Hey everyone,

Did you miss me? I missed you! I skipped a week since I was super busy, gave myself some grace (not judgment) and finally I’m back on track with the newsletter.

First, let me tell you a story.

A couple weeks ago I got a ping from Teresa on LinkedIn about a potential collaboration. She seemed genuine and warm so I replied and hopped on a call to check out the demo. It was for a new tool that she described as “Github, but for no-code”. That catch phrase piqued my interest!

Within minutes, I got the gist of what they’re building. It’s simple, it’s effective and very very crucial if you were working at a company that integrates a ton of no-code tools like Airtable, Zapier and more. Kind of like On Deck where I worked in the past.

Here’s the rub: A huge trend in fast-growing startups and scale-ups is leveraging no-code tooling. But as the usage compounds, you run into complexity challenges and stuff fall through the cracks due to lack of documentation, monitoring and version control.

ncScale is one of the most beautiful and comprehensive solutions I've seen on the market that addresses this acute pain point. Love the bold vision from the team and the design-friendly nature of the entire platform. It's intuitive, it's simple and it just works!

Use the code “NCSMONTH1” and you get a 1 month for free on the house. LMK what you think or if you want to chat with Teresa.

Ok, end of sponsor shoutout. Let’s get to today’s post.

Most founders I talk to confess to me that they struggle with the below 5 challenges when it comes to building in public.

I’ve interviewed some of the top founders who’ve been in the arena for a while now so here’s what they all tackled these challenges:

Challenge #1: Time and energy to post

Here’s how Peter Mick overcame that challenge:

As a dad of 3 including baby twins I found it challenging sometimes to find the energy to post an update - I used to overthink what to tweet and wanted every single tweet to be perfect.

But then I realized that even a single sentence update is OK and that was both a relief and helped me get into a consistent tweeting habit.

Don’t overthink your updates / tweets - just tweet it.

Read more here.

Challenge #2: Fear of feeling like you’re shouting into the void

Here’s how Louis Periera overcame that challenge:

As always, the biggest fear is that building in public will be like shouting into a void and hearing nothing back. I was fortunate to have a helpful community (via the On Deck NoCode fellowship that you hosted) that ensured that wasn’t the case. Today I try to recreate something similar for peope with Half Day Build.

Read more here.

Challenge #3: IP theft and copycats

Here’s how Joshua overcame that challenge:

Initially, there were concerns about intellectual property theft and the vulnerability of sharing ideas openly. Overcoming these challenges involves embracing a growth mindset, focusing on the advantages of building in public, and taking precautions to protect sensitive information.

Read more here.

Challenge #4: Fear of judgment and criticism

Here’s how Erwin (from Tailscan) overcame that challenge:

The biggest challenge to overcome is the mental hurdle. Sharing a lot in public makes you feel very vulnerable. What if you get judged? Criticized? Or worse: copied?

What helped me overcome these fears is to ask myself the question: “So what?”. Turn it around and see the positive in each of these things. Received a critical comment? Either ignore it or learn from it. Someone copied your product? Massive compliment! And besides: Your journey of building in public and that marketing channel can’t be copied, it’s uniquely yours.

Don’t let fears get in the way, focus on the upsides!

Read more here.

Challenge #5: Being a VC-backed tech company has constraints

Here’s how Michelle overcame that challenge:

Unlike most other founders who are bootstrappers, we’re a venture funded company that has more constraints. However, I still see an immense value from building in public so I decided to still do it and “publicize” the things that I can (I just need to realign with my co-founders on the things I can share in public).

Read more here.

That’s all for now. Hope these were relevant and valuable to your context.

If you liked this piece, you might also enjoy these:

• How to avoid the road blocks and limiting beliefs that pop up while building in public 🚧

• Here are 8 unique ways to build in public 👀

• How Ankur Nagpal is building Ocho in public

Let me know if you have any questions :)

Shoutouts and Sponsors

#1. How To Go From Idea to $800,000 Startup Exit

• Earlier this week on Tuesday, I shipped the 8th episode of “Million Dollar Exits”, a special miniseries on “The Build In Public Podcast”. The episode featured Alexander Isora - founder of Unicorn Platform, a SaaS tool that Alex bootstrapped, grew and sold after ~4 years for a $800k acquisition. Had some cool stories and lessons in the interview. Check out the audio version here.

• Video/Youtube version is here:

  

#2. Remote Revenues

• Have you ever considered buying websites with cashflow? Well, my friend Shlomo is an expert at this. Find easy wins and pitfalls before you acquire your next Niche website or SAAS business. Every Thursday morning Shlomo sends a website listing assessment video with insights to help you buy your first digital asset. Sign up here.

How can I help you?

No pressure but whenever you’re ready, here are 2 ways I can help you:

1. Schedule a quick 1:1 clarity call with me to get specific tactical and personalized guidance on your product’s go-to-market strategy, Product Hunt launch planning and how to fall in love with build in public.

2. If you have a business you want to promote to my ~7,000 email and ~45,200 Twitter audience feel free to reply to this email or DM me on Twitter.

And that’s a wrap for now! 🌯

Thank you for giving your attention and checking this edition out 🙏

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