Building Zapier from first principles | Contrarian takes on growth, hiring, fundraising | Wade Foster (Co-founder & CEO)
In Depth
Adapting to Change and Updating Priors in a Founder CEO's Journey
This chapter explores the challenge of staying open-minded and adaptable as a founder CEO in a successful company, emphasizing the importance of updating priors and embracing change.
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:
- Basecamp: https://basecamp.com/
- Bingo Card Creator: https://www.bingocardcreator.com
- Bryan Helmig, Co-founder of Zapier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanhelmig
- John Wooden quote: https://www.thewoodeneffect.com/be-quick-but-dont-hurry/
- Mailchimp: https://mailchimp.com/
- Mike Knoop, Co-founder of Zapier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeknoop
- Patrick Mckenzie, creator of Bingo Card Creator: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickmckenzie/
- PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/
- Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/
- SMBs: https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/SMB-small-and-medium-sized-business-or-small-and-midsized-business
- Stripe: https://stripe.com/
- Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke: https://www.amazon.com.au/Thinking-Bets-Annie-Duke/dp/0735216355
- Tony Xu, CEO of DoorDash: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xutony/
- Twilio: https://www.twilio.com/
- Veterans United Home Loans: https://www.veteransunited.com/
- Zapier: https://zapier.com/
Where to find Brett Berson
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/brettberson
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
Where to find Wade Foster
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/wadefoster
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wadefoster
Where to find First Round Capital:
- Website: https://firstround.com/
- First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
- This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast
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
The AI-powered Podcast Player
