The Engineer’s Dilemma: What We Did Right at Mergify

A classic mistake that many tech founders make.

In the early days of Mergify, the journey Mehdi and I embarked on wasn’t unique. In fact, it’s a tale as old as time for engineer founders: a couple of smart engineers, passionate about technology, with an exciting vision to revolutionize their space. We had everything we needed—or so we thought: the knowledge, the technical expertise, and the drive to build something incredible.

This is where the story of Mergify begins, but what often happens next is a classic mistake that many tech founders make. They build a beautiful, feature-packed product that doesn’t solve a real problem—or even worse, it solves a problem no one has. This is the hard lesson that too many engineers learn too late, and it could have easily been us.

But we managed to steer our ship in a different direction, and looking back, there are key things we did right. Let me take you through that journey.

The Temptation of the Tech

For any engineer, there’s nothing more fun than building. The thrill of creating a new feature, optimizing your product, or pushing out updates can become intoxicating. Mehdi and I felt this pull strongly when we started Mergify. We had big ideas, a packed roadmap, and technical solutions that we were eager to implement.

But here’s the thing: technology, while critical, is only a part of building a successful SaaS business. We could have easily fallen into the trap of focusing solely on the tech and neglecting the most important piece of the puzzle: the customer.

We both had to confront the reality that building an amazing product wasn’t enough. If we didn’t speak to our customers, understand their pain points, and really get to the heart of their problems, we were going to fail.

This is where so many engineer-founded startups stumble. They fall in love with their technology rather than falling in love with solving the customer’s problem. Luckily, we managed to recognize this early on.

Engineers Need to Talk to People

Talking to customers doesn’t come naturally to most engineers—it didn’t for us either—but it was a necessary step. While it’s tempting to stay behind your keyboard, tweaking code or adding features, the real magic happens when you step out and listen to what your customers are saying. What do they struggle with? What would make their lives easier? What’s keeping them up at night?

I remember one story about two bright engineers who reached out to me on LinkedIn, seeking advice. We decided to meet at a bar. They had spent three years working on a fantastic piece of technology but hadn’t seen any traction. Why? because they hadn’t built it with a customer in mind. The tech was solid, but it didn’t solve any real problem. They hadn’t spent time talking to users, and so the product existed in a vacuum.

You've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology — Steve Jobs (1997)

With Mergify, we knew that if we were going to build something with a lasting impact, we needed to constantly engage with our community and understand their problems. It wasn’t enough to have a great piece of technology—we had to have a great solution to a real problem.

Shifting Roles for Success

One of the smartest things Mehdi and I did early on was divide our roles clearly. We knew that if both of us were deep in the tech, Mergify would never succeed. So, while Mehdi stayed focused on building the product, I took on the role of sales, marketing, and customer interaction.

For an engineer, stepping into these roles can be uncomfortable at first. Sales? Marketing? Communication? These aren’t things they teach you in computer science class. But it was a necessary shift and one that paid off.

I drew from my experience selling self-published books. I knew that just because you write something doesn’t mean people will read it. You have to market it, spread the word, and get it into the hands of people who need it. The same principle applied to Mergify. We couldn’t just build features and expect users to come flocking. We had to sell it, promote it, and make it known. This is still something we need to do to this day.

The Hard Truth

The truth is, you can have the best technology in the world, but if you don’t have customers, it’s worthless.

I remember another encounter at a wedding, where the bride's father introduced me to his nephew—a tech entrepreneur. The moment I heard him describe his startup, I already knew what was wrong. “You’re not selling anything, are you?” I asked. The bride’s father looked at me, astonished by the boldness of my assumption. And sure enough, he wasn’t. He and his co-founder, both engineers, had spent their time adding features instead of learning how to sell their product. He admitted that I was not the first to tell them it was one recipe for a disaster.

At Mergify, we avoided that trap. We recognized early on that while the tech needed to be solid, the success of our business depended on our ability to market and sell it.

What We Did Right

So, what did we do right at Mergify? We talked to our customers, really talked to them. We asked questions, learned about their challenges, and made sure we were solving their pain points. We didn’t fall in love with our technology; we fell in love with the problem. And most importantly, we divided and conquered. Mehdi stayed on the tech while I trained myself in the art of sales, marketing, and product management.

These steps weren’t easy, requiring us to step outside our comfort zones, but they made all the difference. Five years later, Mergify isn’t just a successful SaaS company because we built great tech—it’s successful because we solved real problems for real people.

And that’s the real lesson for any engineer founder: focus on the problem, not the tech, and you’ll go far.