Graphite’s Merrill Lutsky on Revolutionizing Code Review for the AI Era
Apr 1, 2025
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Merrill Lutsky, co-founder and CEO of Graphite, shares insights from his journey transitioning from developing a customer feedback tool to revolutionizing code review for the AI era. He discusses fostering trust through unique team-building practices like weekly dinners and co-founder therapy. The conversation highlights Graphite’s innovative AI-powered tool, Diamond, which enhances coding efficiency. Merrill also touches on New York's rise as a tech hub and the importance of maintaining work-life balance through pursuits like competitive running.
Merrill Lutsky emphasizes the importance of fostering trust through unique team-building practices like weekly dinners and co-founder therapy sessions.
Graphite's innovative AI-powered code review companion, Diamond, is designed to enhance productivity and streamline workflows in the evolving tech landscape.
Deep dives
Introduction to Graphite's AI-Driven Code Review
Graphite is positioned as an innovative code review platform that leverages AI to enhance developer productivity. The platform combines effective workflows and tools inspired by major tech companies like Google and Meta, enabling developers to receive rapid feedback on code changes. This allows teams to merge and review code more efficiently than ever before. With recent funding of $52 million in Series B, Graphite is poised for significant growth and further product development.
Lessons from Early Startup Experiences
Meryl Lutzke, the CEO of Graphite, reflects on her initial entrepreneurial venture, which focused on customer feedback tools in the hospitality industry. Despite modest success, the experience taught her valuable lessons about building teams, creating products, and understanding market demands. This journey was complemented by her academic pursuits at Harvard, where she formed strong relationships with future co-founders. These experiences laid a strong foundation for her approach to startups, emphasizing the importance of team dynamics, market timing, and product ideas.
Building a Cohesive Founding Team
Graphite's founding team comprises three individuals with diverse backgrounds from leading tech companies, each bringing unique strengths. Their dynamic, likened to a tripod, provides mutual support that enhances their ability to navigate challenges. Through regular dinners and even co-founder therapy, they maintain a solid personal and professional foundation. This open communication fosters trust and collaboration, essential for the success of their growing company.
Adapting to Market Changes with AI
The tech landscape is rapidly evolving, and Graphite's tools are designed to handle the increasing complexity brought about by AI in coding. With new AI-generated code flooding the market, the need for effective code review tools is greater than ever. Graphite aims to streamline the outer loop of code review, which is crucial for deploying quality code quickly. By continuously integrating AI into their platform, they maintain a competitive edge and address the challenges that come with increased coding activity.
In this episode of Spotlight On, Accel’s Christine Esserman sits down with Merrill Lutsky, co-founder and CEO of Graphite, to discuss how his company is redefining code review for the AI era. Merrill shares how he and his co-founders have fostered an unconventional yet deeply effective approach to building trust through weekly Monday dinners and co-founder “therapy” sessions. They discuss the unique challenges of building a developer tools platform inspired by Meta’s engineering culture and how Graphite’s AI-powered code review companion, Diamond, enables teams to work smarter and faster.
From navigating pivots to scaling a fast-growing AI startup headquartered in New York City, Merrill offers insights into the messy, exhilarating process of building a company that’s reshaping how developers collaborate in the age of AI.
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