Here's a thing nobody warns you about: building in public is uncomfortable in a way that feels personal. Not embarrassing-in-a-funny-story-later way. More like standing in your kitchen in pajamas and realizing the blinds were open the whole time. You chose this. And yet.
I'm doing it anyway. This summer, I'm running a full Build in Public Summer series — real numbers, real stumbles, real wins — because I think the polished founder narrative is doing more damage than good. So here's what month one actually looked like for me.
First, Why I'm Even Doing This
I've written before about why I started St. Clair Studios — the real version, not the LinkedIn version. Building in public is an extension of that same philosophy. If I'm going to tell founders that strategy matters more than aesthetics and that systems beat hustle, I should probably be willing to show my own work. Receipts and all.
So this is my month-one build in public report. Startup month one in its full, slightly chaotic glory.
The Numbers (Unfiltered)
I'll keep this grounded. I'm not going to invent a revenue number that makes me sound impressive or a failure. What I will share are the meaningful metrics I tracked in month one — the ones that actually tell you something about early traction.
- Email list growth: Slow. Slower than I'd like. Early signups came from people who already knew me, which is normal and also slightly humbling.
- Content published: 6 blog posts, 14 social posts across platforms. More than I expected to ship while also building the backend.
- Inbound inquiries: 3 real conversations. Not sales. Conversations. That's actually not bad for a brand that didn't exist 30 days ago.
- Hours spent on things that didn't matter: Too many. Probably 6-8 hours tweaking things no reader will ever notice.
The honest truth about building a business in public in month one? Your metrics are mostly vibes and leading indicators. You're watching for signs of life, not scaling a flywheel.
The Wins
Wins in month one tend to be small and easy to dismiss if you're not paying attention. I'm paying attention.
The biggest one: I shipped something when it wasn't ready. Scary sentence to type. But the whole studio model is built on the idea that progress over perfection isn't just a poster — it's a survival strategy. Getting the first post out the door when I thought it needed another week of polish turned out to be the right call. People responded. Not in huge numbers. But people responded.
Another win: I found my actual audience faster than expected. The folks who resonated weren't the people I thought I was writing for. They're founders and creators who feel like their brain moves faster than their systems. Sound familiar? That clarity alone is worth the early awkwardness of posting into the void.
The Mistakes (The Good Stuff)
Let me be specific, because vague mistakes are useless.
Mistake #1: I tried to do too many platforms at once. Classic. I spread content across four channels in week one because I thought I needed to be everywhere. I did not need to be everywhere. I needed to be somewhere consistently, which is a different thing entirely.
Mistake #2: I underestimated how long the operational setup takes. The actual thinking work — the strategy, the writing, the building — that's the fun part. Setting up the back-end infrastructure, the automations, the intake flows? Longer than the estimate. Always. If you want to see how I handle the systems side of running multiple projects at once, I wrote a whole breakdown on running multiple brands without a team that's worth a read.
Mistake #3: I let a bad week convince me the whole thing was wrong. There was a stretch — maybe five days — where nothing felt like it was working and I seriously considered pulling back. I didn't. But I wanted to. If you've been there, you know. If you haven't yet, you will. I wrote about a version of that in a whole other post that I suspect will feel uncomfortably familiar to a lot of you.
What Building in Public Actually Looks Like
Since this is the question I hear most often from people curious about the founder income report genre or the build-in-public movement in general — here's my honest answer.
It looks like publishing when you're not confident. It looks like sharing a number that's smaller than you wanted it to be. It looks like writing a post that gets three likes and deciding to write the next one anyway. It also, occasionally, looks like a stranger DMing you to say they felt seen by something you wrote, and that making it all feel worth it in a way that's kind of embarrassing to admit.
Month one isn't about proving traction. It's about proving to yourself that you can do the thing consistently even when the feedback loop is slow. That's the whole game, honestly.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does building a business in public actually look like in the first month?
In month one, it mostly looks like shipping before you feel ready, tracking small signals instead of big numbers, and getting comfortable with the fact that almost nobody is watching yet — which is actually a gift. You get to learn in relative quiet before the stakes get higher.
Do I need to share my exact revenue numbers to build in public?
No. Revenue is one data point. Sharing what you learned, what you tried, what failed, and what surprised you is often more useful to your audience than a dollar figure. Transparency is about honesty, not a specific format.
Is a build in public strategy worth it for early-stage founders?
It depends on what you want from it. If you're looking for accountability, community, and a way to document your learning curve, yes. If you're hoping for fast follower growth or instant revenue, it's probably not that. It's a long-game move, not a launch tactic.
How often should I post a build in public update?
Consistently beats frequently every time. Monthly is completely sustainable and still builds trust. Weekly is great if you have the bandwidth without it cannibalizing the actual building. Daily is usually too much too fast, especially in month one when you need your energy on the product, not the narrative.
If any of this felt like someone finally said the thing out loud — good. That's exactly why I'm doing this. Come build alongside me this summer. Join the Studio Notes community, and drop your month-one win in the replies. Big or small, I want to hear it. We're doing this in public. Might as well do it together.