Build in Public or Larp in Public? A Guide to Spotting the Difference

Introduction

The promise was intoxicating: an end to the myth of the lone genius. "Build in Public" emerged as an antidote to secrecy, proposing that sharing the journey—the stumbles, the pivots, the raw numbers—was as valuable as the destination. It was a covenant of transparency between maker and community.

But a funny thing happened on the way to utopia. The stage built for authenticity became a proscenium for performance. The metrics meant to track progress became the primary product. The journey shared to demystify success became a meticulously crafted narrative designed to manufacture it.

We now inhabit a digital landscape where a "business journey" can be a compelling piece of episodic content with no underlying business. The original ethos has been corrupted by the relentless logic of the attention economy. To protect yourself, you need a new lens. You need to understand the difference between building in public and what we must call "Larping in Public."

"When the performance of progress becomes more profitable than the progress itself, the audience is being set up for a scam."

What 'Build in Public' Was Supposed to Be

The original build-in-public ethos was a radical act of vulnerability. It was a rejection of the "overnight success" narrative. Its core tenets were:

• Transparency: Showing the real numbers—MRR, churn, traffic—especially when they were embarrassing.
• Accountability: Committing to a roadmap in front of an audience.
• Community: Inviting users and fellow builders into the process.

The pioneers of this approach weren't creating content about a product; they were creating a product through content. You could follow their GitHub commits or read their unvarnished reflections. The value was in the verifiable, contiguous thread of effort.

The Corruption: When Building Became Performing

The corruption was an evolution adapted to a new environment: the algorithmic feed. Platforms reward engagement, not authenticity. They favor clean narratives over complicated truths.

• The Algorithm's Role: A post about "How I Made $10,000 in 24 Hours" will always outperform "How I Spent 48 Hours Debugging a Payment Webhook." The system naturally selects for the spectacular, incentivizing performers to frame (or fabricate) their journey as a series of wins.

Metrics as the Product: When audience growth becomes a tangible metric, a dangerous shift occurs. The story* of the business—the tweets, the threads, the screenshots—can become a more reliable revenue stream (via courses, sponsorships) than the business it purports to document.

• Audience Capture: The audience, now invested in a hero's journey, demands continual validation. This pressure can lead the performer to hide stagnation and manufacture milestones.
• Revenue Screenshots as Social Currency: The Stripe dashboard screenshot morphed from a tool of accountability into an unverified trophy. It became the central, often sole, piece of "proof" in a performance.

The activity looks the same—tweeting, updating, sharing numbers—but the intent has changed. It is no longer about building a product in the open. It is about building an audience by performing the act of building a product.

Defining 'Larp in Public'

This brings us to the necessary term: Larp in Public. LARP, or Live Action Role-Playing, involves participants acting out their characters' narratives. "Larping in Public" is the act of performing the role of a successful entrepreneur online, where the performance itself is the primary project.

Know the hallmarks so you can spot them:

• The Curated Persona: The character is optimized for virality—the relentless hustler, the insightful guru. Real human struggle is sanded off.
• The Manufactured Narrative Arc: The journey feels scripted: Struggle, Breakthrough, and Ascension. Real building is non-linear and chaotic. Larps are clean and always moving "up and to the right."

The Recursive Product: The ultimate product of a Larp is often the method of the Larp itself*. The revenue screenshots serve as marketing for a course or community that teaches you… how to create compelling revenue screenshots. It's a self-referential scam.

"The Larp in Public performer isn't selling a solution to a customer's problem; they are selling the aesthetic of solving problems to an audience of aspirants."

It works because it taps into powerful psychology: the desire for a template, the hope for a shortcut. It's more compelling to watch a hero's journey than the boring reality of building something real.

The Spectrum: How to Spot Builders vs. Larpers

Few inhabit the absolute poles. Most operate in a hybrid space. Your job is to learn to spot where someone falls.

Signs of a Genuine Builder

• Verifiable Product: A live app, a shipped game, a physical good. You can use it.
• Transparent Process: Updates are often technical, niche, and unglamorous. Failures are shared with the same weight as successes.
• Independent Confirmation: You can find their work outside their posts (app stores, company registries, GitHub).

The Murky Middle (Proceed with Caution)

This is where most deception happens. Watch for:

• The Exaggerator: MRR is mentioned, but costs, bills, and expenses are never discussed.
• The Selective Sharer: They broadcast every new subscriber but go silent during periods of high churn or failure.
• The Aspirational Framer: Buzzword-heavy claims ("game-changing AI integration") that, upon inspection, describe trivial or non-existent features.
• The 'Fake It Till You Make It' Justification: This is the common excuse. The line is crossed when "faking" becomes a sustained, core deception about the venture's fundamental reality.

Signs of a Pure Larper

• The Phantom Product: The product is fictional, a non-functional "coming soon" page, or a template with zero users.
• The Content Schedule Journey: The "journey" follows a predictable content calendar, not a development log.
• Unverifiable "Proof": All evidence is unverifiable images (screenshots) or vague testimonials.
• The Downstream Monetization: Their only real product is the performance's byproduct: courses, e-books, "masterminds," and paid advice on how to do what they're doing.

The Harm: Why This Matters

Larping in Public is not a victimless meta-game. It causes tangible harm:

To Aspiring Entrepreneurs: It sets a psychologically devastating and false benchmark. When your feed is full of "$1k days," your own legitimate progress feels like failure. It promotes a cargo-cult mentality—copying the trappings* of success instead of doing the real work.

• To Trust: It erodes trust. Genuine builders are viewed with suspicion. Communities become cynical, playing "gotcha" instead of offering support.
• To the Performer: The performer can become trapped in their own narrative, living in a prison of their own making, constantly fearing exposure.

How to Protect Yourself: A Verification Checklist

Developing a critical eye is your first line of defense. Ask these questions about anyone you follow:

Can I Use The Actual Product? Is there a live, functional product? Or just a landing page, a waitlist, and promises?

Is There a Contiguous, Verifiable Thread? Can you trace a plausible timeline of work via commits, updates, or third-party evidence? Or are there "gaps" filled only by motivational posts?

What's the PRIMARY Source of Their Income? Do they make money from the product they are showing you? Or is their income primarily from teaching, coaching, or consulting about building products? (This is the biggest red flag).

How Do They Handle Failure? Is "failure" a past, vague obstacle, or a present, specific, and shared challenge? The absence of recent, specific struggles is a warning sign.

Red Flags to Memorize:

• The Vague Product: Descriptions are heavy on buzzwords ("AI-powered, disruptive platform") and light on specific problems solved for specific users.
• Screenshot-Only Evidence: All proof is an unverifiable image. No live demo, no customer testimonials you can find independently.
• The Recursive Call-to-Action: Every thread, no matter the topic, funnels you to the same course, newsletter, or paid community.
• The Impossibly Clean Journey: A narrative devoid of significant, recent setbacks. Real building is messy.

For a deeper dive into these patterns, see our ongoing series, The Larpable Field Guide: Documented Patterns of Deception.

Reclaiming Your Feed: How to Support Real Builders

You have power as an audience member. Here's how to support authenticity:

• Reward Verifiable Transparency: Engage with posts that share actual metrics (with context), link to real products, and discuss real problems.
• Value the "Failure Post": The most valuable content is often the intelligent, documented failure. Reward that vulnerability.
• Embrace the Boring Update: "Spent the week refactoring legacy code." This is the truth of the work. Celebrate it.
• Focus on Product, Not Persona: Support people who are known for what they make, not just for who they pretend to be online.

The Larpable Mission: Education Through Pattern Recognition

We built Larpable to inoculate you against deception through education. Our approach is simple: if you understand the patterns, you can spot them instantly.

Our FREE educational resources exist for one reason: to help you recognize the tactics used by fake entrepreneurs.

Exposing the Patterns: Our detailed guides break down exactly how each fake entrepreneur archetype operates—from the tweet templates they use to the narrative arcs they construct.

Building Media Literacy: After reading our guides, you'll look at the next viral success story with a critical question: "Does this match the pattern?" It's a vaccination of skepticism.

Protecting Through Knowledge: We document the red flags, the deflection scripts, and the warning signs so you can spot them before you fall for them.

We are for rebuilding the "public" part of "build in public" as a space of trust, not theater. Our mission is to educate and protect.

FAQ

Q: Isn't all marketing and personal branding somewhat "fake"? Where's the line?

A: The line lies in material deception. Marketing highlights strengths; Larping invents assets. Framing a $100 project as "an exciting start" is marketing. Presenting a fabricated $10k MRR as evidence of a thriving business is deception. The intent to mislead about the fundamental reality is the key difference.

Q: What if I'm following someone and I'm not sure if they're real?

A: Apply the verification checklist. Can you use the product? What's their primary income? Be skeptical of screenshot-only evidence. Your skepticism is a tool, not a flaw.

Q: Should I just ignore all "build in public" content?

A: No. The solution to corruption is not ignorance, but educated vigilance. Follow people who focus on verifiable product work. Support those who share process over performance. Value a small community of genuine makers over a large audience of spectators.

Q: How can I help others spot this?

A: Share resources that teach critical thinking. Point out when evidence is unverifiable. Share this guide to protect others from falling for compelling fiction.

Conclusion

The online business landscape is full of compelling fiction. One path leads deeper into the funhouse of performative entrepreneurship, where facades are traded like currency. The other path leads to supporting genuine, verifiable creation.

The choice is yours as the audience. Learn to reward the messy update over the clean narrative. Value verifiable product work over viral performance. Protect your time, your money, and your mental health by knowing the signs.

To see analyzed examples of these tactics, explore our FREE Pattern Recognition Guides, where we break down each fake entrepreneur archetype in detail.

Stay skeptical. Demand proof. Protect yourself and others.