One of my favorite web products doesn’t have an API.
They could drive revenue and solve so many problems: ↳ Retention: Once a power user integrates your API into their workflow, it’s less likely they’ll churn. ↳ Partnerships: Third parties can create an integration, which means you’ll likely get customers with zero acquisition cost. ↳ Backlog: You know all those edge cases and odd feature requests you have to sort through? They go away because users can create their own customization. ↳ Support: You’ll have fewer one-off data-related tickets. ↳ Roadmap Planning: Monitor your logs for frequently used API workflows to determine if implementing the feature in the UI is worthwhile.
That product I have in mind is not the only example. I see this all the time in rapidly growing startups that are too stretched to catch up on features and enhancements. Building an API seems like a nice-to-have, long-term goal.
But it’s not too hard to do, if you start by solving one use case at a time.
Here are the patterns to watch out for: → “I want the data filtered this way, not the way you do it in the dashboard.” → “Can you add an option to show x with y?” → “When a happens, I also want b to take place automatically.” → “I’m doing this repeatedly n times a day, can you add an upload feature to do it in bulk?” → “We scrape the UI to get the data we need to use in ChatGPT. Is there a better way?”
Just make sure you talk to some users, don’t decide what to prioritize based on gut feeling.
TL;DR: It’s 2025, where’s the API?