What Can You Build in Public?

Startup founders can embrace transparency by sharing various facets of their journey. This openness can cover the intricate details of the product development process, highlighting the evolution of ideas into tangible features or services. The narrative can extend to documenting funding journeys, offering insights into pitching, negotiations, and securing investments, which can be invaluable for fellow entrepreneurs. Furthermore, team-building experiences, showcasing the cultivation of company culture, hiring challenges, and fostering teamwork, provide a relatable and educational aspect. Sharing customer stories can also significantly humanize the brand, illustrating the real-world impact of the startup's solutions on its users.

Setting Boundaries

While building in public fosters transparency and engagement, founders must delineate what they're willing to share. This boundary-setting protects sensitive information, such as financial details or intellectual property, from public disclosure. Founders might choose to openly discuss product development stages and customer feedback loops, yet opt to keep financial performance, strategic pivots, or proprietary technology under wraps. Determining these boundaries early on helps maintain a balance between being open and protecting the startup's competitive advantages.

Storytelling Techniques

Transforming updates and insights into compelling narratives can significantly enhance audience engagement. Rather than presenting dry facts or figures, founders can weave stories around overcoming development hurdles, the eureka moments leading to new features, or the impactful testimonials from satisfied customers.

These stories not only make the updates more relatable but also underscore the human element behind the technological advancements. Effective storytelling can transform followers into a community of advocates, deeply invested in the startup's journey and success.

By meticulously sharing their journey, setting clear boundaries, and harnessing the power of storytelling, startup founders can build in public effectively. This approach not only garners interest and support but also establishes a foundation of trust and authenticity with their audience.

Everyone knows a good story. I will give you 5 techniques below, that you can explore for a better pitch or building in a public scenario. 

The Hero’s Journey

This is a classic storytelling framework where the hero (in your pitch, this could be your product, your team, or your customer) starts off in a familiar world, encounters a challenge or a problem, ventures into the unknown to tackle it, and emerges victorious, having grown from the experience. Use this structure to frame your product's development or customer success stories.

Paint a Picture with Words

Use vivid, descriptive language to create mental images for your audience. Instead of saying, "Our app saves you time," say, "Imagine getting home 30 minutes earlier, every day, because our app cuts down your work." This technique helps your audience visualize the benefits or the problem-solving capabilities of what you're offering.

Start with a Bang

Begin your presentation with an intriguing fact, a surprising statistic, or a compelling story. This could be about the problem you're solving, the journey your team has embarked on, or the potential impact of your solution. Starting strong grabs attention right from the get-go.

The Rule of Three

This is a classic writing principle that suggests that a trio of events or characters is more memorable and satisfying. In your pitch, you could talk about the three biggest benefits your product offers or tell a story that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. This structure is easy to follow and keeps your audience engaged.

Use Personal Stories

People connect with people, not just ideas or products. Share a personal story about why you started the company, a challenge your team overcame, or a customer whose life was changed by your product. This adds a human element to your pitch and makes your presentation more relatable.

These storytelling techniques can transform a boring build in public, and a standard presentation into a compelling narrative that captures the imagination of your audience, making your message both engaging and memorable.