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How we grew Mintlify by doing things that don't scale - Mintlify

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Most people envision the process of founding a startup to play out like this: the founders brainstorm around a whiteboard, there is a lightbulb moment when a golden idea is born, users flock to the startup the day the product is launched, and then the founders ride off into the sunset to build a successful billion dollar company. While I certainly wish this were true, experience tells me that this could not be further from reality. Instead, what usually happens is a startup launches their product, and either the product does not work, in which case no one uses it, or it does work, but no one wants it anyway. As engineers, we are by default taught to build the thing that is as close to “perfect” as possible: it has to scale, and it has to be high-performing. After all, engineers are trained to build bridges and airplanes where imperfections are costly. But for startups, this creates a trap of startups spending significant time and resources trying to create the most optimal product, onl

All articles For Founders / January 26, 2024 How we grew Mintlify by doing things that don't scale 7 minute s read HW Han Wang Co-Founder Share this article HW Han Wang Co-Founder Share this article SUMMARY This personal account from Mintlify's founder shares how they grew from 0 to 1000+ customers by doing "things that don't scale," including manually migrating documentation for their first customer and building custom docs for cold prospects. The post emphasizes that early-stage startups should focus on customer acquisition and validation over perfect products, using labor-intensive but effe

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