CASE STUDY
Google Maps for Your Business
How we built Graphite Atlas from the ground up—transforming static business diagrams into living, queryable maps powered by graph database technology.Graph Databases
AI-Powered Analytics
Enterprise SaaS
The Challenge
Business leaders face a fundamental problem: their companies are complex networks of interconnected people, processes, and metrics—but their tools treat them like static pictures.Org charts live in draw.io. Processes live in Google Docs. Metrics live in spreadsheets. When someone asks "what breaks if Peter leaves?" or "who owns this KPI?", there's no system that can answer. Just tribal knowledge and scattered diagrams that go stale the moment they're created.Growing companies need a single source of truth that connects how their business actually operates—from org structure to revenue generation—in a way that's visual, queryable, and always current.Our Approach
We worked with founder Nigel Glenday to build Graphite Atlas as a platform that makes graph database technology accessible for the first time. The core insight: your diagram should be your database.Rather than building yet another diagramming tool, we built a system where every box, every arrow, every relationship becomes structured, queryable data. Draw your org chart once, and suddenly you can ask "show me everyone who reports to the VP of Sales" and get instant answers with visual paths.Graph Database Architecture
Built on Neo4j and ArangoDB, we designed a flexible schema that models businesses as networks of entities and relationships. Every node can be a person, process, metric, or custom entity. Every edge represents a real connection—reports to, owns, drives, depends on.Visual-First Interface
We built an intuitive canvas where users can drag, connect, and organize their business model visually—but unlike Lucidchart or Miro, every interaction writes structured data to the graph, making it instantly queryable and explorable.AI-Powered Insights
With a complete graph of the business, AI can generate SOPs, onboarding guides, due diligence docs, and training materials that reflect how the company actually works—not generic templates, but documents grounded in real organizational structure.Enterprise Scalability
Designed for companies with 100-1,000+ employees, we built role-based access controls, version history, sub-map organization, and real-time collaboration—ensuring Atlas scales with organizational complexity.Technical Implementation
Building a platform that makes graph databases accessible to non-technical users required solving problems at every layer of the stack.Graph Database Layer
We designed a hybrid approach using ArangoDB for its multi-model capabilities (graph, document, key-value). This allows us to store both the visual representation (canvas positions, colors, layouts) and the semantic graph (who reports to whom, what drives what) in a single database with ACID guarantees.Query Translation Engine
We built a natural language query system that translates user questions into graph traversal queries. Ask "show me the path from person to revenue" and our system generates the AQL (ArangoDB Query Language) to traverse relationships, then renders the result as an interactive subgraph.Real-Time Collaboration
Using WebSockets and operational transformation, we enable multiple users to edit the same Atlas simultaneously. Changes propagate in real-time, with conflict resolution that preserves both visual layout and underlying graph integrity.AI Integration Layer
We built custom evaluation frameworks to measure AI accuracy on business-specific terminology, ensuring generated documents reflect actual org structure, process ownership, and metric dependencies—not hallucinated connections.Impact & Results
Graphite Atlas is creating a new category at the intersection of three converging trends: graph databases (26.4% CAGR), visual thinking tools (65% of population), and AI-powered business intelligence.MVP → BetaFrom concept to working product in 4 months
Founder ReadyProven product-market fit for due diligence scenarios
Alabama FirstLaunching in Birmingham's tight-knit business community
"I had the domain expertise. Clint's team had the technical chops. They didn't just build what I asked for—they helped me understand what I should be asking for. We went from concept to a working graph database platform that non-technical users can actually use. That's not easy to build."Nigel GlendayFounder & CEO, Graphite Atlas
Technology Stack
ArangoDB
Neo4j
Next.js
React
TypeScript
Node.js
WebSockets
OpenAI API
Vercel
D3.js
Graph Algorithms
Real-time Collaboration