Granola co-founder on users skipping the UI for MCP: 'we're at peace with it'
petergyang · x · 2026-10-05
In a podcast interview with petergyang, Granola co-founder Sam Stephenson discusses product design in the agent era.
- Asked how he feels about users bypassing Granola's UI and using its MCP directly, Sam admits there's "a pang of sadness" as a UI designer, and the team initially fought to keep every workflow inside their own interface.
- But at enterprise scale, internal tooling is inevitable — if Granola doesn't play nice with it, it's a non-starter. The team is now at peace with the model of capturing context in Granola and letting it be consumed through customers' internal agents.
- Other topics include avoiding shipping slop when anyone can deploy, and building an AI startup without 996 culture. Quote: "It's so easy to make stuff. The hard thing is knowing what to make."
Related event: Granola Co-founder on Product Design in the Agent Era(4 posts)→
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