Building in Public with Jottings

Building in public has become one of the most powerful growth strategies for indie founders. It's transparent, it's authentic, and when done right, it builds a community of people who are genuinely invested in your success.

But here's the thing: building in public doesn't mean you need to be on Twitter 24/7, maintaining a glossy newsletter, or writing 5,000-word blog posts every week. Sometimes, what works best is a simple, personal microblog where you can share updates quickly and consistently.

I built Jottings specifically because I wanted a platform designed for this kind of indie founder storytelling.

Why Building in Public Actually Works

When I started building Jottings, I was skeptical about growth through transparency. Wouldn't sharing my failures and struggles make people lose confidence? Wouldn't publishing my metrics invite unfair comparisons?

What I discovered is the opposite. People don't just want to hear about the finished product. They want to understand the journey. They want to see the real decisions, the pivots, the moments of doubt—and yes, the small wins that keep you moving forward.

Building in public does three things that matter for indie founders:

First, it builds trust. When you share your actual numbers, your actual process, your actual thinking, people believe you. They can separate genuine progress from marketing noise. This trust compounds over time and becomes your moat.

Second, it creates momentum. There's something powerful about knowing that people are watching your progress. It's not about vanity—it's about accountability. When you've told 100 people you're shipping a feature by Friday, you're more likely to actually ship it.

Third, it attracts your people. The audience that gathers around your building journey isn't random. These are people who resonate with your values, your approach, your way of solving problems. They're the ones most likely to become customers, contributors, and collaborators.

The Microblog Format is Perfect for This

Most indie founders don't have time to write long-form content consistently. A 2,000-word blog post takes hours. A Twitter thread gets buried. An email newsletter requires a subscriber base first.

A microblog sits in the sweet spot.

It's low-friction enough that you can publish multiple times per week without burning out. It's persistent enough that updates don't disappear in the feed. It's personal enough that people feel like they're getting genuine insight, not marketing speak.

With Jottings, you can share:

Small wins: "Just shipped dark mode for the dashboard. Took longer than expected, but users have been asking for it."
Failures and learnings: "Spent two weeks on an AI feature that nobody wanted. Killing it tomorrow and pivoting to X instead."
Metrics and progress: "Hit 1,000 active users this month. Revenue is $500 MRR. On track to break even by Q2."
Decision-making: "Chose to rebuild in TypeScript instead of shipping the feature in Python. Here's why..."
Behind-the-scenes: "Spending today on technical debt and refactoring. It won't show up as a feature, but it'll make the next month 2x faster."
Audience interactions: "Had the best conversation with a user today. They showed me a use case I never considered."

Each post is a piece of the story. Together, they build a narrative that's far more compelling than any polished case study.

Jottings Features That Support Building in Public

I built Jottings with indie founders in mind, and the features reflect that:

Quick publishing. You don't need to format or overthink it. Write, tag, publish. Done.

Tags and organization. Group your posts by theme—"Updates," "Metrics," "Product Launches," "Failures & Learnings." Let your audience follow the topics that matter to them.

Multiple sites. Some founders want to keep their building journey separate from other content. Jottings lets you create multiple microblogs and own each one.

Your own domain. Everything lives on your domain. You're not giving a platform a bet on your data. You're building your own house.

Simple, fast design. No clutter, no dark patterns. It gets out of the way and lets your writing speak.

Built for growth. Clean URLs, SEO-friendly, feeds for RSS and social. Your posts get discovered by people who care about indie founders and startups.

The Balance: Building in Public vs. Oversharing

Here's the tension I grapple with: how much is too much?

You don't need to share everything. You can build in public without sharing:

Personal struggles unrelated to your work
Family or relationship details
Health or mental health challenges (unless you want to)
Private conversations with customers or investors

The goal isn't radical transparency. It's strategic transparency. You're sharing enough to be human and authentic, but not so much that it distracts from the work or puts you or others at risk.

I share my revenue numbers, my user growth, my technical decisions, and my thought process. I don't share my personal life, specific customer names, or details about negotiations.

Find your comfort zone. The founders who build in public most successfully are the ones who do it sustainably, sharing what feels natural and honest.

Building an Audience Through Consistency

The magic of building in public isn't in any single post. It's in the pattern.

Someone discovers one update you published about a technical decision. They check your other posts. They start following along. A month later, they're reading everything you publish. A year later, they're a customer or a collaborator.

This happens through consistency, not virality.

I've seen indie founders grow audiences of thousands with less than 1,000 total words published, simply because they showed up consistently over months. They published 2-3 times per week. They were honest. They made progress.

The algorithm of building in public is simple: authenticity + consistency + time.

With Jottings, you have a home for this. A place that's completely yours, optimized for quick sharing, and designed to compound over time.

Start Building in Public Today

If you're an indie founder, I'd encourage you to start somewhere. Don't wait until your product is perfect or your metrics are impressive. The best time to start building in public is when you're still figuring things out.

People don't connect with perfection. They connect with progress.

Create a Jottings microblog. Share your first update this week. Publish something about what you're working on, what you learned, or what you're struggling with. Then do it again next week.

The audience will follow.

Building in public means owning your story. Create your Jottings site today and start sharing yours.