build in public without editing, in three steps

you can build in public without editing by letting something else do the parts that are not talking. underway is an app built for that. it reads your day from the tools you already use, asks you a few questions about it out loud whenever suits you, and a few minutes after you stop there is a finished, numbered, captioned episode. three steps, and none of them is editing.

it is for founders at any stage and anyone documenting a build, who would post more if posting did not mean an hour in an editor. there is a 7-day free trial of any plan, with a card added at the start and nothing charged until day 8.

why building in public stalls at the edit

the list is familiar to anyone who has tried. you do not know what to say. you would have to set up a camera. you would film it three times. then you would edit: trim the false starts, add captions, a title, export the right shape for each network, write the post. filming takes minutes. the edit takes the hour you do not have after a day of building, and after a week of skipped edits the series quietly stops.

the common advice is to lower the bar: post raw, write instead, pick one platform. it helps, and it trades away the thing that makes video worth doing, which is a clear, watchable record of you saying what happened. underway takes the other route. keep the bar, and take the editing away.

how to build in public without editing: the three steps

step 1: it reads your day

connect what you already use, if you like. github, linear and vercel for what shipped, google calendar for meeting titles and times, fathom, fireflies or zoom for what was said, stripe and whop for payments, plausible for traffic, kit or beehiiv for your newsletter, shopify, gumroad and the other shop tools for what sold. every connection only reads, and every one is included on every plan, the trial too. other people's voices from meetings never become footage.

through the day it gathers what happened into a tray, plus anything you add yourself: a voice note, a fifteen-second moment to camera, a screenshot, a link, a line. when you sit down to record, it already knows roughly what today was, and your season suggests what is worth filming. you never start from a blank page.

step 2: you answer

press record an episode and pick the kind: a video interview, an audio interview with no camera, a walk-through of your screen, a conversation with the ai co-host, or just chat with nothing asked. then pick what it is about, up to nine things. each becomes one question, written before you start and shown to you so you can change it.

the questions are asked out loud, one at a time, in a voice you chose for the series. you answer each for as long as it takes, and it moves to the next. there are no follow-ups and no countdown, and it ends after the last question. one take is the take: mistakes, pauses and restarts are fine, because the cut takes them out. a retake is for when you got a fact wrong.

step 3: the episode is ready

when you stop, the job is done. the episode is cut and rendered on the server while you get on with your day, usually a few minutes. your answers in the order you said them, cut on full sentences, the ums, false starts and long pauses out, captions burned in, a title card with your series name and the episode number, and a small made with underway mark in the corner.

then the words are written for you: a youtube title and description, a linkedin post, an x thread, a caption for tiktok and instagram, a reddit post, a snap caption, show notes and an article, all from what you said. keep the episode private, put it on your page, or post it.

what you still control, without an editor

no editing does not mean no say. the cut lists every answer with a switch: turn one off and the episode updates. the fine edit strikes a single word. your brand, a logo, your colours, a typeface and an optional picture behind the card, is set once and goes on every episode after. the polish is set once too: dialogue clean-up, the transition between cuts, the grade. there is no timeline to drag around, because you are not the editor.

what the edit never does is change what you said. nothing is reordered to make a better hook, no words are added, and no footage is invented. the honesty is about substance. the polish is about looking like you meant it.

if you ever want to cut something yourself, the raw recordings download from the footage tab on every plan, the trial included.

build in public without editing: the tools compared

people who want to build in public without editing usually weigh three kinds of tool: an editor that makes editing easier, a clip tool that cuts a long video for you, or posting straight from the phone. all three are reasonable. they leave different jobs with you.

the short version: an editor makes editing faster, and you are still the editor. a clip tool needs the long video to exist first. underway starts from nothing, by asking you questions, and hands you the finished episode.

what it costs

• a 7-day free trial of founder, series or studio for every new account: card at the start, nothing charged until day 8, and an email three days before with the date and how to cancel.
• founder, $29.99 a month or $299.90 a year: the three steps, by voice, camera or screen, an episode minutes after you finish, your page, the words for every platform, every connection, thirty minutes of ai co-host conversation a month, and posting to your own accounts.
• series, $79.99 a month or $799.90 a year: everything in founder, plus one tap posting to youtube, linkedin, tiktok, instagram and x, the week in one cut, the month in one film, the podcast feed, the series deck and two hours of co-host time.
• studio, $129.99 a month or $1,299.90 a year: everything in series, plus pro youtube thumbnails, motion graphics, an article on every episode's page and three hours of co-host time.

nothing goes out unless you send it

every episode is private until you publish it, on every plan. it waits in the vault, numbered and dated, and nobody sees it until you choose. the camera and mic only record when you press the button, and a red light says so. any episode can be deleted from the bottom of its page, which removes the video, the transcripts and everything cut from them, and your raw footage is yours to download whatever plan you are on.

and a missed day costs nothing. episodes are counted, not days, so the next one is simply the next number. the streak counts against the days you chose, and one tap of pause protects it.

the plans, and what each one includes: pricing.

the formats a daily video can take, and how long each costs you: build in public video.