Zapier, AI Workflows, and the Future of Integration | Wade Foster
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Workflow is one of the best ways to deploy AI inside of a company. You can wrap an LLM in a harness inside of a workflow and say, hey, I want this to be deterministic here, I want it to act more agentic. You
were no code before that was really that hot of a trend. Was that as sort of an intentional move? Like what was the insight that made that so successful?
In the past, Like no code made it easier, but it wasn't necessarily easy. You still had to do a bunch of configuration, click through a bunch of menus, and had to think really structured in systems. Partly why Zapier was appealing was because I was struggling with that Marketo API. And folks are looking for integrations. They know how to use Salesforce, they know how to use QuickBooks, they know how to use the software. So why are we directing them to APIs if you can give them a sort of point-and-click interface that makes stuff simpler. And that then obviously became the no-code industry.
I'm so curious about is obviously the vast majority of startups fail. Is there anything in that early days where you thought like, oh, this is gonna succeed where others aren't?
I think what we figured out.
All right, welcome to Between Two Founders. I'm Jeff Seibert, the founder and CEO of Digits. We don't build AGI, but we do build the AGL, the first accounting platform that automates the general ledger. It handles everything from bookkeeping and reconciliation to analysis and insights, giving businesses real-time visibility into their finances, and helping accounting teams close the books automatically at month end. Digit is my third venture back. Company. And way back in 2007, I ran Stanford University's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar Series, where we hosted amazing folks like Reid Hoffman, Mark Zuckerberg, Vinod Kosla. With between two founders, I'm super excited to host Candid Conversation with today's generation of world-class entrepreneurs.
You can check out the full series at digits.com/slash BTF. Today, I am thrilled to welcome Wade Foster. Co-founder and CEO of Zapier, one of the most quietly powerful companies in tech. What started as a side project to connect apps together is now a platform automating over 80 billion tasks for millions of people and businesses worldwide. Zapier pioneered the no-code automation movement long before it was mainstream, helping people build workflows and systems without writing a single line of code. Wade also hosts agents. Of Scale, a new podcast exploring how executives are navigating the opportunities and risks of AI transformation. From bootstrapping Zapier out of Missouri to building a fully remote, globally distributed company, Wade's story is a masterclass in leadership, steady growth, and staying independent by design.
Welcome, Wade. Yeah, thanks for having me, Jeff. It's so great to have you here. Really excited for our chat today. And I wanted to start sort of way back at the beginning, you grew up in Missouri, far outside Silicon Valley, obviously, studied industrial engineering and business. How did your early experiences shape how you think about business and systems and people?
You know, I I grew up in uh Jeff City, Missouri, the state capital, which is a very slow, um, not particularly entrepreneurial uh city. So, you know, I I don't know that I was thinking too much about like business concepts, systems, people, things like that. Um You know, i it's a very like blue collar town, you know, Midwestern work ethics, penny saved as a penny earned, like stuff like that. It'd be be v be very sort of like normal, um, where I'm from. And so, you know, I guess um where you most see it is in like Zapier's like bootstrapped background or sort of like uh you know, uh unconventional thinking perhaps or um l like our our willingness to sort of go against the grain. Uh you know, I think is like um
Uh yeah, probably all come from some of our our our founding roots
here in central Missouri. Totally makes sense. I mean, you you said you didn't grow up imagining yourself as a founder. I'm curious, what did you want to be when you grew up?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:59
2
Who is Wade Foster and how did his Missouri roots shape Zapier’s founding story?
4:59–10:09
3
What sparked the idea for Zapier and how did the Startup Weekend prototype lead to the first product?
10:09–17:03
4
How did Zapier survive its early YC re‑applications and what lessons came from that experience?
17:03–23:52
5
Why did Zapier choose a fully remote, distributed model and what practices keep a global team aligned?
23:52–30:40
6
How is Zapier integrating AI into its workflow engine and what real‑world use cases are delivering impact today?
30:40–38:42
7
What unique hiring and leadership practices did Zapier develop as it grew to 750 employees?
38:42–43:05
8
What is the role of the AI Transformation Officer at Zapier and how is the company reshaping its product roadmap for AI?
43:05–45:33