About a month ago I started writing this journal and, not long after, publishing it in the open. People keep asking a version of the same question: how is it going, really. Give me the numbers. So here they are. Just not the ones most people mean when they ask.
The numbers I do share
Here is what is countable and public, today, if you want to check me. On the business blog there are fourteen posts live. On this journal, counting the one you are reading, seven. Two a day, most days, one for the business and one here for the journey. Every one of them still up, nothing deleted, nothing walked back.
That is the number I actually care about at this stage: consistency. Not reach, not applause. Did the thing get written and shipped, again, on a day when it would have been easier not to. A month in, mostly yes. The days I missed, I made up. That is the whole scoreboard right now.
The number everyone actually wants
The question underneath "give me the numbers" is usually about money. How much are you making. Is it working. And that is the number I do not publish, on purpose.
Two reasons. The first is that building in public, for me, is about the process and the lessons, not turning my bank statement into content. The founders I learned the most from taught me how they thought, how they handled a bad week, how they chose what to build. Almost none of them handed me their revenue, and I did not need it to learn from them.
The second reason is that my numbers are not only mine. They involve clients, partners, and conversations that are still open. Those people did not sign up to have their deal, their spend, or their timing turned into a post so I could look further along than I am. Their privacy is not mine to spend for a bit of credibility.
What "building in public" actually means to me
It does not mean showing everything. It means showing the real thing. The doubt on a slow week, the mistake I made building a product, the morning I could not pick up the phone. That is the honest part, and it is worth more than a revenue screenshot, because it is the part someone else can actually use.
If you want the arc from the beginning, it is all here in order, starting with the morning I audited my own business and running through every week since. No highlight reel. Just the log.
What I would tell someone thinking about building in public
Decide upfront which numbers are yours to share and which are not, and hold that line even when a big number would get you attention. The attention is not the point. The record is. A month of small, honest, shipped entries will teach you, and anyone reading, more than one impressive figure ever could. Share the process. Keep the parts that belong to other people, and to your future self, to yourself.
Frequently asked questions
Why don't you publish your revenue? Two reasons. Building in public, to me, is about the process and the lessons, not my bank statement. And my numbers involve clients and partners who did not agree to have their deals turned into content. The privacy of the people I work with is not mine to spend.
What does "building in public" mean? Sharing the real journey of building something: the decisions, the doubts, the mistakes, and what they taught me. It does not mean sharing everything. It means sharing the honest, useful part, the part someone else building their first thing can actually learn from.
How many posts have you published? At the time of writing, fourteen on the business blog and seven on this personal journal, counting this one. Roughly two a day, one for the business and one for the journey, kept up over about a month.
Isn't building in public just marketing? It can become that if you only post wins. I try to keep it honest, which means the hard weeks go up too. If a post would make me look further along than I am, or spend someone else's privacy, it does not get written. You can read the full journey at heinoux.nexbdm.co.za.