There’s a certain romanticism to the stealth startup. The secret project, the NDA-laden conversations, the dramatic reveal. I spent years doing it this way.
Then I changed my mind.
The Case for Openness
When you build in public, something unexpected happens: you attract the right people before you’re ready for them. The early adopter who finds you through a tweet thread. The engineer who fixes a bug before you even noticed it. The investor who’s been following your progress for six months before you ever pitch them.
Stealth mode optimizes for the wrong variable. You’re protecting an idea — but ideas are cheap. Execution is what matters, and execution benefits from feedback, not from secrecy.
What I Actually Share
I’m not talking about publishing your cap table or your AWS bills. I’m talking about:
- Problems you’re solving, not just features you’re shipping
- Failures and pivots, not just wins
- The thinking behind decisions, not just the decisions themselves
This creates a feedback loop that’s worth more than any competitive moat.
The Compounding Effect
Month one of building in public feels like shouting into the void. Month six, you have a small but engaged audience. Month twelve, that audience has shaped your product, referred customers, and given you signal that would have taken a year of user interviews to collect.
Build in public. The exposure is worth it.