling feature 10am: User call (she found 3 bugs, I found 3 insights) 11am-1pm: Fix the bugs she found 1pm: Lunch + scroll Twitter for 20 min (market research, I swear) 2-4pm: More building 4pm: Write tomorrow’s LinkedIn post from today’s work 5pm: Done. (Okay, I’ll check Stripe one more time.)”
Why it works: Relatable. Funny. Shows the human side of building. The parenthetical humor makes it feel authentic.
User and customer posts
Content about your users is powerful because it’s evidence, not just claims.
10. The user quote post
“Got this message from a user today:
‘I went from posting once a month to 4x per week. My pipeline has never been this full.’
This is why I build. Not the MRR. Not the metrics. This.”
Why it works: Social proof in the most authentic form. Short. Emotional.
11. The user feedback post
“Asked our users: ‘What would make you cancel?’
Top answers:
- ‘If the content started sounding generic’ (42%)
- ‘If you raised prices above $30/mo’ (28%)
- ‘If you stopped shipping updates’ (19%)
#1 is the one that keeps me up at night. It’s exactly the problem we’re trying to solve.”
Why it works: Transparent about potential failure modes. Shows you listen to users. The vulnerability in the last line is powerful.
12. The churn story
“Lost our biggest customer yesterday. They’re paying $99/mo on the annual plan.
Reason: ‘We hired a content manager. Don’t need an AI tool anymore.’
This is healthy churn. They outgrew us. Our product served its purpose — got them to the point where they could hire.
Still stings though.”
Why it works: Most founders hide churn. Sharing it (with the reframe) shows maturity and builds trust.
Launch and growth posts
13. The launch day post
“After 4 months of building, Ravah is live.
What it does: turns your product context into social content. Set it up once, get a week of posts.
What it’s NOT: another ChatGPT wrapper. It stores your product context permanently so content gets better over time.
Try it free: [link]
I’m terrified and excited in equal measure.”
Why it works: Clear value prop. Differentiator. Emotional honesty. CTA.
14. The “how I got my first 10 users” post
“How I got my first 10 paying users:
User 1: My friend (asked nicely) User 2-3: Cold DMs on Twitter (sent 50, got 2) User 4-6: Replied to people complaining about AI content User 7-8: Someone shared my launch tweet User 9-10: Organic from my build-in-public posts
No Product Hunt. No Hacker News. No ads. Just conversations.”
Why it works: Demystifies early growth. The specificity of each channel is useful and honest.
15. The growth hack that worked
“Our best growth channel costs $0: building in public.
Since I started posting weekly updates about what we’re shipping, signups went from ~3/week to ~15/week.
Not because the posts are brilliant. Because consistency + specificity + transparency builds trust over time.
It took 8 weeks of posting before I saw any meaningful results. Most people quit at week 3.”
Why it works: Practical. Backed by specific numbers. The “most people quit” ending motivates persistence.
Struggle and failure posts
16. The “I almost quit” post
“Two weeks ago I almost shut down the product.
MRR was flat for 6 weeks. I hadn’t shipped anything meaningful in 2 weeks. A competitor launched a feature I’d been planning. My co-founder and I had our worst argument.
What kept me going: one user emailed saying our tool saved her 5 hours per week.
One user. That’s all it took.”
Why it works: Raw vulnerability. The resolution is small but meaningful. Every founder has felt this.
17. The honest mistake post
“I pushed a bug to production that deleted 3 users’ saved content.
No backup. No undo. Gone.
I emailed each one personally, apologized, and offered a free month. All three were understanding. One said ‘it happens, I trust you more for being honest about it.’
Lessons: always have backups, always communicate fast, trust is built in how you handle mistakes.”
Why it works: Terrifying level of honesty. But the user response and lessons make it constructive.
Reflection and lesson posts
18. The “X things I learned” post
“6 months of building a SaaS. Here’s what I know now that I didn’t know then:
- Your first 10 users teach you more than your first 10,000 page views
- ‘Launch’ isn’t a moment. It’s the first week of a long process
- Pricing is a feature, not just a number
- The best marketing is a product people talk about
- Building in public is a cheat code for early-stage distribution”
Why it works: Listicles work because they’re scannable. Each point should contain a non-obvious insight.
19. The comparison post (then vs. now)
“My product 6 months ago vs. today:
Then: 3 features, ugly UI, 0 users Now: 12 features, decent UI, 200 users
Then: I thought the product needed to be perfect before launch Now: I know the product needs to be useful before it’s perfect
Then: I spent 90% building, 10% talking to users Now: I spend 60% building, 40% talking to users”
Why it works: Visual contrast. Shows growth and mindset shifts. The format is easy to replicate.
20. The advice-from-experience post
“If I were starting a SaaS today, I’d do 3 things differently:
Start posting on day 1, not after launch. Building an audience while building a product is 10x easier than building an audience after.
Charge from day 1. Free users give polite feedback. Paying users give honest feedback.
Use a tool like Ravah to turn my building activity into content automatically. I wasted hours writing posts from scratch when the content was already in my commits and weekly updates.”
Why it works: Experience-based advice is more credible than theoretical advice. The specificity of each point makes it actionable.
21. The year-in-review post
“2025 in numbers:
Revenue: $0 → $8.4K MRR Users: 0 → 340 Features shipped: 67 Bugs shipped (and fixed): too many Times I almost quit: 3 Times a user email saved me: 3
The correlation between those last two numbers isn’t a coincidence.”
Why it works: Comprehensive. The emotional punchline at the end elevates it from a stats dump to a story.
How to adapt these examples
Every example above follows a simple pattern:
- Specificity — real numbers, real situations, real emotions
- Structure — a clear beginning, middle, and end
- Insight — something the reader learns or feels
- Authenticity — sounds like a person, not a brand
You don’t need to be a good writer. You need to be specific about your experience.
Make it easier with the right tools
If writing posts from scratch feels like too much work, Ravah generates build-in-public content from your actual product context and shipping activity. Log what you built, and Ravah turns it into posts like the examples above — grounded in your real product, not generic templates.
Building in public works. These examples prove it. Now go post something.
Related reading: what to post when building in public, what metrics to share when building in public, twitter vs linkedin for building in public, what is building in public?
frequently asked questions
- What are the best examples of building in public?
- The best build-in-public examples include revenue milestone posts, behind-the-scenes product decisions, honest failure stories, weekly progress updates with metrics, and user feedback threads. Posts that combine real numbers with personal narrative consistently get the most engagement.
- What platforms work best for building in public?
- X (Twitter) and LinkedIn are the two primary platforms for building in public. X is better for real-time updates and developer communities. LinkedIn is better for longer storytelling and B2B audiences. Many founders cross-post to both with platform-specific formatting.
- How do you write a good build-in-public post?
- Start with a specific number or surprising statement (a hook). Share what happened, why it matters, and what you learned. Keep it honest — vulnerability outperforms polish. End with a question to drive engagement. Aim for 100-280 characters on X, 1,000-1,300 on LinkedIn.
ready to turn your ideas into content?
stop the grind and start growing. ravah turns your building-in-public moments into content that attracts customers — in minutes, not hours.