Building Zapier from first principles | Contrarian takes on growth, hiring, fundraising | Wade Foster (Co-founder & CEO)
In Depth
Introduction
The speaker reflects on Zapier's early days and the challenges faced by their first customer in setting up the product. The chapter also introduces the podcast episode and highlights unconventional strategies employed by Zapier.
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
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