Reflecting on 2024
A Year of Growth, Change, and Learning at Mergify
As 2025 begins, I’m taking a moment to reflect on an eventful 2024—a year of evolution, challenges, and new beginnings for me and Mergify. Building a bootstrapped company comes with its own unique highs and lows, and 2024 was no exception. Here’s what the past year taught me and how it has shaped the future of Mergify.
Keeping Mergify Thriving in a Changing Market
Surviving and thriving as a bootstrap startup is always worth celebrating, especially in a niche like ours. In 2024, we doubled down on what makes Mergify special: our Merge Queue product, which remains the best in the market for helping engineering teams manage pull request workflows.
That said, we also recognized our limitations. While we’ve always been proud of our technology, we realized this year that having great tech isn’t enough. For years, Mergify was more of a tech-driven company than a product-focused one. This year, we worked hard to change that, shifting our mindset to prioritize product design, usability, and scalability.
The advancement of competitors, such as GitHub, forced us to rethink our strategy. We’ve been evolving in a niche for years, and it’s now time for us to expand our vision beyond what we’ve been doing so far.
2024 also brought some tough lessons about the realities of the market. We initially decided to double down on marketing in late 2022, deploying our efforts during all of 2023. However, after the startup market crash of late 2022, we spent much of 2023 navigating a challenging environment where companies were hesitant to adopt new tools. As that trend continued into early 2024, we ultimately decided to scale back our marketing efforts and rethink how we approach growth.
The truth is that marketing alone can’t solve every problem—especially in a niche like ours. Instead, we’re focusing on building the best products possible and letting our work speak for itself. This approach has already started to pay off, and we’re more confident than ever in Mergify’s future.
A Shift Toward Product and Design
Consequently, one of the pivotal moments in 2024 was hiring a designer—a first for Mergify. This move sparked a transformation in how we approached our product. It wasn’t just about solving technical challenges anymore; it was about creating an experience developers love.
This new focus led to a complete redesign of our branding and dashboard, making it easier than ever for teams to onboard and use Mergify. It also paved the way for new products like Merge Protections, a tool for managing repository freezes and policies. This was the first product we built with a product-driven mindset from the ground up, and it’s already gaining traction with customers.
Back to Founder Mode
In 2024, I found myself returning to what is now called “founder mode.” For the first time in years, I rolled up my sleeves and dove back into coding and product development. Writing Python again, designing architecrure, new workflows, and collaborating directly with the team reminded me of the early days of Mergify—and how much I enjoy building things.
This hands-on approach was fueled in part by the rise of AI tools, which have transformed how we work. From speeding up R&D to enhancing productivity, AI has helped us stay agile and efficient as we tackle big challenges in CI/CD.
Doubling Down on R&D
Speaking of challenges, research and development was a major focus for us in 2024. We spent a lot of time exploring how to solve some of the toughest problems in CI/CD, like flaky tests, CI failures, and observability issues. These pain points resonate deeply with our customers, and we’re excited to bring solutions to market in 2025.
Our work so far has been a team effort, but it’s also required stepping outside our comfort zone. We’ve been engaging more directly with developers, learning from their frustrations and workflows, and using those insights to shape our next big product.
On a Personal Note
Outside of Mergify, 2024 was a year of rediscovery for me. I started writing again, leaning on tools like GPT to help me produce regular content and share my thoughts with a wider audience. Writing has always been a way for me to reflect, and having the discipline to do it consistently has been rewarding.
I also continued my work as a business angel, supporting other startups and sharing what I’ve learned from building Mergify. While balancing this with my responsibilities at Mergify can be challenging, it’s incredibly fulfilling to help others navigate the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.
I continued publishing episodes of Nom d’un Pipeline !, my French CI/CD-themed podcast. This has been a tremendous way to meet new people and learn stuff. I really enjoy the exercise of podcasting, and I’m looking for an excuse to start a new one this year.
I also recorded several episodes as a guest, one in French in IFTTD, another one in French and in Toulouse on the future of tech, another one in French on The Cloud Screener, one on The Python Show, and, finally, one with saas.group.
Looking Ahead to 2025
As I look to the year ahead, I’m more excited than ever about what’s next for Mergify. We’re working on new products that tackle critical pain points in CI/CD, and we’re committed to helping developers ship faster and with less friction. At the same time, we’re staying true to our roots as a bootstrap startup—focused, agile, and always learning.
2024 was a year of growth in every sense of the word. It challenged us to think differently, to embrace new ideas, and to keep pushing forward. As we enter 2025, I’m grateful for the lessons we’ve learned, the customers we serve, and the incredible team that makes it all possible.
Here’s to another year of building, learning, and growing.