As a founder, how did you solve distribution? 'Build something people want and distribution follows' — but it doesn't.

Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

“Build something people want and distribution follows” is survivorship bias — you’re hearing it from the companies where it happened to work, not the graveyard of great products no one ever found. Distribution doesn’t follow a good product automatically. You solve it the same way you solve product: as a deliberate discipline you build in parallel, by picking one channel, showing up consistently, and using founder-led content as the cheapest distribution available to you.

Does building in public actually work, or does it just attract other founders instead of real buyers?

Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Building in public works — but the default version of it mostly attracts other founders, not buyers. Revenue screenshots, MRR charts, and “what I learned launching” posts are catnip for other builders and nearly invisible to the people who would actually pay you. To reach buyers, you have to build in public about their problems and outcomes, not your startup journey.

Why it attracts founders by default

Think about who finds each type of post interesting. A “we hit $10k MRR” screenshot is fascinating to someone trying to hit $10k MRR — another founder. It is meaningless to a buyer, who does not care about your revenue milestones; they care about their own problem. So the metrics-and-milestones content that dominates building-in-public naturally sorts your audience toward peers.

Audience on Founder-Led Growth

As a founder, how did you solve distribution? 'Build something people want and distribution follows' — but it doesn't.

Does building in public actually work, or does it just attract other founders instead of real buyers?

Why it attracts founders by default