Wade Foster is the Co-founder & CEO at Zapier, a platform for building workflow automations without a developer. Zapier was started during 2011 in Columbia, Missouri, and by 2021, it was valued at $5b, having only raised $1.3m. Prior to founding Zapier, Wade had just two professional jobs, and had never managed or hired anyone. He worked as a PM on a web app used by 20k students, and as an Email Marketing Manager at Veterans United - a role that had a significant influence on Zapier’s eventual success.
In today’s episode, we discuss:
- The stories and thinking behind Zapier’s most unorthodox decisions
- How Wade thinks about product market fit
- How Zapier built their powerful distribution engine
- The fascinating story of Veterans United, and its impact on Zapier
- How Wade thinks about fundraising
- Why Wade lives by “don’t hire ‘til it hurts”
- Key lessons on people management
Referenced:
Where to find Brett Berson
Where to find Wade Foster
Where to find First Round Capital:
Timestamps
(05:46) The fascinating story of Veterans United
(06:55) Lessons from Veterans United
(08:35) The most important things Zapier got right
(10:13) How Zapier built their powerful distribution engine
(16:56) Why Zapier didn't move to focusing on enterprise
(19:06) How Wade thinks about product market fit
(24:26) The role of skill vs luck in Zapier's success
(26:23) What was hard about building Zapier
(30:03) Key lessons on people management
(32:35) Rule of thumb: "don't hire ‘til it hurts”
(36:42) Zapier's #1 hiring mistake
(42:50) How to test for scrappiness in the hiring process
(44:31) Do hiring playbooks transfer between companies?
(50:01) The 12 year evolution of Zapier's product
(53:20) How Zapier makes product decisions
(55:40) How Zapier thought about competition
(60:11) How to foster intellectual honesty in yourself and your org
(65:35) The people who most impacted Wade's worldviews
