Building Zapier from a small side hustle into the powerhouse that it is today

Wade Foster started his product as a side hustle while working a full-time job. Thirteen years later, it's practically a household name: Zapier

Here's Wade on how he got to where he is today. 👇

Hacking a prototype

Back in 2011, I started this journey with my cofounders, Bryan and Mike, from Columbia, Missouri — not the typical Silicon Valley story! We built Zapier with a straightforward mission: to make automation work for everyone, regardless of technical background. 

It started as a side project. Bryan noticed clients asking repeatedly for app integrations. We saw that people loved SaaS but struggled to get their tools to work together without coding. So, we created a team at Startup Weekend Columbia which also included our third co-founder Mike. Together we hacked a solution that became Zapier. Our initial validation came from conversations with potential users and that rough prototype.

Today, our core products include Zaps, Tables, and Interfaces. We also have four products in Beta - Canvas, Chatbots, Central, and Functions. Zapier workflows help millions of users automate tasks across various apps. Tables add a layer of flexible data management, and Interfaces are custom forms and pages to power your workflows. Together, these tools make up the Zapier Automation Platform.

A lean MVP

Central Missouri isn't exactly known for its bountiful tech investor ecosystem, so the MVP of Zapier was a lean operation. We had day jobs and used nights and weekends to develop it. The project’s resources were limited — time, money, and sleep — so we focused heavily on user feedback to make sure we were building something useful.

Being bootstrapped, we were cautious with every decision, working around the clock with a clear goal in mind: build a tool that lets people connect apps without code.

One of the key ingredients was that, across the three cofounders, we had all the raw skills needed to build and sell Zapier. This helped us avoid having to hire and keep our overall costs down. 

We eventually joined Y Combinator and raised a small seed round, which allowed us to commit fully to Zapier. While we had no guarantees, we believed that if we could make this work, Zapier would make a meaningful impact for businesses.

A scalable stack

Our current tech stack at Zapier is built for reliability and scaling with a focus on ease of use and staying nimble. The nimble part is especially important given all the experimentation and innovation with AI.

Our backend runs on Python and Django, a powerful combo that helps us handle millions of automations across thousands of apps. On the front end, we use React for responsive, interactive user experiences. For hosting, we use Vercel for front-end applications and AWS with Kubernetes for most back-end infrastructure, which helps us scale efficiently.

We’ve always aimed to stay current with AI advancements and big trusted models, leveraging tools like OpenAI and Anthropic for AI features, while Databricks powers our data and some AI workloads. This setup enables us to handle everything from data-heavy integrations to quick API adjustments, ensuring that Zapier remains robust, secure, and responsive.

Charge from the get-go

Zapier operates on a hybrid subscription and usage-based model, with pricing tiers that cater to users at every stage — from individual freelancers and small businesses to large enterprise teams.

Our revenue is largely derived from these subscriptions, which are based on the volume of automated workflows (or “Zaps”) a user needs. This model allows us to serve a broad customer base, enabling individuals and teams to scale their automation as they grow.

In the early days, we started with a small set of paying customers who were quick to see the value in automating their workflows, even as we refined our product. Charging from the outset helped us stay lean and profitable, fueling growth sustainably without heavy reliance on outside funding.

Revenue growth has been fueled by strategic pricing updates and the introduction of high-impact features, like our recent AI Command Center and integrations with upmarket tools.

Prioritize relentlessly

On a personal level, one of the most valuable habits has been relentless prioritization. There’s always more you could do, but the key is deciding what will have the biggest impact for customers.

Paired with a commitment to quality (a non-negotiable for us), this focus on prioritizing impact — along with adopting a lean approach — has guided Zapier through critical moments of growth.

Swim upmarket

As we expanded, we rolled out features tailored to enterprise needs — such as enhanced security, advanced workflows, and priority support — which became essential in driving our upmarket growth.

Finding product-market fit with enterprise customers was a big learning curve. We realized that our product and sales approach didn’t fully meet enterprise expectations out of the gate.

Through customer feedback and iteration, we adapted the product by prioritizing security, compliance, and feature depth, eventually creating a solution that could scale to meet larger customers’ needs.

Double down on SEO

In Zapier’s early days, growth was all about connecting directly with users in the spaces they already occupied — forums and communities like Reddit and Hacker News — and through good, old-fashioned outreach.

We worked tirelessly to gain those first hundred users, building momentum through word of mouth. From there, we realized that SEO could scale our reach exponentially. We built a robust content marketing strategy, grounded in SEO, that drew millions of new users annually.

SEO has been one of our most powerful growth levers. By creating high-quality content tailored to what people search for — like how-to guides, integration tutorials, and automation tips — we made Zapier discoverable to those seeking automation solutions, often at the exact moment they needed it. Today, our SEO content not only helps new users discover Zapier but also educates our existing audience on advanced use cases and features.

Timing played to our advantage as well. We launched Zapier when the SaaS landscape was taking off, and businesses needed solutions to connect the various tools they were adopting.

Automation became essential, and Zapier’s no-code approach was in the right place at the right time. This convergence of market trends and technology opened the door for us to grow quickly.

Three pieces of advice

Here's my advice:

Start small and get feedback. There’s immense value in listening to early users; don’t build in a vacuum. For anyone just starting out, my top advice would be to focus on solving a real problem and validating your idea with potential users as early as possible. Get scrappy and focus on small iterations, fast — innovating within constraints often brings out the best ideas. 

Focus on customer impact. Avoid common mistakes like over-engineering your product or neglecting user feedback. Always ask, “How does this help my customer?” to keep them at the center of your decision-making process. Clarity here guides all decisions.

Be cautious of the VC hype. Venture capital can supercharge a business, but it also comes with expectations that don’t always align with long-term, sustainable growth — especially for founders who are just starting out.

When we started Zapier, we didn’t jump on the VC track. Instead, we bootstrapped, focused on finding paying customers early, and proved there was a real business model before raising a small seed round. That gave us the freedom to make customer-focused decisions without the pressures of rapid scaling or a clock ticking toward the next funding milestone.

And check out these resources:

• My First Million

• Lenny's Podcast

• The Lean Startup

• Working Backwards

• The Goal

• Crossing the Chasm

What's next?

Our primary goal is to continue making Zapier the most powerful and intuitive automation platform available, especially for teams and organizations scaling up their automation needs.

As part of this, we’re focusing on the "All on Zapier" initiative, where we aim to provide an all-in-one automation platform — from integrations to data management and AI-powered workflows. This effort allows us to support our users as they move from smaller automations to full-scale operational systems, all without code.

In terms of growth, we’re working toward enabling enterprise clients to create highly customized, secure automations that meet their unique needs. As we roll out new features and enhance scalability, reliability will remain a non-negotiable. For us, it’s about building a platform that’s adaptable, so whether you’re a small business or a large organization, Zapier will be ready to scale with you.

At a broader level, we’re on a mission to make automation accessible for everyone. We believe that as our platform evolves, we’ll unlock more potential for teams everywhere to spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time innovating, creating, and serving customers.

You can follow along on our blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.