Building in Public: 5 SaaS Founders to Follow (Examples)
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The #buildinpublic movement is everywhere right now - with everything from scrappy indie hackers on solo ventures, to VC-backed founders, transparently sharing their journeys for the world to see - and engage with.
What is build in public?
"Build in public" is a strategy where founders, developers, or creators share their process of creating a SaaS with the public - typically through social media like Youtube, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
This approach allows creators to engage with their audience, get feedback, generate demand, and build a community around their project - before even launching it.
The top 5 examples of founders building in public
Here are 5 top founders to learn from:
1. Adam Robinson
Growing Retention.com to $14M ARR with only 6 employees. Sharing ups and downs + his playbook on using founder brand, content and LinkedIn to grow.
Active on social media: LinkedIn, Youtube
Type of content: Video, LinkedIn text-only posts
Messaging: "Traditional outbound is broken - how to scale highly efficient lean SaaS companies"
Bootstrapped: Yes
2. Marc Lou
Bootstrapped micro SaaS founder building in public with 6 micro SaaS companies in the portfolio. Sharing his learnings and life as a talented solo entrepreneur, located in Bali.
Active on social media: Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn
Type of content: Video, how-to stories, actionable tips
Messaging: "Transparent learnings of a solo founder building a portfolio of micro SaaS"
Bootstrapped: Yes
3. Guillaume Moubeche
Growing Lemlist & Lempire, from $0 to $20M ARR in 5 years bootstrapped. Sharing tips on how to grow a profitable SaaS business w/o VC.
Active on social media: Youtube, LinkedIn, Instagram
Type of content: Video, Short-form video, text-based LinkedIn posts
Messaging: "How to grow profitable SaaS companies w/o VC"
Bootstrapped: Yes
4. Simon Høiberg
Building a portfolio of bootstrapped SaaS + running YouTube as a business. Sharing helpful insights around building an automated business from the ground up - using no-code and AI.
Active on social media: Youtube, LinkedIn, TikTok
Type of content: Video, Short-form video, how-to-guides
Messaging: "How to build a portfolio of bootstrapped SaaS products"
Bootstrapped: Yes
5. John Hu
Former Stanford MBA / Goldman Sachs Banker. Quite recently grew his SaaS for creators Stan past $5M ARR. Sharing a daily journal building a venture-backed towards $1B in Silicon Valley.
Active on social media: TikTok, Youtube
Type of content: Video, Short-form video, day-in-the-life, dealing with investors
Messaging: "Life of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur building with VC funding"
Bootstrapped: No, VC-backed
Advantages from building in public
Building in public is transparent. Thus, it builds trust, and can attract potential customers and partners by sharing the journey in real time - both with fails and wins.
"Build in public" also helps quickly validating ideas and refine them based on direct user input - which leads to more user-centered products.
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