Granola, an AI-powered note-taking tool for meetings, serves a dynamic customer base that includes startup founders, CEOs, and user researchers. With rapid growth fueled by key milestones like their super successful public launch and Series A announcement, Granola needed a support platform that could keep pace with their expanding user base while laying a strong foundation for scaling support.

The challenge

As Granola scaled, their reliance on Slack and email for customer support became increasingly unsustainable. Handling hundreds of messages per week, the team struggled to stay organized and provide consistent responses.

Jo reflected, “We had a super-engaged early adopter group, and we needed a way to organize their feedback. Before Plain, we were using a shared Google inbox, which made tracking threads almost impossible.”

The challenge was exacerbated during moments of heightened visibility, such as their product launch and Series A announcement, when user queries surged dramatically. Support weeks often meant one technical and one non-technical team member on a rota, taking them away from their core work and adding to backlog pressures.

Recently, Granola brought on a dedicated Customer Experience Lead, Vicky Firth, to lead frontline support and own their newly launched Help Center – a key step in scaling operations, reducing repetitive questions, and giving customers more ways to help themselves before reaching out.

Why Plain?

Rather than evaluating multiple platforms, Granola turned to Plain based on familiarity and speed. Jo explained, “We were moving so quickly, it was very much about who we knew and what we knew. Plain was the right choice because it allowed us to get started fast while offering the flexibility and configurability our technical team needed.”

Granola saw Plain as the ideal solution for their first support platform, thanks to its:

• Developer-focused design: Tailored to meet the needs of highly technical teams.

• Streamlined Slack integration: Unified Slack alongside their other support channels, into one manageable platform.

• Flexible setup: Provided the ability to integrate tools like Linear for ticket management.

• Scalable foundation: Designed to support fast-growing companies like Granola over the long term.

The solution

Granola implemented Plain just days after their public launch, and quickly saw a transformation in how they managed support. Key benefits included:

• Centralized inbox: Slack, email, in-app form submissions, and Help Center requests are all managed in Plain.

• Efficient prioritization: Urgent issues, such as app-breaking bugs, are flagged and routed to the top of the inbox for swift resolution.

• Time-saving workflows: Features like AI-powered suggested responses and keyboard shortcuts help handle repetitive queries with speed and ease.

• Improved collaboration: Integration with Linear enables faster collaboration between support and engineering.

• Live Help Center: Built from scratch in Plain, Granola’s Help Center houses refreshed, AI-optimized articles and connects directly to their customer inbox – making it easier for customers to find answers themselves and immediately escalate to human support when needed.

• Custom data in context: Granola has built their own customer cards using Plain’s API, surfacing the right information with no extra clicks.

• Inbox consolidation: They’ve also directed other company inboxes (like privacy@ and security@) into Plain, making it easier to track progress and ownership across teams.

The impact

Since adopting Plain, Granola has built a strong foundation for scalable support:

• Faster response times: Even during backlog-heavy weeks, Plain’s workflows help the team stay on top of priority issues.

• Efficient scaling: A dedicated support hire ensures customer queries are handled promptly, freeing the rest of the team to focus on core work.

• Stronger collaboration: Linking tickets and internal discussions has improved cross-departmental communication.

• Better knowledge management: The Help Center enables customers to get accurate, AI-assisted answers instantly – and reach human support when needed.

• Preparing for the next phase: Granola is beginning to explore how AI automations can power their next wave of scaling, and sees Plain as the foundation to build that future.

When Granola announced their Series A, the surge in customer activity could have overwhelmed their team if they were still managing their support without a dedicated platform. With Plain, they seamlessly managed the influx of support requests, ensuring no message was missed and critical issues were prioritized.

Jo noted, “Plain gave us the tools to handle high volumes of support during a huge growth period. It’s transformed how we manage support and set us up to scale effectively as we grow.”

Looking ahead

Granola sees Plain as a critical partner in their long-term growth. With the Help Center now live, they plan to continually refresh content, using AI to identify and generate high-value articles from past conversations. The goal is a knowledge base that stays accurate, helpful, and easy to navigate – while giving customers the choice between fast self-service and personalised human help.

Vicky summed it up: “We’re excited for Plain’s Help Center to help us reshape how we manage support knowledge – giving customers control over AI and easy access to human help when needed.”

She also added: “It’s the one place where we have all of our customer contacts – where we hear and track everything that’s coming through on all our inbound channels.”