How to start building in public
Your first episode, screen by screen.
This is what the app shows you from the moment you open it to your first finished episode, with what to do at each step and what you can skip. Real screenshots from a fresh account, not mockups. About ten minutes, most of it talking.
01
Open it and look round
- What you’ll see
- Today, with the number you are about to make in gold: episode zero. Nothing asks you for anything yet. The four doors along the top all work, so you can open the Vault, the Directory and Account before you have set a single thing up.
- What to do
- Have a look round if you want to. The Directory is where other founders’ series live; yours will be there when you choose. When you are ready, press Set up my series.
- Can you skip it?
- The tour is optional, and so is looking round. Set up my series takes you straight to the questions.
02
The tour, if you want it
- What you’ll see
- Five short stops that say what each part of the app does: Today, the interview, the vault, publishing, and what the app remembers between episodes. Each one is a screen, not a paragraph.
- What to do
- Read them or don’t. Next moves you on; the last stop ends on Set up my series.
- Can you skip it?
- Skip the tour and set up my series sits under every stop. The tour is also in Account whenever you want it back.
03
Four questions set up the series
- What you’ll see
- What it is called, so the questions can say it out loud rather than saying “it”. One line about what you are documenting, in your own words. A name for the series, pre-filled with the company name. And the time of day it should ask you, which you can move any time.
- What to do
- Type plainly. Nothing here is a category or a taxonomy: a founder, a shop and an agency answer the same four questions. Press Start the series.
- Can you skip it?
- You cannot skip these four, and they take about a minute. Everything on this screen can be changed later under Account.
04
Episode zero: where the series starts
- What you’ll see
- Before the daily episodes, one conversation about what you are building, who it is for and where it stands. It shows you back the line you wrote at setup, with Change beside it, and explains that this is a conversation with your co-host, not a form.
- What to do
- Press Start episode 0. It asks for the microphone; there is no camera in this one.
- Can you skip it?
- Not now is there. But every underway series opens with an episode zero, the way a show opens with its titles, and everything you say in it makes every interview after it sharper.
05
A conversation, not a questionnaire
- What you’ll see
- Your voice and the co-host’s, each as a moving line, a running clock, and how much of the call is left. The co-host already knows what you wrote and asks about it. Nothing is scripted.
- What to do
- Talk as you would across a table. When you have said what you came to say, press Finish and save the audio.
- Can you skip it?
- There is nothing to skip inside the call. If you need to stop early, Finish saves what was recorded up to there.
06
Your episode, minutes later
- What you’ll see
- The save takes a few seconds, then the episode page opens on its own. The file is cut and rendered on the server while you watch, and it says Ready to post when it is done. A podcast plays behind the gold wave.
- What to do
- Press play and listen back. Under The cut, every answer is a row with a switch: turn one off and it leaves the episode, turn it back on and it returns. Nothing is ever destroyed.
07
The cover is drawn for you
- What you’ll see
- The still people see before they press play, on Spotify, YouTube and the tile your series is browsed by. It draws itself the first time from the episode’s title. The words on it are yours or the episode’s, never invented.
- What to do
- Leave it, or change the words, or ask it to suggest a line from what you said. Use this cover keeps it for the archive.
08
Private until you say otherwise
- What you’ll see
- Every episode is private. Making it public puts it on your underway page; holding it back keeps it in the vault even when the series goes public. Under that, the text written for each channel from your own words.
- What to do
- Nothing, today. Most founders keep episode zero private until there are a few episodes behind it.
- Can you skip it?
- Publishing is never automatic and never required. Recording and publishing are separate on purpose.
09
Today, after the beginning
- What you’ll see
- Episode zero filmed, the streak started, and tomorrow’s prompt set for the time you chose. The daily interview asks at that time, every day, whatever your commitment is.
- What to do
- Come back at your time tomorrow. Or, if you cannot wait, Record episode 1 now.
10
The daily episode: what happened today?
- What you’ll see
- The shape of the episode (video, or a podcast with no camera), its length and frame, and a box for a few rough lines about your day. Nobody sees the note; the questions are written from it.
- What to do
- Write two or three lines and press Write my questions. If your tools are connected, Read my day proposes the threads for you instead.
- Can you skip it?
- Or just talk to camera is under the note: no questions, one take, for the days you already know what you want to say.
11
Five questions about your actual day
- What you’ll see
- The interview it has written from your note: one thread, followed through its beats. Each question is asked out loud and stays on screen, with a line on what to name so the answer stands on its own once the question is gone.
- What to do
- Turn on the camera and mic, answer one question at a time, re-record any answer as often as you like. Finish debrief cuts them into the episode.
- Can you skip it?
- No questions, just talk is on this screen too.
12
The vault: every episode, cut and kept
- What you’ll see
- One tile per episode with its cover, number, date and running time. The count in gold is the number the whole product is about, and it only ever goes up.
- What to do
- Nothing. This is what accumulates while you get on with the work. Once your series is public the same door is called Archive.
After the first one
The second episode is the same ten minutes, and it already knows you.
Everything you said in episode zero becomes standing context. The next interview opens on what you are building, not on “so, what do you do?”, and every episode after that writes what you said into the series memory, so the questions get sharper as the archive gets longer. Connect the tools where your day happens and it stops asking you to remember what you did.
Episodes count, not days. Miss a day and the next one is simply the next number; a declared pause protects the streak. The prompt arrives at the same time every day, the commitment is yours, and dismissing it costs nothing. The only number that matters daily is whether today’s episode exists.
The iPhone app is in review with Apple. Until it is out, everything on this page works the same way at underway.life on a phone’s browser, apart from screen sharing.
Last word
The footage from today is the only footage of today there will ever be.
Whatever you’re building, start the record today.
underway: while it’s happening.