Why I'm Building in Public

Building a company is rarely as clean as the final success story makes it appear.

The version that gets told afterwards is edited. The decisions look obvious, the risks look calculated and the setbacks become anecdotes.

Documenting It While It Is Uncertain

I'm writing about the decisions, the deals, the technology, the hiring, the mistakes and the setbacks as they happen — not retrospectively.

That includes the possibility that the £100 million target is not reached. Recording the attempt honestly is more useful than publishing a tidy conclusion years later.

Accountability Cuts Both Ways

Stating a target publicly invites scrutiny. So does having a public record that contains difficult chapters as well as good ones.

I would rather be judged on what I do next, in the open, than on a carefully curated version of the past.