For years, I built things in secret. I'd have an idea, lock myself away for weeks, build something I thought was amazing, and then… silence. No users. No feedback. Just me and my perfectly crafted code that nobody wanted.
The pattern was always the same: build first, launch later, hope for the best. It never worked.
The Problem With Building in Silence
When you build in private, you make assumptions. You assume people want what you're building. You assume your solution is the right one. You assume that if you "build it, they will come."
They don't come.
Here's what actually happens when you build in silence:
- No validation: You spend months building something nobody asked for
- No momentum: You launch to an empty room because you have no audience
- No accountability: It's easy to give up when nobody knows you're working on it
- No learning: You miss out on real-time feedback that could save you from obvious mistakes
I realized I wasn't failing because my ideas were bad. I was failing because my process was broken.
"The best way to build a product people want is to build it with people watching."
Why BuildWithKenny?
BuildWithKenny isn't just a rebrand from heavykenny. It's a complete shift in how I approach building products.
The name is intentional. It's not "watch me code" or "follow my startup journey." It's build with Kenny. This is collaborative. This is transparent. This is about sharing the real process — not just the wins.
What I'm Committing To
Every week, I'm sharing:
- What I'm building and why
- Technical decisions and tradeoffs
- Real numbers: users, revenue, churn
- Mistakes I made and what I'd do differently
- Distribution tactics that actually worked
No BS. No filtered Instagram version of indie hacking. Just the real, messy, sometimes embarrassing truth of building products.
What I've Learned in 30 Days
I've been building in public for 30 days now. Here's what's different:
1. People actually care. When you share your process, people follow along. They want to see you succeed. Some of them even want to help.
2. Feedback comes early. Instead of building for 3 months and getting feedback at launch, I'm getting it daily. This has saved me from at least two terrible ideas already.
3. Accountability is real. When you say "I'm shipping this feature by Friday" publicly, you ship it by Friday. There's no hiding.
4. Distribution starts on day one. I'm not launching to zero followers anymore. By the time I launch, I have people who've been following the journey and are ready to try it.
Here's a code snippet of my current stack for rapid prototyping:
// Simple API setup with Express
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
app.get('/api/health', (req, res) => {
res.json({ status: 'ok', timestamp: Date.now() });
});
app.listen(3000, () => {
console.log('Server running on port 3000');
});What's Next
I'm currently working on a tool that helps developers track their side project revenue. It's called ProjectMoney (working title), and I'm building it completely in public.
Follow along. Watch me make mistakes. Learn from them. Or just enjoy the chaos.
That's what BuildWithKenny is about.