Building in Public vs. Building in Private (The Truth About Transparency)

Published August 24th, 2025 • Based on Founder Reality Episode 8

Also available on: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • YouTube

Everyone's telling you to build in public. Share your revenue, your struggles, your team changes. Document everything.

I'm calling bullshit.

Most "building in public" is just startup theater wrapped in better marketing.

And I'm going to show you why - using my own expensive lessons about what to share, when to share it, and why most founders get transparency completely backwards.

The Performance Theater Problem

Open Twitter right now. Search #buildinginpublic. What do you see?

Stripe screenshots. Revenue graphs perfectly cropped to show only the good months. "Just hit $100K MRR!" posts with zero context about profit margins, team costs, or the three months of decline that happened right before.

It's number porn. And it's everywhere.

Sure, you made $1 million this month - what's your profit? Most build-in-public founders conveniently leave that part out, and I understand why. But people shouldn't take these curated highlight reels too seriously or feel discouraged because everyone else seems to have it figured out.

The dirty secret: Most founders only post the good stuff. If you're curating your highlights, you're not actually building in public.

What Real Transparency Looks Like (And Why So Few Do It)

There's one company that gets building in public right: Buffer.

Go to buffer.com/open right now. They share everything - real-time revenue graphs, team salaries, key performance metrics. The good AND the bad. In a competitive market.

When COVID hit in March 2020, their revenue dropped 25%. Did they take down their transparency page? Hide the numbers? Massage the data?

Nope. The decline is right there for everyone to see. It took them almost three years to recover, and that entire journey is documented in real-time.

That's authentic transparency. That's what building in public should look like.

But here's the thing - I wouldn't feel comfortable sharing my real-time revenue either. I'd feel embarrassed, and most founders feel the same. There have been periods where my numbers would be genuinely embarrassing to share publicly.

And even Buffer, with all their radical transparency, probably keeps 80-90% of what actually happens behind the scenes private.

My Transparency Framework (What I Share vs. What I Keep Private)

I didn't tweet about cutting our team from 14 to 5 people until almost two years later.

Two reasons: respect for the team members involved, and I needed time to process what actually happened.

When huge things are happening to your business, you typically shouldn't just tweet in real-time.

I recently walked away from a partnership worth $3-5 million over two years. Could have been great Twitter content, right? "Here's why I said no to millions of dollars" - instant engagement.

I didn't tweet about it for weeks. Out of respect for the people I'd worked with for years, and because sharing major business decisions in real-time is usually disrespectful to everyone involved.

What I Do Share:

• Expensive lessons I've learned (with specific numbers when possible)
• Philosophical shifts and the reasoning behind them
• Industry observations that help other founders
• Personal decision-making frameworks
• Failures after I've processed what went wrong

What I Don't Share:

• Live strategic decisions while they're happening
• Specific partnership negotiations or numbers
• Team dynamics issues in real-time
• Setbacks involving third parties (out of respect for counterparties)
• Anything that feels like performance rather than genuine value

The Sunday Night Test for Transparency

Here's my filter: If sharing something feels like work or performance, I don't share it. If it feels like genuine value to other founders, I do.

The moment you optimize vulnerability for engagement, you stop being vulnerable.

Most "authentic" founder posts are calculated for maximum likes and retweets. That's not authenticity - that's marketing with better storytelling.

Why I Started This Podcast

The real stuff doesn't fit in a tweet. The context, the nuance, the actual decision-making process - it's all too complex for social media.

I wanted to show the real side that doesn't make it to Twitter. Give founders permission to not have everything figured out publicly. Bridge the gap between performative transparency and total privacy.

Because here's what's happening: People see these curated success stories and get discouraged. They think everyone else has it figured out. They don't realize they're comparing their behind-the-scenes reality to everyone else's highlight reel.

The Framework That Actually Works

If you're going to build in any kind of public, here's what works:

1. Lead with value, not vulnerability. Share insights that actually help people, not just emotional moments designed for engagement.

2. Time-delay major events. Don't live-tweet huge business changes. Give yourself processing time and respect the people involved.

3. Share expensive lessons, not cheap drama. Talk about what cost you money and time to learn, not what's happening to you right now.

4. Respect your counterparties. Keep private matters involving third parties private. Your transparency shouldn't damage other people's reputations or relationships.

5. Question the curation. If someone only shares good news, they're not really building in public - they're running a marketing campaign.

The Real Problem

Building in public has become another marketing channel. It's slowly losing the genuineness and transparency that made it valuable in the first place.

Real transparency is embarrassing when things aren't going well. Most founders, including me, wouldn't feel comfortable with Buffer's level of openness. But there's a difference between selective sharing and pretending you're being fully transparent.

The Bottom Line

Next time someone tells you to document everything publicly, ask yourself: Am I adding value or just adding noise? Am I actually being transparent, or just curating a highlight reel with better marketing?

There's a difference. And other founders can tell which one you're really doing.

Most building in public is just startup theater with better marketing. Real building in public is sharing what you learned, not what you're learning. And definitely not just sharing when the Stripe screenshots look good.

The choice is yours. But if you're going to do it, do it right.

What's your approach to transparency as a founder? Email me at george@founderreality.com - I read every message.

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