Building in Public: 7 SaaS Founders to Follow (Examples)

The #buildinpublic movement is everywhere right now - with everything from scrappy indie hackers on solo ventures, to VC-backed founders, transparently sharing their journeys for the world to see - and engage with.

"Build in public" is a strategy where founders, developers, or creators share their process of creating a SaaS with the public - typically through social media like Youtube, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

This approach allows creators to engage with their audience, get feedback, generate demand, and build a community around their project - before even launching it.

Here are 7 top founders to learn from:

Growing Retention.com to $14M ARR with only 6 employees. Sharing ups and downs + his playbook on using founder brand, content and LinkedIn to grow.

Active on social media: LinkedIn, Youtube

Type of content: Video, LinkedIn text-only posts

Messaging: "Traditional outbound is broken - how to scale highly efficient lean SaaS companies"

Bootstrapped: Yes

Bootstrapped micro SaaS founder building in public with 6 micro SaaS companies in the portfolio. Sharing his learnings and life as a talented solo entrepreneur, located in Bali.

Active on social media: Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn

Type of content: Video, how-to stories, actionable tips

Messaging: "Transparent learnings of a solo founder building a portfolio of micro SaaS"

Bootstrapped: Yes

Growing Lemlist & Lempire, from $0 to $20M ARR in 5 years bootstrapped. Sharing tips on how to grow a profitable SaaS business w/o VC.

Active on social media: Youtube, LinkedIn, Instagram

Type of content: Video, Short-form video, text-based LinkedIn posts

Messaging: "How to grow profitable SaaS companies w/o VC"

Bootstrapped: Yes

Building a portfolio of bootstrapped SaaS + running YouTube as a business. Sharing helpful insights around building an automated business from the ground up - using no-code and AI.

Active on social media: Youtube, LinkedIn, TikTok

Type of content: Video, Short-form video, how-to-guides

Messaging: "How to build a portfolio of bootstrapped SaaS products"

Bootstrapped: Yes

Former Stanford MBA / Goldman Sachs Banker. Quite recently grew his SaaS for creators Stan past $5M ARR. Sharing a daily journal building a venture-backed towards $1B in Silicon Valley.

Active on social media: TikTok, Youtube

Type of content: Video, Short-form video, day-in-the-life, dealing with investors

Messaging: "Life of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur building with VC funding"

Bootstrapped: No, VC-backed

Active on social media: LinkedIn, Youtube, TikTok

Type of content: Video, Short-form video, how-to

Messaging: "Growing a SaaS from 0 to $5M ARR using content."

Bootstrapped: No, VC-backed

Active on social media: LinkedIn, Youtube

Type of content: Video, Podcast, Books

Messaging: "Grow a B2B SaaS with minimal capital injection and become your own boss"

Bootstrapped: Yes, minimal investment raised (see TinySeed)

Building in public is transparent. Thus, it builds trust, and can attract potential customers and partners by sharing the journey in real time - both with fails and wins.

"Build in public" also helps quickly validating ideas and refine them based on direct user input - which leads to more user-centered products.

Follow the growth newsletter below for more tips 👇