As the founder and CEO of Resend, Zeno Rocha is seeking to build the best developer-focused email API, which requires high-quality documentation.

"Docs done right are more than just walls of text," according to Zeno, "they're thoughtful and well-designed extensions of a brand's identity." To achieve this quality bar, documentation must be intuitive for developers to build and update, and easy for users to navigate and digest.

Challenge: Getting the balance of quality and speed

Before launching Resend, Zeno built docs in-house for various projects, most recently as VP of Developer Experience at WorkOS. He believed that docs had to be built from scratch with a slow and resource-heavy process in order to achieve the perfect balance of quality and functionality.

Typically, people see docs as adjacent to the product, but I've always believed docs are a part of the product. — Zeno Rocha, Founder & CEO

Treating docs like a product at WorkOS, he learned, meant having a roadmap, budget, and a team of dedicated engineers, designers, and others to build docs, identify patterns, and organize content.

While Zeno wanted the control and customization from custom-built docs, at Resend he didn't have the budget, resources, or time to spare. And as a Y Combinator (W23) startup, Resend needed to prove traction right away. "We had to figure out how to make something fast, but still have that quality factor," says Zeno.

The criteria for a documentation partner

Zeno needed a solution that could help Resend build first-class docs fast—without pain and frustration, but with a high quality bar. His top requirements:

• Modern, beautiful, and customizable design
• A natural fit for developer workflows

Solution: White-glove migration, purpose-built components, and a focus on DX

Before Mintlify, Resend tested two other documentation platforms, but were disappointed by the outdated designs, lack of customization, and poor readability. "I didn't feel like they cared about docs as much as I did," he says. "If you're building a developer product, you need a partner, not just a vendor."

So in November of 2022, they tried Mintlify, hopeful that fellow YC alumni (W22) could deliver on design and performance.

The fact that you can write content in markdown, don't need to think about how to display it nicely, and it just renders well is the functionality we needed—Mintlify checked all the boxes. — Zeno Rocha, Founder & CEO

Wicked fast migration

Right away, Mintlify’s white-glove docs migration saved Zeno valuable time, completing the entire process in under two days.

"If I had done that manually, it would've taken me hours. But even if it took me two minutes, that's the type of work I don't want to do. It's not the best use of my time," he says. Impressed by what they saw, Resend also chose to use Mintlify for their open-source project, React Email.

Customization without the hassle

Mintlify's starter templates, with out-of-the-box essentials like sidebars and quick-start cards, impressed Zeno. "You can tell Mintlify has kept up with the trends around docs," he says.

Resend easily customized the templates with their brand, featuring the same black-and-white aesthetic so that there was a seamless fit between their website and docs.

Zero friction for developers

The days of tedious documentation updates are long gone. Zeno describes Resend's process in one word: fast. Because creating and updating docs with Mintlify is as simple as updating a markdown file and pushing it to GitHub, there's no friction with current developer workflows.

The easier it is for developers to update docs without extra steps or tools, the less risk of docs growing stale.

Results

Just eight months post-launch, Resend already had 15,000 users. Zeno credits some of that success to the time and energy Mintlify freed up for Resend to focus on growth and development.

Without Mintlify, our products wouldn't be at the level they are now. And I highly doubt we'd be able to build a product that has this many users in such a short amount of time if we had to build our own docs. — Zeno Rocha, Founder & CEO

Recognition and conversion

Another sign of success for Zeno is the frequent praise from customers, who often share Resend docs on Slack inspiration channels. He knows that when happy customers call out Resend's attention to detail in the docs experience, they're really talking about functionality.

A documentation partner, at last

As Resend grows, Zeno expects Mintlify to grow along with it—especially as Mintlify continues to launch new features at lightning pace, like AI Chat. If Resend experiences hiccups, Zeno is confident that Mintlify's customer support will be there for them. "I've never met people who cared about docs as much as I do," he says.

Mintlify's support is so fast and responsive, it's become a model for Zeno as he builds Resend.

I want to provide this level of support to my own users. When you do work that inspires others to do better work themselves, that's truly exceptional. — Zeno Rocha, Founder & CEO

Want to set up docs like Resend? We'll migrate your docs for free as a part of our Pro plan — get started here.