Mintlify's founder shares a candid account of how the company grew from zero to over 1,000 customers by engaging in labor-intensive, non-scalable activities, such as manually migrating documentation for initial clients and crafting custom documentation for potential customers. This approach, inspired by Paul Graham's essay on doing things that don't scale, prioritized customer acquisition and validation over creating a flawless product. The founders, Han Wang and Hahnbee, learned through multiple pivots and by delivering exceptional customer experiences that securing initial customers provided invaluable feedback for product improvement. Their strategy involved reaching out to acquaintances in the startup community, offering technical writing services, and proactively developing documentation for prospects, which eventually led to a larger user base. As Mintlify grew, they transitioned from hands-on methods to developing a self-service onboarding system, maintaining the ethos of prioritizing customer relationships to guide product evolution.