FLASHBACK: The future of remote work, juggling APIs, and dream integrations with Wade Foster of Zapier | E2221
Today, Zapier’s a multi-billion company helping enterprises integrate AI agents and other time-saving shortcuts into their workflows… but we had the founder on TWiST when they were just getting started! In a 2016 chat, founder Wade Foster walked JCal through their 2012 seed round, running a small entirely remote team with no HQ, the complexities of building a tool that relies on third-party APIs, and why Microsoft Office was the “Holy Grail” for his integration software. PLUS we’ve got a new entrant in your Gamma Pitch Deck competition! Tour CEO/CTO Amulya Parmer tells us how his app is saving property managers time and grief, while eliminating “looky-loos” and increasing their “hit rate.” FINALLY, Alex chats with Tomas Puig of TWiST 500 marketing analysis startup Alembic. It turns out, LLMs aren’t ideal for scrutinizing marketing campaigns because they lack the requisite historical data. Find out how they’re using Spiking Neural Networks (SNN) to dig deeper than GPT and Claude can go.
Key Points
- The rise of no-code and low-code platforms like Zapier is enabling non-developers to automate complex workflows, reducing the need for clerical roles and shifting the skillset towards more technical, scripting-based tasks.
- Alembic's use of advanced AI and causal analysis to attribute marketing spend demonstrates how cutting-edge technology can provide deeper insights into the effectiveness of brand advertising, moving beyond simplistic ROI metrics.
- Remote work management techniques, such as digital trails and self-reporting, remain relevant and critical for maintaining productivity and transparency in distributed teams, as evidenced by Zapier's successful fully remote operation since its inception.
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Transcript
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