Build in Public
How to Build in Public to Attract Opportunities
Turn build-in-public updates into opportunity signals using the OPEN framework: outcome, proof, explicit need, and a clear next action. A practical SaaS…
By Uriel Bitton · 4 min read
The short answer
To build in public in a way that can attract opportunities, make your work easy for the right people to understand and act on. Each useful update should communicate the outcome you are pursuing, proof of real work or learning, the specific person or opportunity you need, and one clear next action. Visibility alone is not enough; the opportunity must be recognizable.
Building in public can attract customers, testers, collaborators, partners, and other useful connections—but simply posting progress is not enough. The right people need to understand what you are building, see evidence that you are actually doing the work, recognize where they fit, and know how to respond. Treat each update as an opportunity signal rather than a diary entry.
Visibility is not the same as opportunity
A post saying “shipped another feature today” makes your work visible. It gives the reader almost no reason to act.
We are trying to reduce the time it takes a two-person SaaS team to understand why new users abandon onboarding. This week we replaced our generic analytics screen with a three-step diagnosis. I am looking for three founders with a self-serve onboarding flow to test it on real data.
The second update gives someone enough context to recognize themselves.
That distinction matters. Building in public should not require turning every post into a sales pitch. The goal is to make your work legible: what problem you care about, how you are approaching it, what you have learned, and where another person could become useful.
Use the OPEN framework
A useful opportunity-seeking update contains four pieces.
O — Outcome
Start with the outcome rather than the feature. “Building an AI dashboard” describes an object. “Helping agencies spot unprofitable clients before month-end” describes a result and gives the relevant reader a reason to continue.
The outcome tells customers, operators, collaborators, and domain experts whether your work overlaps with theirs.
P — Proof
Show evidence that something actually happened. Proof can be a shipped change, a decision you made, a failed experiment, feedback that changed your thinking, a before-and-after workflow, a bounded metric, or a problem you reproduced.
You do not need impressive numbers. Specific work is stronger than vague momentum. Instead of “Huge progress this week,” explain what changed and why.
E — Explicit need
This is the part founders often omit. If you want opportunities, tell people which opportunity would actually be useful.
Looking for SaaS founders using usage-based pricing to test this.
I would like to compare notes with someone who has implemented SOC 2 early.
Looking for an integration partner serving Shopify agencies.
If you run onboarding for a B2B SaaS, I would like your reaction to this workflow.
A specific request also gives people permission to contact you. Without it, an interested reader may simply like the post and keep scrolling.
N — Give people one next action
Remove the final piece of friction. Should someone reply publicly? Send a DM? Join the beta? View the product? Introduce you to someone? Choose one primary action.
“Would love feedback” is weak because the reader has to invent the next step. “Run a SaaS with 5–50 employees? Reply ‘onboarding’ and I’ll send the test link” is clear.
Different updates attract different opportunities
Do not ask one post to attract everything.
If you need customers, publish the problem, workflow, evidence, and who the product is for. If you need beta testers, describe exactly what exists, who is useful, what they will test, and how much time it requires. If you need collaborators, expose a bounded problem where another person's skill genuinely matters.
If you want partnerships or distribution, show the overlap between the audiences or workflows rather than posting a generic request to collaborate. If you want expertise, publish the decision and the constraint so an expert has something concrete to respond to.
Make your public work cumulative
One good post can create a conversation. A connected history makes it easier for someone to evaluate you.
A founder who discovers you today should be able to understand what you are building, inspect previous decisions and progress, find the product, and see what you are currently looking for.
That is why a durable founder and product history matters alongside short-lived social posts. Buildside's broader guide to building a SaaS in public recommends separating the durable record from the audience-native posts used for distribution.
When you have a specific product to test, Buildside Beta Lab gives that need a dedicated destination rather than burying it inside a general update.
Rewrite your next update as an opportunity signal
Take the next thing you planned to post and check four lines:
Outcome: What am I trying to improve, and for whom?
Proof: What actually happened?
Explicit need: Who or what would help next?
Next action: How should that person respond?
You do not need every update to produce an opportunity. You need the right update to make an opportunity possible.
Build in public so people can see the work—but make the work clear enough that the right person can recognize where they belong.
Frequently asked questions
Does building in public automatically attract customers?
No. Public work can improve discovery and create conversations, but it does not guarantee demand or customers. Product quality, audience relevance, direct customer research, and distribution still matter.
What should I post when building in public to attract opportunities?
Share a specific problem or outcome, evidence of what you built or learned, and a bounded request for the type of person or opportunity that would help next. Give interested readers one simple way to respond.
Do I need to share revenue when building in public?
No. Product decisions, experiments, failures, workflows, lessons, customer-safe problems, product changes, and specific requests can all create useful public context without disclosing revenue.
How do I attract collaborators while building in public?
Describe a concrete problem where another person's expertise would matter, explain the surrounding work and constraints, state who would be a useful fit, and provide a clear way to contact you. Generic requests to collaborate give people little basis for deciding whether they can help.
A note from Uriel Bitton
Building in public becomes more useful when the right person can recognize exactly where they fit. Show the work, make the need explicit, and reduce the friction between someone noticing what you are doing and starting a useful conversation.
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