Why We're Building ZenGrants in Public

We believe that the best products are built with their users, not just for them. That's why we're taking a "Build in Public" approach with ZenGrants—sharing our journey, our challenges, and our wins as we go.

What Does "Building in Public" Mean?

Building in public means developing our product transparently. Instead of working in stealth mode for months before a big reveal, we're sharing our roadmap, design decisions, and even our failures as they happen.

This approach has been popularised by founders like Pieter Levels (Nomad List) and Patrick McKenzie, who have shown that transparency breeds trust and accelerates product-market fit.

Why We're Doing This

1. Transparency Builds Trust

Grant writing is deeply personal. You're trusting software with your business's future funding. By showing how we work—our technology choices, our data privacy commitments, our roadmap—we hope to build trust with the community of innovators we aim to serve.

We're not hiding behind corporate speak. We'll be honest when we make mistakes, transparent about our limitations, and clear about what we're working on next.

2. Faster Feedback Loops

There's no point spending six months building a feature nobody wants. By showing our work early (even when it's rough), we can get feedback from real users and iterate quickly.

Our waitlist isn't just an email collection tool—it's our first design partner cohort. If you're on the list, expect invitations to preview features, test prototypes, and shape the product direction.

3. Accountability

When you announce your plans publicly, you're accountable to deliver. This keeps us focused and motivated, especially during the inevitable tough moments of early-stage product development.

We'll share monthly updates on our progress, blockers, and what we've learned. If we pivot or change direction, we'll explain why.

4. Community Over Competition

The grant writing market isn't winner-takes-all. There are thousands of UK businesses that need funding support, and we'd rather build a community of users who feel invested in ZenGrants's success than guard "trade secrets."

What We'll Share

Here's what you can expect from us:

• Product updates: New features, design iterations, technical architecture decisions.
• Metrics: User numbers, waitlist growth, engagement stats (within reason—we won't share proprietary data).
• Challenges: What's hard? Where are we stuck? What technical or product problems are we solving?
• Roadmap: What's next? What features are we prioritising and why?
• Learnings: Insights about grant writing, AI technology, and building a startup in the public sector space.

What We Won't Share

While we're committed to transparency, there are boundaries:

• User data: Your grant applications are private. We'll never share specific user content or personally identifiable information.
• Proprietary AI models: We'll talk about our approach and architecture, but we won't open-source our core competitive advantage.
• Financial details: We're a private company. We'll share growth metrics but not granular revenue or funding details.

How You Can Get Involved

This only works if it's a two-way conversation. Here's how you can participate:

• Join the waitlist: Get early access and shape the product as a design partner.
• Follow our blog: We'll post monthly updates on progress, learnings, and the UK grant landscape.
• Share feedback: Tell us what you need, what's frustrating about current grant tools, and what would make your life easier.
• Connect on LinkedIn: Follow ZenGrants for bite-sized updates.

The Journey Ahead

We're in the early stages of building ZenGrants, and there will be bumps along the way. We'll make mistakes, change direction, and probably build features we later scrap.

But we're excited to take this journey with you. Let's build something that genuinely helps UK innovators secure the funding they need to change the world.