How to Engineer Real Product Market Fit

In this episode of The Merge, we sit down with Michael Grinich, founder and CEO of WorkOS. Checkout Coderabbit: https://coderabbit.link/themerge Michael shares one of the best explanations of Product-Market Fit we’ve heard: it’s not the finish line — it’s more like getting the Mario Star. Once you have it, you become untouchable enough to survive your own biggest mistakes… but only if you keep innovating. We also dive into: - How to actually engineer PMF instead of just hoping for it - Crossing the enterprise chasm that kills most startups - Why product engineers are outperforming traditional teams - The new authentication and permissions challenges for AI agents - His optimistic (and very practical) view on the future of software development If you're building a startup or scaling a product in the AI era, this conversation is full of actionable insights. Connect with Michael: X/Twitter: https://x.com/grinich WorkOS: https://workos.com Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 02:45 - The Mario Star theory of Product-Market Fit 08:30 - How to engineer PMF instead of chasing it 15:10 - Crossing the enterprise chasm 22:40 - Product engineers vs traditional teams 31:00 - Building for AI agents & the new auth problem 42:15 - Michael’s take on the future of software development