At the moment, we lastly get to speak about one thing we have been constructing behind the scenes for months: Buffer Commit, our first construct contest on the Buffer API!
We’ll run Buffer Commit yearly, and it’ll develop alongside our builder neighborhood.
This 12 months, registration is open from October 15, and the construct window runs from October 28 to November 13, 2026. Our prize pool is 10% of our web revenue for August 2026, which involves $25,600, shared equally amongst as much as 16 winners for $1,600 or extra every. (We lined up the 16 winners and $1,600 as a small nod to Buffer turning 16 on November 30 of this 12 months.)
The inspiration for Buffer Commit got here alongside our launch of Buffer’s new public API in Might of this 12 months, which we constructed in order that anybody, from a solo creator automating their very own posting to a staff constructing a product of their very own, might construct on high of Buffer. What we have seen within the months since has been unbelievable, and we’re past thrilled to be investing within the people constructing on our API instantly.
On this submit, I am going to share a bit extra concerning the why behind this contest, what Buffer Commit is, who it is for, the way it works, and what we hope comes out of 12 months one.
Why we’re doing this
Again in November 2010, Buffer’s Founder CEO Joel Gascoigne constructed the primary model of Buffer throughout a Startup Dash to resolve an issue he was experiencing himself. He needed a strategy to area out when his tweets had been despatched, and it turned out that loads of different individuals had been on the lookout for the identical answer.
Buffer has grown quite a bit since then, however that story nonetheless issues to us, as a result of it is a reminder that helpful software program typically begins with one particular person fixing a selected drawback in their very own work. Sixteen years later, that perception formed one of many greater product bets we have made.
The API we launched in Might is a brand new product, constructed over the previous 12 months on the identical GraphQL basis that has powered Buffer’s personal apps since 2019. It was designed from the begin to be open to everybody. We launched it with out realizing how many individuals would construct on it. We constructed it for builders, and simply as a lot for the creators, entrepreneurs, and small enterprise house owners who join Buffer to the instruments they already use. That is why we invested in an MCP server, a CLI, and connector integrations alongside the API itself. Since launch, greater than 100,000 customers have constructed with the Buffer API, creating greater than 300,000 concepts and 20 million posts via it.
Hiding Elephant and PostIQ are two of the various tasks which have come out of it, they usually’re precisely what we hoped to see. When Amanda Marochko, the Employees Product Supervisor behind Buffer’s API, wrote concerning the rebuild final July, she described precisely this. Buffer cannot and should not construct every thing itself, and the individuals closest to a workflow are sometimes those finest positioned to enhance it, particularly now that AI and low-code instruments let much more of them construct with out an engineering background.
Extra about Buffer Commit
Our API provides builders the instruments to create on high of Buffer, and Buffer Commit places Buffer’s personal sources behind the individuals constructing, from time with our staff to a public stage for his or her work.
The title is a nod to the commit, the small act of saving a completed piece of labor that each builder on our API will acknowledge. It additionally has a pleasant tie-in to the dedication we’re making to our neighborhood, backed by a share of our revenue. We capped the variety of winners at 16 as a result of Buffer turns 16 on November 30, one share for every year Buffer has been round!
Every winner receives a Commit Award, which incorporates their equal share of the prize pool, a spot within the Buffer Commit venture gallery, a point out in our wrap-up weblog submit, a digital group session of about 90 minutes with our Founder CEO Joel Gascoigne and the opposite winners, and a 12 months of Buffer Necessities or their present paid plan lined. Everybody who submits an eligible venture will get a Buffer Commit cap, whether or not they win or not. The total phrases cowl eligibility and every thing else you will wish to know earlier than you register.
Who Buffer Commit is for
Buffer Commit is open to anybody 18 or older with a Buffer account, free or paid, constructing alone or as a staff. In follow, that covers two sorts of builders:
- Energy customers who’ve constructed a instrument round their very own workflow and are able to open it up so different Buffer customers can join their accounts and use it too.
- Builders constructing instruments for different individuals to make use of, like Hiding Elephant and PostIQ above.
In case you’ve constructed one thing on Buffer that different individuals might use, or have an concept for an app that different Buffer customers would need, that is for you.
How Buffer Commit works
You may register by logging in together with your Buffer account, and registration stays open till submissions shut.
For this primary version, we hope to see apps and integrations that clear up a real-world drawback for the individuals who use Buffer each day. No matter you construct must be publicly obtainable via judging, let any Buffer person join their account via Buffer OAuth, and make profitable calls to the Buffer API.
The construct window runs from October 28 to November 13 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Current tasks are welcome, and solely work finished throughout this window shall be judged.
Our Discord server is dwelling base for the competition. It has a devoted help discussion board, workplace hours with Buffer engineers, and a dwell Q&A on Zoom on October 27 at 11 a.m. ET, the place Joel will share the imaginative and prescient behind Buffer Commit, and the Buffer staff will get into contest particulars to reply any questions you could have. We’ll ship you the Zoom invite quickly!
To submit, you will want a hyperlink to your publicly hosted venture, a demo video of two minutes or much less displaying it working finish to finish, and a brief written overview of what you constructed and why.
Joel Gascoigne (Founder CEO), Amanda Marochko (Employees Product Supervisor), and Joe Birch (Employees Engineer) will choose each eligible submission on three standards: whether or not the venture is beneficial, how nicely it is constructed, and the way artistic it’s. As much as 16 winners shall be introduced on December 7.
Two further awards come from the design and content material groups at Buffer, chosen from among the many winners:
- The Delight Award goes to as much as three winners with essentially the most distinctive person expertise, chosen by our design staff.
- The Construct-in-Public Award goes to as much as three winners who shared their progress alongside the best way, chosen by our content material staff.
If you would like a place to begin for posting about your construct in the course of the contest, head to the Buffer Template Library and search for the Buffer Commit class. The prompts there provide you with a construction for sharing your progress, out of your first decide to your ultimate demo. To rely towards the Construct-in-Public Award, every submit wants to say that it is a part of Buffer Commit. Glad posting!
What we hope comes out of this construct contest
Buffer exists to assist creators and small companies get off the bottom and develop, and for near 16 years that has meant serving to them develop an viewers. Buffer Commit extends that mission to the individuals constructing on Buffer.
We’re hoping a few of these tasks outlast the competition: instruments that earn their builders one thing on the facet inside a couple of months and, over time, develop into companies in their very own proper. We would love for this contest to be the place tales like that start, and Buffer will maintain supporting those that take off.
For the builders participating, we hope the construct window provides you three issues:
- A stretch of targeted time to show an concept right into a working venture you may continue to grow towards actual customers.
- A way of neighborhood with the individuals at Buffer and the opposite builders working alongside you.
- A direct line to the staff that builds Buffer’s API, in order that what you study whereas constructing shapes what we construct subsequent.
For the broader Buffer neighborhood, we hope it means extra instruments that match the best way they already work, constructed by individuals who perceive the issue from the within.
That is 12 months one
Buffer Commit will return yearly, and the builders who participate on this first version may have essentially the most affect on what it turns into. What you construct, the questions you ask in our neighborhood, and what you inform us concerning the API in the course of the contest will form how we make investments subsequent 12 months and the years after that.
Registration is now open, and our Discord neighborhood is a superb area for accountability, so come hang around and meet different builders. In case you’ve already constructed one thing on the API, we would like to see it. In case you’ve been ready for a cause to construct, that is it. So, what’s going to you construct?
