4 builders who never spoke to each other
Narrate the launch build as it happens
Run the build itself as the promotion: a public thread of the work in progress, an announcement each morning of what is shipping that day, a challenge the community recirculates, and an honest update when the date slips. Putting the half finished version in front of people produces the improvement list and the first paying customers from the same post.
The method
- 01
Narrate an MVP build in a public thread as it happens, so the build itself markets both the new product and the tooling you used.
- 02
Share the process of building each product publicly and let that double as the distribution work.
- 03
Announce in the morning that today's video is going up, then post each stage as you go; the public commitment removes the option of abandoning it.
- 04
Document the whole run publicly as you go, because building in public around a challenge earns attention and relationships in the community.
- 05
Doing a public challenge inside a community gets your updates recirculated by that community, which is a second layer of promotion beyond the work itself.
What it returned
- 30
Indie Hackers circulated many of Zue's daily Twitter updates during the 30-day growth challenge, bringing feedback and new followers.
Zue documented four half-days of building BirdShift in a live Twitter thread, hoping it would serve as marketing for both that product and Pegasus, and shipped a public proof of concept by the end of day four.
He tweeted the intention, then updates while recording and editing, and finished the first video that day.
Sharing it online for feedback produced ideas from early testers and two lifetime purchases.
Sources
- I built an app to track my working hoursFlorin Pop · florin-pop.com · How it started · 2025-02-02
- First week on YouTubeFlorin Pop · florin-pop.com · First video - feedback · 2019-11-13
- From 0 to $1m challengeFlorin Pop · florin-pop.com · How do I plan to make money? · 2024-08-28
- Presales: Saving Time, Money, EffortDru Riley · trends.vc · 😠 Haters · 2020-12-14
- Shifting PerspectivesCory Zue · coryzue.com · BirdShift · 2022-05-03
- 30 Days of AccountabilityCory Zue · coryzue.com · So how’d it go? · 2019-08-01
- Demystifying the 12 by 12 challenge.Luca Restagno · solopreneurtofreedom.com · Demystifying the 12 by 12 challenge. · 2024-01-07
the second source
Three plays a week, for the phase you are in
No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.
More in social
- Concentrate on one platform until it works11 unconnected · contested
- Gather the audience before there is a product6 unconnected · contested
- Fire the launch into the audience you already have6 unconnected · contested
- Post the numbers, not the commentary5 unconnected · contested
- Republish the winners with a new hook5 unconnected
- Cut one long piece into weeks of social posts5 unconnected