I’m an indie maker shipping iOS apps and Shopify stores for US founders. The work happens out loud now: blog, diary, project case studies — everything is documented as I build.

Building in public compounds slower than cold outreach, but it compounds. Every shipped post, every project case study, every weekly diary becomes a small piece of evidence that I do what I say I’ll do. Over months that compounds into trust no cold email can buy.

The bet is simple: be useful in public for long enough that the right founders find me already pre-sold on the work, instead of me chasing them. Two iOS apps and one Shopify store this year, with full case studies for each.

I closed Upwork. Not because the work dried up — because the trade was wrong: I was selling time on someone else’s roadmap, on someone else’s terms, with no compounding asset to show for it.

The plan now is to ship products under my own name and document the process out loud. First product: StreakFire — a small accountability tool I’m building week by week, in public, so the journey is the proof.

The hardest part isn’t the code. It’s trusting that “build in public” compounds slower than client invoices but compounds at all — and that compounding is the only thing that breaks the freelance loop.

I’m a freelance developer focused on Shopify stores and iOS apps. Most of my work comes through Upwork — US founders who need someone reliable to ship.

The work is steady but invisible. Clients see the deliverable; nobody else sees the process. After a year of this, the pipeline feels brittle: I’m one client churn away from starting over.

I’m starting to wonder what would happen if I built in public instead. Not as a brand exercise — as insurance against the freelance treadmill.