For decades, keeping documentation updated was a low-priority task. Now, with AI support agents relying on this content as their source of truth, outdated information leads to immediate, tangible failures. This creates the urgent business case to finally solve knowledge decay.
Early on, Mintlify's co-founders performed the unscalable work of manually migrating new customers and even improving their grammar. This "extra mile" service, reinforced by Y Combinator's Paul Graham, was a key driver in sparking initial customer love and adoption.
Documentation is no longer just for humans. AI agents now read it directly as operational input, making its accuracy critical for system function. Outdated docs, once a nuisance, now cause system failures, elevating documentation to the level of essential infrastructure.
As AI agents become primary consumers of documentation, the battle for superior developer experience shifts from visual design to content accuracy. An agent reading raw markdown doesn't care about UI, making the underlying information paramount and the foundation of a modern DevEx strategy.
To successfully sell to fast-moving AI companies, a startup must match their operational tempo. Mintlify observed customers responding to Slack messages in under 10 seconds at all hours and realized they had to hold themselves to the same standard to be a credible partner.
Non-developer teams like support and HR are adopting technical tools because their workflows now involve AI agents. Since building and maintaining these agents requires engineering input, the engineers' preferred tools get pulled into these other departments, blurring organizational lines.
After experiencing numerous lukewarm responses to failed ideas, the intense, urgent demand from a customer for a successful product becomes an undeniable signal. The contrast between a polite 'maybe later' and a frantic 'how do I get this now?' makes true product-market fit impossible to miss.
When developing new products, focus on perfectly solving a problem for a single user to create a passionate advocate. This is more valuable than building something that elicits a lukewarm response from a large user base. Deep engagement from one trumps shallow engagement from many.
Mintlify's sales motion involves proactively migrating a potential customer's documentation onto its platform and presenting a finished, superior product. This "show, don't tell" approach immediately demonstrates value, bypasses theoretical pitches, and creates an instant desire to adopt the tool.