Eraser built DiagramGPT, a free AI sidecar tool that drives 30% of sign-ups

What they ran

Eraser is a documents and diagrams tool for engineering teams, founded in November 2020. In May 2023 it released DiagramGPT, a free AI tool that turns plain language or code snippets into diagrams. The team built it as a separate sidecar product, not a core feature, so they could ship fast without core-product polish. It got its own brand name, apart from Eraser. Anyone can use it without signing up, then save a diagram and keep editing it in Eraser.

What happened

In Kyle Poyar's Growth Unhinged post, founder Shin Kim says DiagramGPT is Eraser's biggest growth driver and brings in 30% of new sign-ups. He also reports that Eraser sign-ups grew 20x over the prior year. The DiagramGPT product page shows the handoff, with a button to save a diagram and edit it in Eraser.

What the account does not show

The 30% share is the founder's own figure, with no outside data behind it. The post does not credit the 20x growth to DiagramGPT, so the two numbers should not be combined. Eraser was also trying other tactics, such as virtual office partnerships, which may share credit for growth. The source gives no baseline sign-up count, no free-to-paid conversion rate and no revenue figure. Team size and build cost are not stated.