Founder Topic

Should founders build in public?

Why it works: Hamish McKay started posting on LinkedIn before he had a company, and calls building in public "100% the most viral way" Order Editing grew in year one. Kiki from Sourmilk grew to 10k followers on a personal quit-my-job story — people root "for somebody and not something." The costs: inflated perception of your progress, and what Kiki calls "a very real toll to putting yourself out there every single day."

Building in public is the distribution strategy of choice for the archive's consumer and SaaS founders alike — and several of them are unusually honest about its costs. This hub collects both sides: why it works, and what it does to you.

Quick answers

Why build in public at all?

Demand before production. Sourmilk is perishable dairy on cold chain — they can't make product first and sell later, so building in public builds "a virtual line out the door" before the yogurt hits shelves. For Order Editing, building in public was "100% the most viral way to grow" in year one.

How do I build a founder audience on social media?

Post from the personal account, not the company's. Kiki grew her Instagram to 10k with "I quit my job in private equity to start a yogurt company" — conversion from views to followers "is all about a personal story and feeling like they're rooting for somebody and not something." Hamish McKay's compounding rule: every post should be incrementally better than the last; by your hundredth, you're writing top-1% content.

What's the downside of building in public?

Two, per Sourmilk: perception — people assume you're much further along and ask where to buy a product that isn't in stores yet — and the personal toll of daily exposure. Kiki had to reframe so missed views and follows stopped feeling personal. Lauren Barker went further and left LinkedIn entirely for her mental health.

What founders in the archive say

EP 15
Hamish McKay · Order Editing

He Built a Shopify App for MrBeast, Now It's Doing $2M ARR

Hamish McKay co-founded Order Editing, a Shopify app that gives online shoppers a "Grace period" to change their order after checkout — and hit a million in AR in the first year by building in public and refusing venture capital.

$1MA million in AR hit within the first year, building in public with no venture capital
"the majority of the time we've just built our own technology like our own IP that guarantees that that system doesn't get the order until we say so"—
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EP 4
Kiki and Elan · Sourmilk

From Private Equity to Yogurt Startup Founder Story

Kiki and Elan quit their corporate jobs to start Sourmilk, a probiotic yogurt company — and grew to ten K followers and a cult following by building the brand in public. Their bet: people still care about protein, but now they're caring a lot more about gut health.

10KFollowers Kiki grew her personal Instagram to, with a cult following for the yogurt company
"When I looked at conventional yogurt on the shelf, I learned that most of it isn't actually probiotic."— Elan, on the gap that became Sourmilk (03:02)
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EP 30
Lauren Barker · Good Mind Therapeutics

Ketamine for Treatment-Resistant Depression: The Doctor Who Left Medicine to Build a Clinic Network

Lauren Barker walked away from almost a decade in medicine, joined a company that was little more than a chaotic slide deck, then rebuilt it alone after her co-founder left mid-pivot — into five break-even ketamine-assisted therapy clinics across Australia.

1 in 5Australians will have depression in their life, depending on which statistics you read
"I have no idea — like I've got a hypothesis, but until we've built it we won't know. And there were a lot of dark nights of the soul."—
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