I think "build in public" is overrated.
When I started building Sobrica, I thought posting every feature and every update would attract users.
It didn't.
Founders liked the posts.
Potential users didn't care.
The only content that consistently got attention was when I stopped talking about the product and started talking about the problem.
Nobody shared our changelog.
People shared addiction stories.
Nobody cared that we redesigned a screen.
People cared about someone who finally quit after 10 years.
It made me realize something.
Maybe people don't follow startups.
They follow stories.
I'm still building in public, but now I spend far less time talking about what I built and far more time talking about why it matters.
Have you found users by building in public, or mostly other founders?
I think it is to be honest. No one cares about the product but the actual problem. The only time I got people genuinely interested in what I was working on is when I didn't actually show my extension which sucks.
Build in public works for some audiences, but it's a content treadmill that doesn't always convert to customers. I've found that building in public attracts fellow founders, while building something genuinely useful attracts users. The overlap is smaller than people think. That said, the accountability of sharing progress is real — just don't mistake likes for leads.