At Collision 2023, Merge Co-Founder Shensi Ding and other industry leaders discussed the challenges and strategies for building successful developer-focused companies. Ding highlighted the importance of understanding developer pain points through hands-on coding experience and emphasized the need for quality product development. The conversation also touched upon the journey from product building to market selling, where Ding and her co-founder experimented with pricing models and learned objection handling to better understand their product and customer needs. The panel underscored the evolving nature of pricing as part of product development and the necessity of simple, value-based pricing strategies. Sentry CEO Milin Desai emphasized the importance of developer productivity, noting that a focus on reducing meetings and enhancing tooling can significantly impact effectiveness. The discussion also covered how companies can maintain focus amidst the frequent AI product launches by evaluating ROI and customer needs, with Merge finding success by enabling customer contributions to their platform. The session concluded with advice for founders, stressing the importance of experimentation, understanding target audiences, and learning to sell effectively.