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When Merrill Lutsky and his co-founders Tomas and Greg started Graphite, they did it by the book. 

The initial spark of an idea was validated with countless user interviews, third-party research, and just the right amount of “MVP”-ing. Too much and you’re wasting time, too little and your user doesn’t get enough out of it. 

Their initial target: companies building mobile apps. Read on to find out whether research or experience works better in this context.

BTW: Our new🚨Required Reading🚨 section curates a list of Merrill and Scale’s favourite books, blogs, and articles that will help you validate your ideas like a pro…keep reading to check it out!

The (original) problem

When developers release iOS apps through Apple's App Store, they face a significant problem: if a bug appears after release, they must submit a new version to Apple for review, then wait for approval before users get the fix – a process that can take days. 

Graphite's first product addressed this by creating a system that packaged different iOS app versions together. This allowed companies to roll back problematic releases instantly on users' devices rather than waiting for App Store approval. 

The Graphite team did the work (that we’ve written about many times BTW): they spoke to users, they validated the problem, they didn’t build too much too soon. 

It was a technically complex solution that was based on studying the market and identifying a clear pain point.

The favourite child 

Graphite’s initial market thesis work had worked. Customers started coming in, and off went the revenue graph. 

To manage this growth Graphite began hiring engineers, particularly those who had worked at Meta, which is where the twist in the tale begins… 

Merrill recalls:

These engineers were accustomed to Meta's internal "stack diffs" workflow, a specialized code review system that allows code changes to be made more manageable.

During a company hackathon, these engineers built an internal version of the stack diffs tool just for Graphite's use. It wasn't intended as a product – just a way to improve their own development workflow.

But then something unexpected happened: "Word got out to some other engineers in the ex-Meta community, and we started getting inbound requests saying, 'Hey, I heard you have this stack diffs thing. Can you make this available to us?'"

Even more telling, when Merrill's team would demo their iOS rollback tool to prospective customers, if there happened to be an ex-Meta engineer in the meeting, they would ask, "Yeah, this iOS thing is cool and all, but tell me about the stack diffs thing. I really want that tool."

The excitement was undeniable, but Merrill and his team couldn’t just abandon their current product. 

They set an intentionally high bar, requiring users to not only adopt the tool daily but also join their Slack channel and commit to weekly 30-minute feedback meetings. Even with these stringent requirements, they ended the month with 50 engineers – more than double their target.

The contrast was clear: their market-researched product had customers but tepid enthusiasm, while their internally-built tool generated organic demand and passionate users.

Caring matters 

Reflecting on why this approach succeeded: 

Merrill observed: "We're all developers, we're building a tool for ourselves... I think we had an unfair advantage in building for that customer because ultimately we're just building for ourselves."

Merrill looks back at this experience and recalls a similar feeling he had at his previous start-up. 

"The company was building tools for hotels and restaurants... I didn't come from a background of restaurateurs or hoteliers... I don't think that I deeply understood it or even cared about it as deeply as I would have needed to be really successful."

Today, Graphite has grown into a comprehensive code review platform used by major companies like Shopify, with backing from top investors like Homebrew, a16z, and Accel. Ironically, many of their original iOS rollback tool customers eventually became Graphite code review customers.

The lesson for founders is clear: while market research can identify opportunities, there's often no substitute for the deep understanding and genuine enthusiasm that comes from solving your own problems. 

And when you see unexpected user excitement, having a disciplined framework to test and validate that signal might just lead to your most successful product.

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See you next week!

Rahul & Aryaman