Ship Fast in Public

Ship Fast in Public is Mike's operating philosophy as a solo founder. It is stated explicitly in the GitHub profile README and governs both the pace of product development and the approach to distribution.

The Statement

"Build something real. Ship it. Talk to users. Repeat."

This four-step loop is the central principle. The order matters: build, then ship, then talk to users. The philosophy resists building in private or over-engineering before release.

Secondary Principles

Two secondary principles appear alongside the main statement:

"Stubborn on vision, flexible on execution": the direction is fixed, but the path to get there is negotiable.

"The best apps are the simple ones": complexity is not a virtue. The philosophy favors scope reduction over feature addition.

In Practice

The Solo Founder Era demonstrates the philosophy at product scale. Mike shipped roughly ten products across 2024 and 2025. Each product targets a discrete consumer niche (health tracking, running social, AI tools, nostalgia) rather than iterating on one platform. The pace of releases reflects the "ship it" step taken literally.

Distribution is treated as part of shipping. The README lists Pulse's growth channels explicitly: Reddit, Instagram Reels, Strava Clubs, Parkrun, running stores. "Talk to users" is not a phase that follows launch; it is concurrent with it.

Identity Dimension

The self-description "founder first, developer second, marketer third" subordinates technical skill to product judgment. The philosophy is not primarily about how to write code; it is about what makes a founder effective. The ordering implies that building the right thing matters more than building it well, and that getting it in front of users matters more than either.

The YouTube channel and X/Twitter presence (which document revenue numbers, pivots, and setbacks) are the public execution of this philosophy. "Building in public" is both a distribution strategy and an accountability mechanism.