underway

Build in public. Keep the beginning.

The story of your company,
told daily, by you.
while it’s happening.

At the end of your day, Underway asks you a few questions about it. Answer with your voice, on camera, or sharing your screen. A few minutes later, the episode is ready. A year from now, you have the story of your company, told by you, in order, while it was actually happening.

Start free: your first three episodes

No card. No editing. A few minutes, most evenings.

Not ready to film? Join the community, free, and talk to founders who are documenting theirs.

Starting somethingBuilding in stealthAlready running a business

What it is

A build-in-public diary you never have to edit.

Underway is a build-in-public diary made by interview: in the evening it asks about your day, on camera, by voice or screen, and cuts the answers into a numbered episode. Nothing reordered for a hook, nothing invented, and the archive is yours whether or not you ever post it. How building in public works, and why most people stop.

Why now

Imagine watching Steve Jobs build Apple from the first day. Nobody filmed it.

Every founder in the film is a stand-in, made to show the shape, until the first real ones launch.

There is no footage of the garage, or of Bezos packing the first orders on his knees, because nobody points a camera at a business that hasn’t worked yet. Every film about them was made afterwards, from photographs and memory.

The next generation of builders is starting now, with tools that make it easier to build than it has ever been. A lot gets decided in the next twelve months. The founders who document it will own the only first-hand record of how it was done: in their own voice, in order, while they still didn’t know how it would turn out.

That record cannot be made later. The streaming platforms and the podcast networks make their programmes from footage that exists, and six months from now the only founders with footage will be the ones who started. Investors and hires already read a series the same way: eighty episodes is the most honest due diligence a founder can hand anyone.

Start tonight and episode 1 exists. Wait a year and it never will.

Start free: your first three episodes

The problem

Everyone means to document the journey. Almost nobody does.

It’s not that you don’t want to. It’s that at 7pm, after a day of building, nine things stand between you and pressing record, and the first of them is the one that ends most series. Here is what each one costs, and what happens to it. Swipe.

A founder recording from a parked car between two things

01 · the habit

“I'll do it for a week and then stop. I always do.”

That is the real fear, and it is a fair one. Every abandoned vlog is a public record of giving up, and the shame of episode 6 never arriving is worse than never starting.

So the whole product is built around the second week. A prompt at the same time daily, a clock that stops while you still have something to say, and a streak you set the terms of.

  • Weekdays by default, changeable to every day or a number a week; the prompt still arrives at the same time daily.
  • One tap declares a pause and the chain survives. No reason asked, no limit.
  • Episodes count, not days: episode 45 follows 44 whenever it was filmed, and the date is on it.
A founder sat back from two monitors at night, hands behind his head, stuck for what to say

02 · the blank page

“I sit down, look at the camera, and have nothing to say.”

A blank camera is the worst interviewer in the world: it asks nothing and judges everything. So the day you fixed the thing you were stuck on for three hours comes out as "yeah, it was fine."

You never start from nothing. It reads your day, then asks about what actually happened.

Tap to open

A founder on the floor of a small flat, prototype boxes around her, talking to the phone

03 · the edit

“Then there's the edit. That's my whole evening gone.”

Forty minutes of footage, an hour in an editor you hate, and a file that still looks like a webcam. Do that nightly and by Thursday you are choosing between the episode and your life.

You never open an editor. Minutes after you stop, the episode exists.

Tap to open

A founder recording in private, late in the evening

04 · the risk

“I can't put this in public. Not yet. Maybe not ever.”

The boss doesn't know. The investors don't know. So you wait until it is safe, and the beginning, the one part everyone will want to see, goes unrecorded forever.

Then build in stealth. Same app, same episodes, nothing leaves until you say.

Tap to open

A café owner behind the counter after closing, talking to the phone by the till

05 · the silence

“Who would even watch? I have no audience and no hook.”

Posting episode 3 into silence is the most common reason people quit. Chasing a hook to fix it makes it worse: you start performing, the diary stops being honest, and it still gets nine views.

No hooks. It's a serial: people come back for episode 47 because they watched 46.

Tap to open

A founder at her kitchen island in the evening, making a point mid-answer

06 · the script

“I'd have to write something first, and I'm not a writer.”

So you draft a script, read it back, hate it, and film a presentation of yourself instead of yourself. It sounds like content. It never sounds like you.

It's an interview, not a piece to camera. It asks, hears you, and asks the next thing a person would.

Tap to open

A joiner in his workshop, laughing at himself mid-sentence

07 · the retakes

“I'd film it three times and still not be happy.”

Take one had an um. Take two you forgot the point. Take three you are tired and it shows. Twenty minutes for ninety seconds, and the honest version was take one.

One take is the take. Nothing has to be perfect, because the cut does the tidying.

Tap to open

A founder mid-sentence at her desk, lit by a lamp and a laptop

08 · the setup

“I'd need lights, a camera, a proper setup.”

The ring light arrives, the tripod goes in a corner, and the setup becomes the reason you don't film: too much to get out, so you'll do it properly tomorrow.

There is nothing to set up. Open the laptop, or prop the phone where it was yesterday.

Tap to open

A shop owner talking to a phone propped on the counter, hands free

09 · the phone in your hand

“I'd be holding a phone, squinting at a prompt.”

Eyes down, reading, one hand full, the shot shaking. Everyone can tell you are reading, and it kills the one thing the footage had going for it: that it was you.

It asks out loud. You answer a voice, not a screen.

Tap to open

How it works

Three steps. None of them is editing.

01

It reads your day.

Connect what you already use: GitHub, your calendar, your meeting recorder, Stripe, Whop, your newsletter, your analytics, and an address you can forward any email to. Through the day it gathers what happened, and anything you tap in yourself, a voice note, a screenshot, a line. By the time you film it knows roughly what today was and proposes what the episode could be about. You pick, or write your own.

github · 14 commits · “auth: refresh tokens rotate”
calendar · 11:00 pricing call · ran 40m over
stripe · first payment of the day · £49
14:14 moment · “fed up with auth”
today could be about → the tokens, or the pricing call. you pick.
02

You answer.

At the same time each evening it asks, out loud, one question at a time. It hears what you said and asks the next thing a person would ask, then stops while you still have something left to say, about three minutes in. Voice only, on camera, or sharing your screen. No script, no second take.

asks → “what finally fixed the tokens?”
asked aloud
you · 0:52
hears it → “you said the fix cost you the afternoon. what did it cost?”
voice onlyon camerashare my screen
03

Your episode is ready.

A few minutes after you stop, the episode is made: your answers in the order you said them, the pauses tidied, the card and captions on, your name and number on the front. Keep it private, put it on your page, or post it. That's the whole job.

21:07 · A FEW MINUTES LATER

Episode 12 is ready.

12345
in the order you said them · card, captions, your number on the front
keep it private
share it

Want to see the actual screens before you download it? Your first episode, screen by screen.

It notices

By week three, it knows how you work.

MILESTONES

NOTICED · 14:32

Rich, you just crossed £10k in a month for the first time.

A few minutes to record a thought about it now, while it’s fresh? Or it can wait for the interview, which already knows.

Record a moment nowAsk me at debrief time

Your first payment. A thousand in a month, then ten, then a hundred. Ten customers. Episode a hundred. A month of days in a row. Any number or date you set yourself. The first time a line is crossed it asks, once. Ignore it and it still reaches the interview as a single line, because the night you hit £10k is not a night to talk about something else.

HABITS

You usually film around 8pm, and Fridays tend to be a long one. Today is set up that way. Your reminder is at 7pm. Move it to 8pm?

Your phone knows where you drive on a Monday morning without being told. This learns the same way, from your own episodes: when you start, which nights run long, when you take the podcast instead of the camera. It uses that to set the episode up before you arrive and to time the reminder. It never uses it to keep score. No targets you didn’t set, no countdowns, not a word about the night you skipped.

Three ways to answer

You don’t need to love the camera. Just care about what you’re building.

The interview is the same whichever you choose. It asks out loud, hears you, and asks the next thing. Pick the way each time; the episode number carries on regardless.

It asks. You talk. The episode is the conversation.

Tap “podcast, no camera” and answer with your voice for as long as you like. The questions are kept in, so it sounds like an interview rather than a voice note. Record from the sofa, the car, a walk.

Two ways to run it. Underway hosts, and it already knows your company, what you said last night and who Carlo is. Or someone you know asks: a co-founder in the room, or a guest joining by a link, and both of your voices are in the episode.

What you get: an audio episode with its number, the interviewer’s questions in it, with the posts for every platform written from what you said. On Series it goes out on your podcast feed.

Every plan makes the audio episode. The podcast feed is Series and above.

Host · asking

You

Episode 31 · podcast · no camera

asked · “what came out of the pricing call?”
Underway hostsit knows your company, so it asks like it was there
Or a guest hostsin the room, or by a link; both voices in the episode

No camera. No lighting. Talk. Change your mind tomorrow; the series doesn’t care which.

It listens

The interview is live. It is not a form.

Most tools give you a prompt and a record button. Underway is on the other side of the table. It asks, hears the answer, and asks the next thing a person would ask.

Underway · asking

You

Live · both voices in the episode

01

It asks out loud.

A question, spoken, in a voice that sounds like someone across the table. Not a card to read.

02

It hears what you said.

After every answer it decides what to ask next: dig into the number you skated past, the name you dropped, the thing you called fine. Or move on. Never a script.

03

It knows when to stop.

Roughly three minutes of you talking, then it lands the last question, the one that opens tomorrow. There is always one more thread. It leaves it.

04

No camera? Talk to it anyway.

A long day, no face left. Tap “make it a podcast”, answer with your voice for as long as you like, and the episode is the conversation itself, both voices, numbered like the rest. Or hand the host's chair to someone: a co-founder in the room, or a guest joining by a link.

You’ll never edit a video

Answer the questions. Tap done. Get on with building.

There is no timeline, because you are not the editor. The polish is chosen once for the series, the card, the captions, the transitions, the clean dialogue, and applied to every episode after that, so no evening is an editing evening. It cuts on full sentences, keeps your words as you said them, and stops there.

Your raw footage is always yours to download, on every plan, including the free one. If you ever want a fancier edit, take it anywhere you like.

BUILDING POLAJOY · POLISH · SET ONCE

Card and captionson every episode, in your brand
Cuts on full sentencesums and false starts gone
Long pausestidied, never reordered
Transitions and clean audioset once, applied to all
Your name and numberon the front, every time
applied to episode 1 and episode 200 alikeraw takes always yours

It remembers

It has read every day of your company.

Underway keeps a private memory of your series. It knows what you said you’d do by Friday. It knows who Carlo is. It knows this is the third week in a row you’ve mentioned cash.

So the questions start where your last answers stopped:

“Last Tuesday you said you’d walk away if they pushed the liability cap again. They did. What did you do?”

Not “what did you do today?”, a real question, from something that’s been paying attention.

The founder pausing over a question that refers back to last week's episode
EPISODE 47
made with underway

ASKED · 1 OF 5 · FROM EP 44

They pushed the liability cap again. What did you do?

what underway knows · Building Polajoy

THE COMPANY

Photo prints for new parents. Forty-one paying customers, most of them from the nursery partnership. Raising in the autumn.

OPEN LOOPS

decide on pricing · by Friday · asked ep 45
the Doja liability cap · walk away? · ep 44
ship the onboarding rewrite · opened ep 38

THREADS

cash · 3 weeks running · trending down
hiring · quiet since ep 40

PEOPLE

Carlo

the closer · since ep 9

Priya

first customer · ep 3

Doja

the contract · ep 41

edit · forget this · reset memory

ask the archive · last 90 days
when did we add the data policy?
Both landed on Monday 7 September. The requests policy went live at 16:28 and the privacy page named the ICO registration at 16:39. You haven’t talked about either on camera yet.
talk about it in the episodefrom git · 2 commits

It also keeps a day log of everything a connection saw, ninety days back from the day you connect it. Ask it when you shipped something, or what happened the week before launch, and it answers with the dates, whether or not you ever said it on camera. One press hands the answer to the interview.

You can read everything it remembers, fix it, or delete it. No one else ever sees it.

Connections

Plugged into where your day actually happens.

Connect what you already use and the questions know what shipped, which call overran, who paid and who signed up. Everything is read-only, other people’s voices never become footage, and you tick what the interview is allowed to know.

It reads your day

The work, the meetings, the numbers. Gathered through the day, shown to you before you film.

GitHub
a local repo
Calendar
Zoom
Fathom
Fireflies
Stripe
Kit
Plausible
PostHog
Linear
Vercel
Whop
beehiiv
your inbox

Your inbox is an address of your own. Forward it the investor’s reply or the supplier’s quote and it becomes one line the interview knows about. No mailbox is ever read.

It posts for you

A live episode goes to your own channel with one press, its own words as the caption.

YouTube
LinkedIn
TikTok
Instagram

Your accounts, your posts. Nothing goes out unless you press it.

Ask it anything

Everything a connection sees goes into a day log, ninety days back from the day you connect it. Ask in plain words and it answers with the dates, whether or not you ever said it on camera. One press hands the answer to the interview.

when did we add the data policy?ask

Monday 7 September: the requests policy at 16:28, the ICO registration on the privacy page at 16:39. Neither has been on camera yet.

talk about it in the episodefrom git · 2 commits

Every connection: what it’s for, how to use it, and what it never sees

What you end up with

An archive nobody can make later.

Episode 1.Episode 47.Episode 200.

In order. In your own words. Filmed on the day.

That’s a page your customers can watch. It’s the thing you send an investor instead of a pitch. It’s what a new hire watches in their first week. It’s the raw material for the book, the talk, or the documentary, if that day ever comes.

A show, not a feed

Every series is chapters. Season 1 might be the MVP, season 2 the launch, season 3 the first hire. Each season has a goal you set, in your own words, and the app tells you the day you reach it. Nothing gets renumbered and nothing gets reordered. The seasons are just how a stranger finds their way into eighty episodes.

underway.life/series/building-polajoy

Building Polajoy

47 episodes · since 12 mar

start here ↓
EP 0

EPISODE 0 · PINNED

what I’m building, and why

11 mar · 2:41

EP 1
12 MAR
EP 2
13 MAR
EP 3
14 MAR
EP 4
17 MAR
EP 5
18 MAR
EP 45
29 AUG
EP 46
1 SEP
EP 47
TODAY
Eighty episodes is the most thorough due-diligence artefact a founder can hand anyone.

Watch Underway get built

A real series to explore.

Underway is being made the way it asks you to make yours: an episode most days, about the day that actually happened, in order, by the founder. It is the first series on the product, and every episode carries the same tag yours will.

Open the founder’s series
EP 30Twenty six builds then waiting
EP 31The objections on the website
EP 32Eight topics in one go
EP 33Every reason not to film
EP 34Launching Underway after Loom failed
EP 1Taking Underway public

36 episodes · Building Underway

A home for people building something

You don’t have to be on day one.

Starting from nothing, building in stealth, or ten years in and documenting this chapter: the same interview, the same numbered series, a different first episode.

A founder at the beginning, recording their first episode
EPISODE 1
0:58
day one. here’s the plan

Starting something

You’re at the beginning, or near it. Document from today. Build an archive and, if you want, an audience.

Founder plan, from £29/month.

Start free
A founder's episode in the vault, filmed but not yet seen
EPISODE 19
IN THE VAULT
🔒
the prototype finally holds

Building in stealth

You’re not ready to tell anyone yet. Document in private from today. On launch day, publish the whole thing at once, the origin story, on camera, in order.

Stealth launch, £490, one-off.

Learn more
A founder six years in, recording this chapter from their office
EPISODE 156
1:02
year six. the chapter nobody filmed

Already running a business

You wish you’d filmed year one. You can’t. But year six is happening right now. Document this chapter, for the exit, the book, the team, or just so it exists.

Founder’s Record from £990/year · Company Record for teams from £299/month.

Learn more
A founder recording an episode her subscribers will see first
EPISODE 62
SUBSCRIBERS
the numbers I don’t post publicly

Getting paid by your audience

Keep the series public. Keep some episodes for subscribers, at a price you set, paid to you monthly. The people who watched forty episodes for free are the ones who pay for the forty-first.

On every plan. The first fifty founders keep every penny.

How it pays

Public or private

Not ready to share yet? Keep it private in your Underway vault.

And when you’re ready, share your story with the world in one click. To YouTube, LinkedIn, or the Underway directory, the Netflix of builders in public.

Every episode has its own switch. Nothing goes out unless you send it. Most people start private, and plenty stay that way; the archive is the point.

Your Underway page is on every plan. One-tap posting to YouTube and LinkedIn is on Series and above.

BUILDING POLAJOY · PRIVATE SERIES

EP 44the Doja callprivate
EP 45pricing, decidedposted
EP 46a quiet oneprivate
EP 47the emails, fixedprivate

nothing goes out unless you send it

The rules

Things we will never do.

01

We never reorder your answers to make a better hook.

02

We never add words you didn’t say.

03

We never make anything up, no fake clips, no generated pictures.

04

We never record without you pressing the button.

05

We never let “what performed well” decide what you get asked.

06

We never lock up your footage. It’s yours, on every plan.

Your kind of interview

Keep the interview. Or make it a conversation.

Guided interview

One spoken question at a time, with your answers in the finished video. The familiar evening ritual, included on every plan.

AI co-host, for podcast nights

No camera: a flowing conversation with an AI co-host, both voices recorded as a podcast episode. Choose and preview a voice. Your co-host knows the series so far and follows your lead. Video episodes stay you, speaking to the people watching.

Every plan includes podcast co-host time each month: an hour on Founder, three hours on Series, Stealth and Record, and four hours a seat on Company Record, pooled across the team so the person with the most to say can use it. One conversation runs up to thirty minutes. Extra hours are £9 each and carry forward while your membership is active.

Pricing

Five packages. One ritual.

Every package is the same evening interview and the same numbered series. What changes is what the archive does for you afterwards, and who it belongs to. Three episodes free on all of them, no card.

Founder

£29a month

or £290 a year

One founder, one series, filming most evenings.

The whole ritual: the interview, the episode, the memory, the archive page.

Start free

Series

most chosen

£79a month

or £790 a year

A series that has started working for you.

The archive works: recap, compilations, podcast, one-tap posting, the deck.

Start free

Stealth launch

£490one-off

then Series pricing if you stay

Building in private, launching with the beginning already filmed.

The vault, and one launch day that publishes the whole story at once.

Get started

Founder's Record

£990a year

annual only

A business that already exists, documenting this chapter.

Series, private by default, with the launch trailer, paid once a year.

Learn more

Company Record

£299a month

founder and four people, £49 a seat after that

A team. One company, many series.

Seats, a company bible, and the week at the company in one cut.

Talk to us

Guided interviews stay included on every plan, and video episodes are always you to camera. Co-host hours reset on the first of the month; a Company Record's hours are one pool the whole team draws on. One conversation runs up to thirty minutes. Extra hours are £9 each and carry forward while your membership is active.

  • Three episodes free, no card until episode four
  • Raw footage downloadable, always, on every plan
  • Cancelling never takes away what you recorded

Company Record is set up with you on a call: the company, the seats, the brand, the rhythm, everyone invited and filming inside a week. Talk to us

Three free episodes on every plan. No card until episode four. Raw footage is downloadable on all plans, free trial included.

Sent here by a founder? Their referral is remembered when you subscribe. Have a promo code? There is a box for it at checkout.

20%

Affiliates

Refer a founder. Earn a fifth of what they pay, every month they stay.

No membership needed. Whop tracks the referral and pays you, and your link remembers who you sent for thirty days whichever page they read first.

Get your linkHow it works →

Questions

Do I have to be on camera?

No. Answer with your voice only and the episode is an audio episode, the questions kept in, numbered like the rest of the series. Or share your screen and talk it through with yourself in the corner. Or go on camera. They are three ways to answer the same interview, and you can pick a different one each evening.

What if I miss a day?

Nothing bad happens. Episodes count up, not days, so there’s no gap to feel bad about. Your streak counts against the days you chose, three a week is a streak.

How long does it take?

About three minutes of talking, usually in the evening. The episode is ready a few minutes after you stop, and there is nothing to do to it unless you want to drop a line.

What does it connect to?

Your calendar, GitHub, your meeting recorder (Fathom, Fireflies, Zoom), Stripe, Whop, Linear, Vercel, your analytics and your newsletter (Kit, beehiiv), all read-only, to know what to ask. It also gives you an address to forward any email to, so the investor reply or the supplier quote is in tonight’s context too. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and LinkedIn for posting. Other people’s voices from meetings are never in your episodes, only you are.

Where does my footage live?

On your phone or computer first. It’s backed up to your account if you sign in. You can download everything, and delete everything, any time.

Do I have to post publicly?

No. See “Public or private” above. Most people start private.

Can my team use it?

Yes, Company Record. Everyone gets their own series, there’s one company memory on top, and you get a weekly “this week at your company” episode. The company owns the archive; anyone who leaves gets a copy of their own footage.

What does it actually read?

Whatever you connect: your commits, your calendar, your meeting recorder. Press one button and it reads the day for you, thirty pushes become the five things that moved, a transcript becomes what the call was about and what came out of it, and it proposes what tonight could be about. You pick.

Can I ask it what I did, and when?

Yes. Everything a connection sees goes into a day log, ninety days back when you first connect and every hour after that. Ask it in plain words, “when did we add the data policy?”, and it answers with the dates, whether or not you ever said it on camera. One press takes the answer into tonight’s interview.

Does it just ask the same questions every night?

No. It starts from a spine and then listens: after each answer it decides whether to dig into what you said, move on, or stop. It remembers the series too, so it asks about the thing you said you’d decide by Friday, and notices when a number changes.

Can I just show my screen and talk?

Yes. Name what you’re showing, share your screen, and talk it through with you in the corner of the frame. A small window stays on top with the clock and a stop button while you’re in other windows.

Is it a podcast too?

Every episode is also an audio episode, with the questions kept in, on a feed you submit once to Apple and Spotify. On a night with no camera, make the whole episode a podcast: it asks, you talk, and the episode is the sound of that.

What does it cost?

Three episodes free, no card. Then Founder at £29 a month for the interview, the episode and your archive page; Series at £79 for the recap, the podcast feed, one-tap posting and the deck. Stealth launch is £490 once, with the vault and a launch day. Founder’s Record is £990 a year, Series set up private for a business that already exists. Company Record is £299 a month for a team of five. Annual is two months free on Founder and Series.

I’ve been going for years. Is it too late?

It’s too late for year one. It’s exactly the right time for this year.

Last word

The footage from today is the only footage of today there will ever be.

Whatever you’re building, start the record tonight.

EPISODE 0
what I'm building, and why
11 MAR
EPISODE 3
the plan, on the wall
14 MAR
EPISODE 5
first supplier said no
18 MAR
EPISODE 45
the call that ran over
29 AUG
EPISODE 46
we signed the first one
1 SEP
EPISODE 47
TODAY
Start free: your first three episodes

underway: while it’s happening.