Turn Building in Public into your most profitable GTM channel

Here are some tools that will help you get started

Hello GTM Strategists!

Welcome to 2024.

I hope we spent some time together with the GTM Strategist book during the holidays, but even if you took some time off, I hope you relaxed and enjoyed life a little.

Now - back to work! 

I have a challenge for you in 2024: build in public. 

It can be one of the most lucrative GTM moves this year. 

My inspiration for this post was EarthCare.ai, which specializes in helping insurance companies create better policies and pricing using a combination of AI and hyper-local severe weather & climate data.

I have been watching them closely since April, when they joined TechStars in Berlin. They are now raising their pre-seed round (of which 40% is already committed by VCs and angels). 

The leadership consists of two technical cofounders, Gorjan and Dragan. They previously worked for Booking.com, WSAudiology, and Mozilla. 

And I love the way how they are building in public on LinkedIn. They provide a really good example. 

Wait - what? 

How can two developers agree to start posting to LinkedIn, a channel traditionally associated with recruiters asking them silly questions and developers trolling back?

Because they are smart guys. 

Dragan said it well during our call this week: “I am a technical founder, but in order to be great in business, I have to learn the business and do something new - whatever will help with our traction.” 

I love this mindset. 

Smart founders like them know very well that investors, potential clients and partners are going to check them out there before they decide for a discovery call. 

They also know that nobody will magically know what they are working on if they do not open up about their progress. 

Lastly, they are aware that by building the public, they help other founders and aspiring entrepreneurs to go to market. 

If it is so good - why are more people not doing it? 

Because it’s cringe.

Building in Public is not the same as Bragging in Public 

I am honored to borrow this thought from the co-founder of Lemlist and the author of “The $150M Secret”, Guillaume Moubeche. It is a great book that I am reading at the moment. 

LinkedIn does not have to be cringe. 

You can curate very well what you see and with whom you interact. 

I am quick to unfollow all vanilla content creators, crying CEOs, and other peacocks who communicate metrics that do not even matter in business. 

In my perfect world, I consume content to learn something new from it. 

Is it worthy of my attention? What is in it for me? 

You might be the same. 

Who has time to consume other people's business traumas, when everything around is burning and we should deal with it?

I prefer action.

Let’s get you to Build in Public! 

Not to brag, but to inspire, in December I generated:

• reach of 1 million people (vanity metric)

• 4000 new followers (vanity metric), and

• high-quality prospects for business development in January (now we are talking!)

And you can do it too. I believe in you. 

Here are the steps that I recommend to my smart, analytical, and critical friends.
This is how you kick off your Building in Public Habit.

1. Observe: 

Start by observing the platform and engaging in comments - just get into a habit of opening up LinkedIn and writing at least one comment first. Do it for 7 days. 

2. Analyze:

I actively seek high-quality content creators that cater to a similar audience (entrepreneurs, product managers, growth experts). I select a couple and do a “competition for attention” analysis). Here are a couple of actions to consider: 

• Ring the bell on their profiles so that I am engaged

• Reward their work with a comment if I like it 

• Save the post if I find it inspirational for my content creation

• Put such posts on my moodboard

• Return to their content when I am ready for content creation. 

3. Create a content plan:

The safest place to start is resharing other creators' content with your original take on it. If you are a bit bolder, you can also answer some questions that people are repeatedly asking you or share a framework, some results, or a presentation. But feel free to start small. A list of 10 favorite tools to do X is likely to land very well. 

It worked for a Product Leader and GTM Strategist collaborator Sara Stojanovski (2.6K followers). She got 1000 new followers overnight with this one. Algorithms can do wonders sometimes. 

4. Develop your LinkedIn routine:

I usually spend an hour a day on LinkedIn - you can do it for 30 minutes, no problem. 

My LinkedIn routine is: 

• 15-20 min: Comment on 10 posts of selected content creators - value comments, not “congrats”.

• 15-20 min: Publish a post - I have drafts pre-prepared (I write on weekends), but I always tweak them a bit before the final push & I use Taplio for scheduling when I am busy.

• Stay around for 20-30 more minutes to engage with the community in comments and DMs.

I know that is not feasible for everyone, but at least try it out by doing it consistently in January and producing 1-3 posts a day. Book a couple of slots and get it done. Try to be consistent with hours; I usually post between 9:00 and 11:00 in my timezone.

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You want tools - sure!

Here are some tools that will help you get started:

👉 Example of a moodboard of Perfect profiles

👉 Example of a moodboard of LinkedIn posts that inspire me

👉 LinkedIn Optimisation Process

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Your turn: What will you publish? 

What will your next LinkedIn post be?

Did you find a cool new tool? 

Got a cool template to share? 

What did you learn on the job? 

I am sure you have something to show. I very much encourage you to start 2024 strong by publishing your own post. 

You can totally tag me in the comments and I will support you.

Fair?

By Building in Public, you will make LinkedIn a better place for people like you and attract new opportunities. 

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Have a great start to 2024!

Maja