Building in public on X can put your product in front of people before you have a marketing budget. It can also fill your week with posts that other founders like and no buyer reads. This guide helps you check whether your buyers are on X, choose what to post each week, record what actually led to a conversation, and stay within X's rules if you use a tool to publish. You can use all of it without signing up for anything.
Check whether your buyers are on X first
Building in public means sharing real decisions, changes and results while you build, rather than announcing a finished product. On X it works best when the people you want as customers already read and reply to founders there. If your buyers are developers, other founders or people who follow your industry on X, your progress posts can reach them directly. If your buyers are clinic managers or procurement teams who rarely open X, an audience of other founders can grow while customer conversations do not.
Answer these questions before committing to a weekly schedule. If most answers are no, X may still be useful for learning and peer support, but plan your customer conversations through another channel.
- Can you name five accounts of people who match your customer profile and posted on X in the last month?
- Do those people reply to others, or do they only read?
- Is the problem you solve discussed on X in the buyer's own words, not only by founders building tools for it?
- Can you share progress without exposing customer data, contract terms or anything a competitor could copy quickly?
- Will you spend time replying to people, not only posting? Replies are where most conversations start.
Know the costs before you share
Failory's guide to building in public lists real drawbacks alongside the benefits: competitors can see your numbers and tactics, visible growth can attract copycats, public numbers create pressure, and a single metric can give an incomplete picture of the business. Decide in advance what you will not share, such as revenue by customer, pricing exceptions, private conversations or unreleased plans.
A useful default is to share what you decided, what you changed and what you learned, and to keep customer identities and negotiable terms private unless the customer explicitly agrees.
Choose a weekly post plan you can sustain
Pick a small set of repeatable post types and tie each to a question you want readers to answer. A post that invites a specific reply teaches you more than a general update. The plan below assumes about five posts a week plus daily replies; adjust the number to the time you actually have.
On a small screen, scroll each table sideways to read all columns.
| Dimension | What to post | What a reply can teach you |
|---|---|---|
| A decision | A choice you made this week and the alternative you rejected, with the reason. | Whether readers face the same trade-off and which option they would choose. |
| A shipped change | A screenshot or short clip of what changed and the problem it addresses. | Whether the problem is familiar, and how people handle it today. |
| Customer evidence | A pattern from conversations, without names or details the customer has not approved. | Whether others recognize the pattern or describe a different one. |
| A mistake | Something that did not work, what it cost and what you will try next. | Practical alternatives, and who has solved it before. |
| A direct question | One specific question for people with the problem, such as how they handled the last instance. | Recent real examples; invitations to continue privately. |
Log what each post actually led to
Record every post and every reply that turns into something more. Keep impressions, replies, conversations, trials and payments in separate columns. Attention is not demand: a post can travel far among other founders and produce no customer conversation.
The example below continues the fictional HandoffKit product from the pilot and pricing guides: a client-handoff tool for small agencies. Every post, number and outcome is invented to demonstrate the method. It is not a Soloop customer case or a benchmark.
| Dimension | What happened on X | What it is evidence of |
|---|---|---|
| Mon: decision | Why handoffs are priced per team, not per seat. 1,800 impressions, 5 replies, all from other founders. | Interest among founders in pricing. No buyer signal. |
| Tue: shipped change | Clip of the new handoff checklist. 900 impressions, 2 replies; one agency operations lead asks whether it works with their project tool. | One relevant question from a possible buyer. Founder replies and asks about their last handoff. |
| Wed: customer evidence | "Most missed details come from the last day before a handoff." 2,400 impressions, 4 replies; two agency operators describe their own process. | Two people with the problem describe it in their own words. One agrees to a call. |
| Thu: mistake | An import feature that nobody used. 700 impressions, 1 reply. | Low response; no conclusion from one post. |
| Fri: direct question | "Agency leads: how did your last client handoff go?" 500 impressions, 2 replies, both from agency staff, including the operations lead who asked on Tuesday. | A second call booked; that agency later starts a trial. |
Know what X allows you to automate
If you use any app or tool to publish for your account, X's automation rules apply to what it does. X states that you are ultimately responsible for actions taken with your account or by applications you authorize, and that violations can lead to posts being filtered from search or the account being suspended. The summary below reflects the rules page updated April 2026. Read the current page before relying on it; this is not legal advice.
| Dimension | What X's rules say | What it means for a founder |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled original posts | Allowed for informational purposes if they follow the other rules; duplicative or substantially similar posts are not allowed. | Scheduling your own updates is fine. Do not repeat the same post or post it across several accounts. |
| Replies found by keyword | Sending automated replies to posts based on keyword searches alone is not permitted. | Do not let a tool reply automatically to everyone who mentions your problem. Reply yourself. |
| Automated replies after opt-in | Allowed only if the person clearly asked to be contacted, can opt out easily, and receives one automated reply per interaction. | Following your account is not enough; X says it is not a sufficient indication of intent. |
| AI-generated reply bots | Require X's prior written approval. | Generating a draft that you read and send yourself is a different action from running an automated reply bot. |
| Likes, follows and lists | Automated likes are not allowed; bulk, aggressive or indiscriminate following, unfollowing or list-adding is not allowed. | Like and follow by hand, selectively. |
| Direct Messages | Automated DMs only to people who asked to be contacted, with an easy opt-out. Do not share DM content publicly without consent. | Move to DMs when invited, and ask before quoting anything from a private message. |
Turn a reply into a customer conversation
When someone who may be a buyer replies, answer in public first and keep it about their situation, not your product. Ask about the last time the problem happened. If they want to continue, move to a direct message or email only once they have invited it, and suggest a short call with a clear purpose.
- Reply with a specific follow-up question about a recent instance.
- If the answer is detailed and relevant, ask whether they would be open to a 20-minute conversation about it.
- Use an invitation that states why you are asking, how long it takes and what you will not do, such as pitch during the call.
- In the conversation, ask about what happened, not whether they would buy.
- Record the result in your log: conversation held, trial started, payment confirmed or no fit, each as a separate entry.
Review after four weeks
Review the log after about twenty posts, not after each one. Look at who replied and what happened next, not the impression total.
- Continue when replies from possible buyers lead to conversations, even if impressions are modest.
- Change the post types when replies come mostly from other founders; ask more direct questions about the buyer's workflow.
- Change channel when, after a month, almost no possible buyers have replied; X may be a peer network for you rather than a customer channel.
- Keep posting for learning and accountability if that is useful, but count customers only from conversations, trials and confirmed payments.
Bring one X task to Soloop
Soloop's manual describes connecting your X account so Soloop can write posts and replies, publish them through the available account controls, and track responses. What a task may do depends on the account permissions and limits shown in your workspace. Read X's automation rules first: you remain responsible for what is published from your account, and this guide does not describe a Soloop approval step or an X approval for automated replies.
A brief to copy: My product is [URL] for [role and workflow]. Draft five X posts for this week, one of each type: a decision, a shipped change, a customer pattern without identifying details, a mistake and a direct question for [buyer role]. Do not include customer names, revenue by customer or private messages. For each post, state what reply would tell me something useful. After publishing, track replies and list which came from people who match [customer profile].
Open the task result to check the drafts and responses before deciding what to post next. The Explore Soloop link opens the public entry and does not transfer this plan or your log. A filled log is a useful outcome even if you never open a Soloop workspace.
Sources and limits
Sources checked October 10, 2026. The post plan, weekly log and arithmetic are original Soloop editorial examples; they have not been tested with customers. X's rules change, so recheck the rules page before automating any action.
X's automation rules (updated April 2026) prohibit keyword-based automated replies, automated likes and bulk following; automated replies require opt-in and opt-out; AI reply bots need prior written approval; account owners are responsible for authorized apps.
X Help Center: Automation rulesNicolás Cerdeira (updated Jan 10, 2024) lists competitor visibility, copycats, public pressure and misleading metrics as costs of building in public.
Failory: How to build in public as a founderSoloop documents connecting an X account to write posts and replies, publish through the available account controls, and track responses. Choosing what to share and following X's rules remain the founder's responsibility.
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