---
title: "The pains of growing a platform - The Intercom Blog"
description: "Many SaaS companies aspire to become platforms, but building a true platform is far more complex than offering APIs and integrations. Intercom, despite having over 250 third-party integrations and nearly 40% of customers using its APIs, acknowledges that this alone does not constitute a platform. The post identifies three common mistakes: trying to become a platform too early, expecting others to build integrations, and focusing on adoption metrics instead of developer success. Intercom emphasizes that platforms are governed ecosystems requiring extensibility and distribution, and that companies should start by building for their own customers before third parties. Building a lasting platform takes years of deliberate planning and long-term investment, as demonstrated by Salesforce’s gradual evolution from a point solution to a platform."
---

# The pains of growing a platform - The Intercom Blog

[Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom) · Oct 9, 2026

**Type:** Problem & solution

## Summary

Many SaaS companies aspire to become platforms, but building a true platform is far more complex than offering APIs and integrations. Intercom, despite having over 250 third-party integrations and nearly 40% of customers using its APIs, acknowledges that this alone does not constitute a platform. The post identifies three common mistakes: trying to become a platform too early, expecting others to build integrations, and focusing on adoption metrics instead of developer success. Intercom emphasizes that platforms are governed ecosystems requiring extensibility and distribution, and that companies should start by building for their own customers before third parties. Building a lasting platform takes years of deliberate planning and long-term investment, as demonstrated by Salesforce’s gradual evolution from a point solution to a platform.

## Context

Intercom shares lessons learned from its journey to become a platform, including common mistakes and strategies for success.

## Takeaways

- Building a platform takes years of deliberate planning and long-term investment; it does not happen overnight.
- Companies should focus on developer success rather than just adoption metrics like number of integrations.
- Start by building integrations for your own customers to dogfood APIs and understand workflows before expecting third parties to build.

## FAQ

### What is a platform according to the post?

A platform is a governed ecosystem, not just APIs and integrations. It provides infrastructure for others to build and grow their business by accessing underlying data, unlike a product which serves one or a few jobs.

### Why should companies build integrations themselves?

Building integrations yourself lets you dogfood your APIs, find gaps, and understand how your product fits in customer workflows. Strategic integrations are crucial and should be owned rather than handed off to third parties.

### How should platform success be measured?

Platform success should be measured by developer success, not just the number of integrations or percentage of integrated customers. Define what developer success looks like and focus on enabling developers to succeed.

**Tags:** [API](https://yomu.fyi/topic/api), [Developer Experience](https://yomu.fyi/topic/developer-experience), [Integrations](https://yomu.fyi/topic/integrations), [Platform](https://yomu.fyi/topic/platform), [SaaS](https://yomu.fyi/topic/saas)

- Source: [Intercom](https://www.intercom.com/blog/the-pains-of-growing-a-platform)
- Source URL: https://www.intercom.com/blog/the-pains-of-growing-a-platform
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-10-09T12:01:32.181Z

[Read original post](https://www.intercom.com/blog/the-pains-of-growing-a-platform)