I like open source

I used to ship at 2:13 a.m.
Nothing happened the next day.
Silence.

So I opened the repo.
People showed up.
It felt alive.

(Okay, people didn’t show up. I just liked the poem.)

Building in private is safe.
It’s also invisible.
No audience. No trust. No feedback.

I learned this the hard way.
Maybe you did too.
Those late nights building for “millions” felt great.
Then reality kicks in: nobody uses it.
Because nobody knows it exists.

I’ve built many apps in private (which never took off), then I watched Starter Story’s video about how Luliia and Marc built Papermark as open source.

And it clicked.

Do you know what really spreads the word? Free stuff.

It’s true — people are more likely to use and share your product if it’s open source (feels free).
You still have to tell them about it.
But after that, it snowballs.

So I worked with this information

When I realised this I started building open‑source projects with a few expectations:

• I expect people will be more likely to try and use my product.

• I expect the word will spread faster.

• I expect more contributions and comments on the product.

Honestly, I already see a few benefits even without people knowing my product:

• I write cleaner code and think more about the codebase.

• I’m more likely to share the product on socials (which I really hate).

If you want to start building open source in public, get inspiration from big‑ass products like PostHog, Supabase, or Papermark.

Or check out my project OpenBoards — a feedback‑collecting platform similar to FeatureBase.

Thanks for reading, see you in the next one ✌️