The return of "building in public"
Building in public has long been a badge of honor for technologist and tech-minded founders. The idea is simple: you tell the world what you’re building and share your progress - whether through a Tweet or a Github commit - and you build a community around your work. In the olden days you could crowdfund a product - the CrunchPad comes to mind - or you could talk to a newsgroup about your new OS.
Historically, the results have been good. You garnered some goodwill, some friendly folks supported you, and sometimes you shipped. Maybe you failed, but that was OK.
No longer. Now, building in public involves much higher stakes.
There are a number of companies building in public, including OpenAI, Humane, and Rabbit. All of these products involve AI in some way and they have to build in public because the speed of AI adoption is wild. The moment any of these new AI companies slow down is the moment they fail and unless they claim to offer the latest and greatest every week, they lose momentum. This is building in public on steroids.
Again, these companies have to build in public because the alternative is hiding their work while a competitor steals their thunder. Humane and Rabbit—those "dumb AI pins"—popped up too early and were built in public because at some point Apple is going to do what they’re trying to do and hose them. OpenAI, for its part, is trying to outrun potentially better-funded rivals and survive for the next decade. The chance that they make it out unscathed or unsold are slim to none, but they will have to keep launching features and communicating with early adopters while they do it.
Something else is happening this time around. The first companies that built in public were beloved. This new batch is almost roundly hated. OpenAI is seen as a rapacious and dangerous threat to humanity. The Humane pin is garbage. The Rabbit, which basically a Humane pin with a bit more polish, is being lauded simply because it doesn’t suck as much as Humane. In the old days, each of these companies would have a Tesla-like cult following with entire websites dedicated to news and focused on fighting FUD. Now the consumers who may actually use these tools are simply watching as they self-immolate their funding and blast out features.
Building in public used to be fun. Now it’s a chore. It necessary because without a constant drumbeat of innovation these new startups will sink. The stakes are also much higher these days. Nobody needed a tablet. Everybody - presumably - will need AI.
So here we are, watching companies falter in ways we haven’t seen since the Notion Ink Adam while they spend millions trying to stay relevant. It’s a quaint return to an era when founders were a bit bolder and there was less at stake than the entire creative economy.