Right, something weird happened over the weekend. The AI world went completely quiet. No announcements, no drama, no AI companies doing something questionable. Holiday season has arrived!

So instead of making up fluff, I ran through my complete Build in Public playbook - the audience-building system from the AI Summer Camp. I’ve built a bunch of resources for you off the back of the talk.

Yes this is a slightly mad reaction to having no news to cover. Instead of just, you know, taking the day of I built a new education workflow and delivered an ad hoc lecture. But…you know me by now!

Let’s get to it!

The Product Graveyard

Go to any product directory - Product Hunt, Future Tools, There's An AI For That. You'll find hundreds of thousands of tools listed. Most have under 100 users. Many are completely abandoned.

These weren't bad products. Their creators just made one fatal mistake: they built first and thought about distribution later. By then, it was too late.

My favourite example: Slack vs Microsoft Teams. Slack is objectively the better product. Anyone who's used both knows this. Teams is horrible and no-one likes it.

But look at the growth charts - Teams absolutely buried Slack. Microsoft had distribution. An existing audience. People they could talk to.

It doesn't matter that Teams is worse. Distribution won. A bad product with great marketing beats a great product with bad marketing. Every time.

The Equation Nobody Wants to Accept

Building is only 50% of the equation. Distribution is the other 50%. And if you start thinking about distribution after you've built, you're already too late.

Greg Eisenberg goes further - it’s 80/20:

Without an audience, you have two options. You can borrow distribution - come to someone like me and say "Kyle, promote my thing." Maybe I say yes for 50% commission, maybe I want £2,000, maybe I just say no. Hint: I say no. Notice how I don’t do sponsored posts!

Or you can buy distribution through ads. Meta, Google, LinkedIn. Works, but requires capital upfront. It’s generally better to layer advertising in later once you have some product market fit.

There's a third path: build an audience.

How? You document your building process publicly. You share what you're learning. You become the bridge between AI and your industry. By the time your product is ready to launch, you're not launching to crickets. You're launching to people who've been watching, waiting, and actively want what you're building.

Building an audience isn't delaying your launch - it's de-risking it.

What You're Getting (All Free)

I've packaged up everything for you.

First, the slide deck. It covers the full 5-step system: Remove Friction, Find Your Comrades, Engineer Success, Choose Your Angles, and Systemise Consistency. Download it here: get the slide deck.

Second, the complete free course. The full Build in Public module from AI Summer Camp goes deeper than I could cover in the live session. Step-by-step guidance for building your distribution. Grab it at aiwithkyle.com/courses → AI Summer Camp → Build in Public.

Third, the live session recording. The full walkthrough with Q&A where I cover everything from choosing your platform to the specific prompts for finding collaborators in your niche. Watch it here: AI with Kyle - Building an Audience for your Business.

Or find everything here in one place:

Quick Reality Check

This isn't about becoming an influencer. I want to be clear on that.

The Influencer Model treats the audience as the product - you're chasing views and brand deals. The Founder Model (that's you) treats the audience as the channel to deliver your product. You're building a business. The audience is just distribution infrastructure.

Big difference.

If you're building something - whether it's an AI tool, a service, a course, whatever - and you're doing it in secret hoping it'll all work out when you launch, this is your wake-up call.

I’m hoping these guides will help people with motivation and blocks! I had this lovely comment on the video already so fingers crossed this is a useful development! If handy I’ll do more.

Start documenting. Start sharing. Start building your distribution now. Everything you need is in the resources above, and it's all free.

Keep Prompting,

Kyle

Kyle's Community Launch: The 5 Day AI Readiness Challenge is now open. Come to https://community.aiwithkyle.com/c/challenge/ to start.

Want the full unfiltered discussion? Join me tomorrow for the daily AI news live stream where we dig into the stories and you can ask questions directly.

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