Lauren Long, Co-founder at Ampersand, discusses the challenges of API integration for SaaS products. Topics include the importance of smooth API connectivity, difficulties with 3rd party APIs, and solutions for seamless SaaS interoperability. The discussion also covers the complexities of API integration, customer segment challenges, and strategies for efficient integration processes.
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Quick takeaways
Developers face challenges with poorly documented third-party APIs when integrating with existing services like Salesforce or HubSpot.
Ampersand, a developer platform, aims to enhance API connectivity and make SaaS products interoperable for smoother integrations.
Deep dives
Challenges faced by SaaS product developers in integrating third-party APIs
Developers of SaaS products encounter difficulties when integrating with existing services like Salesforce or HubSpot due to poorly documented third-party APIs. Long, a co-founder at Ampersand, discusses developing a developer platform for SaaS integrations to improve API connectivity. The key focus is on making SaaS products interoperable.
Transition from medical aspirations to tech entrepreneurship
Long initially aspired to be a doctor but found her passion for computer science during university. Participating in an accelerator program in Canada catalyzed her first entrepreneurial venture, Boxit. This journey led her to start Ampersand, leveraging her tech background to address challenges in SaaS integrations.
Lessons learned from initial startup experience
Long's first startup, Boxit, highlighted the importance of selecting the right business idea. Choosing a suitable niche and being cautious about the scalability of the project emerged as crucial lessons. This experience informed her decision to focus on developer tooling with Ampersand, leveraging her expertise.
Ampersand's method of assisting SaaS integrations
Ampersand operates as a developer platform for SaaS integrations, streamlining the process for businesses to integrate with customers' systems. By using a declarative-driven configuration approach and providing embeddable UI components, Ampersand offers a unique method for creating flexible and deep integrations.
A common challenge for developers of SaaS products is integrating with existing services, including services that customers might already be using. For example, a SaaS product might need to integrate with customers using Salesforce, HubSpot, or another CRM system. However, this can be demanding for developers when 3rd party APIs are poorly documented or inconsistent.
Lauren Long is a co-founder at Ampersand which is a developer platform for SaaS integrations. She joins the show to talk about smoothing out API connectivity to make SaaS interoperable.
Sean’s been an academic, startup founder, and Googler. He has published works covering a wide range of topics from information visualization to quantum computing. Currently, Sean is Head of Marketing and Developer Relations at Skyflow and host of the podcast Partially Redacted, a podcast about privacy and security engineering. You can connect with Sean on Twitter @seanfalconer.