Building in Public: Why I'm Sharing Everything After 15 Years of Silence

Building in public means sharing what you're actually doing — wins, failures, and the messy middle — instead of keeping it private

For 15 years I ran my businesses quietly. Built things, launched them, made money, kept my head down. Nobody outside my circle knew what I was doing. Last year I decided to change that. This site, the content I'm publishing, the whole idea of sharing what's actually happening in my businesses — it's a bet that transparency wins.

Why I stayed quiet for so long

A few reasons. First, I was busy. When you're running an agency managing 20+ SEO projects, growing an ecommerce platform with 3,000+ sellers, and running multiple businesses, you don't have a lot of time to write about it.

Second, there's risk. What if people copy what I'm doing? What if I share a failure and it damages credibility? What if someone uses information against me?

Third, the whole internet culture of guru CEOs sharing "their secret systems" felt gross. I didn't want to be that guy.

Why staying quiet was the wrong call

But I also saw what I was missing. People didn't know who I was. If I wanted to build something that scaled beyond my own effort, I needed people to know what I stand for. What I'm building. What I actually believe.

Also — sharing is the best marketing I've ever done. And I've been doing marketing for 17 years. I don't have to pay for ads. I don't have to trick people into clicking. I just share what I'm working on and the right people show up.

And sharing made me a better builder. When you know you're going to talk about what you're doing, you take it more seriously. You think more carefully. You document better. You're more deliberate.

What building in public actually looks like

It's not some big social media strategy. It's just: I'm doing this thing, here's what I'm learning, here are the results.

I built Alfred in 10 days. Instead of launching quietly, I shared the process. Talked about using AI. Showed how fast you can move. People saw what I'm capable of. That's more valuable than any ad I could run.

I share the failures too. The things that didn't work. Products I built that went nowhere. Decisions I changed my mind on after 20 years. That's the part most people hide, but it's the most interesting part — and the most relatable.

What I've gotten from building in public

Credibility. People know who I am now. When I say something about building or marketing, they listen because they've seen me actually do the work — not just talk about it.

Opportunities. Inbound from partners, potential clients, and collaborators who found me through content. I didn't go looking — they came to me.

Clearer thinking. Writing about what I'm doing forces me to understand it better. I make better decisions when I've processed them through writing.

Connection. Real conversations with people who care about building, automation, and honest business talk. Not fake guru energy. Just humans figuring things out.

What most content online gets wrong

Most business content is either: fake guru energy ("I made $1M in 90 days with this one trick" — usually not true), academic frameworks (missing the messy real-world part), or news (reporting what other people built).

What's missing is: here's what I did, here's what happened, here's what I learned. Real. Honest. Useful. That's what I'm trying to build here.

The bet I'm making

I'm betting that the winner in 2026 and beyond isn't the best marketer or the person with the biggest following. It's the person who's actually doing the work and sharing what they learn.

The transparency pays off. The realness pays off. The honesty pays off.

That's why marketermatt.com exists. Why I'm writing. Why I'm sharing the build across all 4 businesses. Because the future belongs to people who actually do the work and don't pretend it's magic.