Wade tells us how he is growing Zapier remotely, creating strategic partnerships and making the web apps even easier to use with multi-step zaps.
Today’s guest, Wade Foster, is co-founder and CEO of Zapier, the easiest way to sync data between web apps. Wade is an alumni of the University of Missouri, Startup Weekend, and Y Combinator. He now runs Zapier from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Zapier focused on revenue growth after graduating Y Combinator, and it has grown to nearly 1 million users with only a little over $1 million in funding. The service is also growing to include more multi-step Zaps to further improve the lives of their users, and the users of applications they are partnered with. Strategic partners have been vital for growing Zapier and the products offered.
We’re going to learn how strategic partnerships are key to growth, how to run a remote company, and how focusing on revenue is so much more important than just focusing on users.
In this episode, you’ll learn from Wade:
- What it’s like to participate in, and win, Startup Weekend
- How Zapier grew a 10,000 person e-mail list before they launched
- Why Zapier focused on growing revenue over growing users
- The power of engaging with forums used by your potential user base
- How Y Combinator helped the Zapier team focus before launch
- Strategies Zapier used to grow revenue after launch
- How Zapier identified and pursued strategic partnerships
- How Zapier continues to grow with a remote structure
- How running a company remotely can force a disciplined work structure
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Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Zapier.com/learn for information on APIs, Email Marketing, Remote Work and more.
- Slack
- GitHub Issues
- Trello
- Google Docs
- Hack Pad
Answers to Quickfire Q&A:
- If you could chat with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
- I lost my dad about four years ago, and I’d love to just have lunch with him again.
- Name a tool, app, or website that you can’t live without and why.
- Gmail: “The world still runs on e-mail”
- Tell us something unique and interesting about you that not many may know.
- I’m a pretty good saxophone player, and I’m a pretty good racquetball player.
- What are the top three skills or characteristics that you look for in people you work with?
- Resourceful
- Empathetic
- People who will default to action in the absence of instruction
- What is something you believe, but few others agree with you?
- “I think you can grow a really huge remote company, and I don’t think that there’s a lot of people that believe that, but we’re going to prove them wrong.”
How to contact Wade:
You can find out more about Zapier at Zapier.com, and you can get in contact with Wade on Twitter @WadeFoster.
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