---
title: "Inside Intercom New York startup panel - The Intercom Blog"
description: "At an Intercom World Tour panel in New York, founders from Augment, an AR platform; Greenhouse, recruiting software; and Hello Alfred, on-demand home services, shared lessons on building emerging technologies. Mike Boufford of Greenhouse described fixing bugs by chatting with customers and deploying fixes within minutes, demonstrating how product and support intertwine. Christian Bjelland of Hello Alfred explained that their service must advocate for customers when real-world problems like lost laundry occur, requiring quick reactions. On growth, Boufford advised proving product-market fit before raising money, while Bjelland stressed dense, sustainable growth in specific zip codes to maintain quality. Lindsay Boyajian of Augment noted that no AR platform existed before, so constant user feedback and rapid iteration are critical to building a useful product."
---

# Inside Intercom New York startup panel - The Intercom Blog

[Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom) · Oct 8, 2026

**Type:** Explainer

## Summary

At an Intercom World Tour panel in New York, founders from Augment, an AR platform; Greenhouse, recruiting software; and Hello Alfred, on-demand home services, shared lessons on building emerging technologies. Mike Boufford of Greenhouse described fixing bugs by chatting with customers and deploying fixes within minutes, demonstrating how product and support intertwine. Christian Bjelland of Hello Alfred explained that their service must advocate for customers when real-world problems like lost laundry occur, requiring quick reactions. On growth, Boufford advised proving product-market fit before raising money, while Bjelland stressed dense, sustainable growth in specific zip codes to maintain quality. Lindsay Boyajian of Augment noted that no AR platform existed before, so constant user feedback and rapid iteration are critical to building a useful product.

## Context

A panel of founders from Augment, Greenhouse, and Hello Alfred discuss building products with emerging technologies like AR and on-demand services, sharing lessons on product-market fit, customer support, and growth strategies.

## Takeaways

- Fixing customer bugs in real time via chat and immediate deployment can tightly integrate product and support experience, building trust and improving the product.
- For on-demand services, growing densely in specific areas maintains quality control and avoids the quality drops that come from spreading too thin during rapid expansion.
- Proving product-market fit before raising money leads to sustainable growth, as shown by Greenhouse waiting a year and a half before seeking funding.

## FAQ

### How did Greenhouse handle early product bugs?

Customers would report bugs via chat, and Boufford would immediately fix them in his editor and deploy to production. He then emailed the customer to let them know the fix was live within minutes.

### What is Hello Alfred's growth strategy?

Hello Alfred focuses on dense growth in specific zip codes rather than spreading thin across a wide area. This maintains quality control and avoids issues from rapid expansion, especially when human labor is involved.

### How do you build an AR platform when none exists?

Lindsay Boyajian said the key is constantly talking to customers and incorporating their feedback as quickly as possible. Since no AR platform existed before, rapid iteration is essential to building something useful.

**Tags:** [Customer Support](https://yomu.fyi/topic/customer-support), [Product Management](https://yomu.fyi/topic/product-management), [Startups](https://yomu.fyi/topic/startups)

- Source: [Intercom](https://www.intercom.com/blog/podcasts/podcast-inside-intercom-new-york-startup-panel)
- Source URL: https://www.intercom.com/blog/podcasts/podcast-inside-intercom-new-york-startup-panel
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-10-08T21:00:41.766Z

[Read original post](https://www.intercom.com/blog/podcasts/podcast-inside-intercom-new-york-startup-panel)