Founder skill
Skill: writing in public
Writing in public is the highest-leverage non-technical skill an indie SaaS founder can build. The audience that compounds from public writing is the launch foundation, the customer-research panel, and the hiring pipeline. Most founders skip it because it feels exposing.
Time to functional: 3-9 months from start to functional. 'Functional' means: a base audience of 500-2,000 engaged followers, an email list of 200-1,000 subscribers, and the founder posts consistently without it feeling forced.
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Why this skill matters
An indie SaaS launch lands on the audience the founder has built. No audience = no launch. Writing in public is how the audience builds; it is not optional for founders aiming for sustainable indie SaaS at $1k+ MRR.
What “good” looks like
One published artifact per week minimum (Twitter/X thread, LinkedIn post, newsletter issue, blog post). Specific over abstract. Personal over corporate. Honest about struggles, not just wins. Audience growing month-over-month, not day-over-day.
The practice plan
Step 1
Pick ONE channel and ONE format
Twitter threads, LinkedIn posts, newsletter, blog — pick one. Multi-channel beginners almost always fail. The channel choice depends on where your target audience is.
Cadence: One-time decision; revisit only after 90 days.
Step 2
Publish one artifact per week for 12 weeks
Cadence > quality for the first 12 weeks. Most founders quit at week 4 because nothing is happening. The compounding starts at week 8-12.
Cadence: Weekly, non-negotiable.
Step 3
Track the engagement, NOT the followers
Reply rates, save rates, DM volume. Followers are vanity; replies are where the audience-building actually happens. Followers without engagement are noise.
Cadence: Weekly review.
Step 4
Repurpose the highest-engagement posts
The top 10% of posts deserve to be re-shared, reformatted into a newsletter issue, and expanded into a longer piece. Compounding work, not new work.
Cadence: Monthly.
Step 5
Build an email list from week 1
Twitter/LinkedIn followers are rented; email subscribers are owned. Every public post should have a soft path to the email list.
Cadence: Continuous, from week 1.
Failure modes when self-teaching
- Quitting at week 4-6 because nothing is happening. The audience compounds at week 8-12; quitting early forfeits the compounding.
- Switching channels too soon. Each channel takes 3-6 months of consistent output to produce. Spreading thin produces nothing.
- Posting about everything. The audience that compounds is the audience around ONE specific topic.
- Treating engagement as a feeling, not data. Posts that feel good and produce nothing are less valuable than posts that feel exposing and produce engagement.
- Building no email list. Followers are rented; email is owned. Owning matters when platforms change algorithms.
Related Brunson terms
Frequently asked
- What if I have nothing to say?
- You have something to say if you have something to build. Document the building: what you tried, what failed, what you learned, what you decided. Build-in-public content is the easiest entry point for founders without an existing voice.
Other founder skills
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