Mizzou Founder Features: Wade Foster

This week's Mizzou Founder Feature spotlights someone who has transformed the landscape for business owners globally. Wade Foster, Co-founder & CEO of Zapier, leads a platform designed for creating workflow automation without the need for a developer. Zapier simplifies work processes by seamlessly connecting over 6,000 apps without needing code, automating repetitive tasks, and optimizing workflows for businesses.

With 10 million users, Zapier empowers individuals to personalize their data flow through an intuitive interface, facilitating the integration of information from diverse tools that typically don't connect without intricate software changes. Throughout the pandemic, Zapier's straightforward automations played a crucial role in helping thousands of companies swiftly adapt to remote work, fostering digital transformations and rapid relaunches.

Zapier's growth has unfolded organically since its inception. Wade, alongside co-founders Bryan Helmig and Mike Knoop, transformed Zapier from a Missouri Startup Weekend pitch in 2011 into a $5 billion company today. The team's achievements include consistent recognition on Forbes Cloud 100, a prestigious list of the top 100 private cloud companies globally, for five consecutive years. Wade's remarkable success earned him a spot on Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2017, and in 2022, he was honored as a recipient of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award.

“We power over 2.2 million businesses, from startups to Fortune 100 companies, and we’ve been doing it for over a decade. We’re 800+ people across 40 countries, committed to advancing the way everyone gets stuff done, so automation can truly work for everyone.”

(website)

Raised in Jefferson City, Missouri, Wade Foster's early life was marked by a hunger for knowledge and a talent for math and science. He pursued a bachelor’s in industrial engineering at Mizzou from 2005 to 2009, followed by an MBA in 2010. Despite a family background outside of entrepreneurship, Wade's typical Midwestern childhood included diverse opportunities, playing various sports, and discovering a passion for saxophone. His first taste of entrepreneurship came in 9th grade when he earned $50 for a three-hour gig at the Missouri Governor's Mansion. Navigating uncertainty in high school and college, Wade eventually chose industrial engineering, setting the stage for his entrepreneurial journey.

Prior to founding Zapier, Wade had just two professional jobs. The first was a product manager role at an ed-tech startup where he essentially taught himself SEO, email marketing, business development, and sales. He was taking all the right steps to help grow this startup but he compared it to pushing a boulder up a hill – something about the product market fit just wasn’t working and he later realized it was the product itself that just didn’t appeal to the market. His next role was as an email marketing manager at Veterans United – a role that had a significant influence on Zapier’s eventual success because here he learned how to drive traffic through search, a skill that catalyzed Zapier’s growth. Veterans United served as a reference point for Wade because the company had done extremely well and continued to scale without ever raising a dime from outside investors. He also says in an interview with FirstRoundCapital that he admired the work ethic of the founders and employees at Veterans United – it was the kind of ‘try to make your company one step better every day and just do that everyday’ approach that stuck with Wade and eventually became his philosophy for Zapier.

Though Wade’s formative years laid the groundwork for Zapier, the idea behind it didn’t crystallize in a single moment but emerged from a series of observations and frustrations. Collaborating with co-founders Bryan Helmig and Mike Knoop, Foster realized the need for a solution that bridged the integration gaps between different software systems, a void plaguing many businesses. Originally introduced at a hackathon startup weekend in Columbia, Missouri, the idea was born from problems Wade and Bryan had observed. Saas products at the time (generation 1 SaaS companies) lacked integrations with other SaaS platforms – and other people agreed with this. Meanwhile, at Wade’s day job, he struggled with integration. After taking the idea to Startup Weekend, he decided to keep working on it because it was fun, better than their day jobs, and maybe if they played their cards right, they could become full-time founders.

Wade, Bryan, and Mike kept their day jobs and worked on Zapier all night after work and on weekends; this way they spent very little money and still had paychecks coming in. They were fresh out of school, and it was a time in their life when that type of work commitment was doable. Wade heard of Y Combinator, arguably one of the most successful tech startup accelerators in the nation, and applied. Although they got rejected, they kept working; the team focused a lot on building the initial product, go-to-market, product management, and customer acquisition. They worked through these cycles and re-applied to YC in 2012, this time with more traction: 10,000 people on a launch list, 800 people who paid for access to the beta, and a handful of YC companies who were using Zapier. This landed them an interview and an eventual spot in the accelerator so without hesitation, they moved to California and launched – Zapier was off to the races.

After YC, the team stayed in the Bay Area in California. They decided not to open an office because of financial and geographic constraints. It seemed like remote workers made the business more efficient and this is something that still runs true in the company. It was around this time that Zapier launched its developer platform, which allows other users to start building integrations themselves that other people can use. This addition allowed Zapier to become a two-sided marketplace where the user can build “zaps” and apps, opening up an end-to-end workflow. Upgrades like this and switching from an integration platform to an automation platform through the addition of multiple actions tripled the number of users in just a couple of years. Between 2016 and 2018, Zapier’s ARR grew from approximately $10 million to more than $50 million.

During their early stages, the plan was to test, launch, get feedback, fix, launch, more feedback, then rinse and repeat. This worked well because it made tailoring the platform to its users easier and easier. They found their product fit early on by listening to their customers. SMBs were their bread and butter and, instead of taking an enterprise route, Zapier doubled down on SMB SaaS integrations. The challenge on the self-serve side boiled down to achieving user-friendly simplicity. Wade’s solution was a hands-on approach — literally. He engaged in Skype calls, screen-sharing with users as they navigated the process of creating a zap. Wade's intuition proved right when, after guiding the first alpha-level customer through the platform, they said, "Wade, this is going to change my life." For Zapier, this was a huge milestone. Wade emphasizes that identifying the ideal product-market fit becomes apparent when users genuinely desire what you offer, creating a seamless and organic connection. His advice to entrepreneurs: If you're pushing rather than attracting, it's time to revisit your strategy. Wade's success stemmed from building precisely what people needed, resulting in a product that felt not only intuitive but also indispensable.

What set Zapier apart wasn’t solely its technological brilliance but its unconventional business philosophy. Foster’s cautious stance on venture capital funding, deeply rooted in his Midwest upbringing, fundamentally shaped Zapier’s trajectory. This deliberate, calculated approach to growth fostered a culture of trust, cautious expansion, and self-reliance within the company. They got to demo day and decided to raise a little bit of money but were hesitant to have VC investments, raising a $1.3M seed round and that was it.

If you have a great business and a great business model, this doesn’t always mean you have great management skills. One of the hardest parts of building Zapier was the executive function: hiring, firing, managing, building teams, coordinating all the staff, and scouting employees. Everything besides basic product and go-to-market stuff, he had to learn in real-time. People issues were the hardest category to nail, whereas concrete knowledge like growth, customer satisfaction and acquisition, and site development were less challenging. One thing Zapier did that was counterintuitive to a lot of people was to not hire until it hurt. It was always pushed to hire, hire, hire - but not hiring until it hurt helped Zapier because it meant the execs did every job and understood every piece of the business, it also helped them with performance management because they had a baseline for how they wanted the job done. Early employees were people that Wade knew and this planted the seed to maintain a culture of trust. This method helped them grow the company in a lean, paced way, ingesting employees at a rate at which people could grow. They went from 3 founders in the first year to 7 employees in the second, then 16, 35, and 75. They were nearly doubling people every year, but it wasn’t 10 to 100 in a year as is the case with a lot of fast-growing startups. Slowly growing the team was essential, but you can’t code people, and this was hard for the Zapier team. A lot of Wade’s management skills came from reading, listening to podcasts, and getting his own CEO coach.

Zapier has come a very long way in the past 13 years and is now the most popular business automation platform in existence. Interestingly, for the first paying customer they had, Wade invoiced them $100. Zapier hadn’t yet set up a bank account, so Wade had the customer send the money to his personal PayPal. The team drove across town to the bank and the Zapier bank account was opened with the $100. Today, they have a much more polished billing system.

It’s not very often a CEO can say that “The pieces locked together in a pretty pure way,” as Wade said in an interview with First Round Capital, but this stands as a testament to Zapier’s team and their relentless commitment and consistency in putting out exactly what their customers want and need. We admire relentless entrepreneurs, and Wade is a great example. Aside from Zapier, he is also an Advisor at Redbud VC and writes in his free time. For example, “How To Run A Business During Economic Uncertainty” and “Founder Speak Up: What I Wish I Knew While Starting My Business.” Today, Zapier is the most popular automation platform for small to medium-sized businesses and they’re leading the way with new tools, introducing AI to automated workflows, and singlehandedly changing the way the world gets work done.

Wanting to learn more about the man behind the operations, we asked Wade some questions about his philosophies, advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, and an inside look into his wealth of insights.

Can you share one of your favorite quotes?

This too shall pass.

It's a great reminder in both positive and negative times.

Reflecting on your upbringing in Missouri and attendance at Mizzou, how do you believe these experiences shaped your philosophies in business and life?

I grew up with a firm middle class upbringing. Our family definitely had the attitude that a penny saved was a penny earned. We deeply valued hard work, achievement, and leaving a positive mark on those around us. You can see those values reflected in Zapier: our frugal nature allowed us to bootstrap the business. Our commitment to the mission is represented by showing up and simply doing the work day-after-day for over twelve years.

How did you find your own mentor or advisor, and how did they impact your career journey?

My granddad was a huge mentor for me. He was always the confidant and counselor in the family. When I was struggling with whether to drop out of my masters program, my granddad was the person I called. He helped me realize where my passion was and gave me the courage to break the news to my professors that I wouldn't be continuing with my studies paving the way for me to explore my budding interests in entrepreneurship.

When Zapier started and much of my family was confused about why I'd leave a safe job to try this weird internet thing, my granddad was reminding me: "Wade, you won't catch any fish if your line isn't in the water." His way of saying "Go for it!" With the hardest problems I faced at work and at home granddad would often be my first call. Despite having no clue how to run a company, much less one based on computers, he often had some of the best advice because he understood people. And ultimately business is about people. Zapier isn't what it is without the often invisible people behind the scenes supporting, coaching, teaching, and guiding us into the people we are today.

Reflecting on your humongous growth, what aspects of your leadership style have evolved over time, and what catalyzed these changes?

It's hard to reduce twelve years of learning into a couple sentences. The short answer is everything! I'm not sure I had much of a leadership style when starting Zapier. I was 24 years old and mostly went by intuition early on. Over time I've learned so much from those around me and my own experiences. Some of it comes from reading, some comes from personal relationships, some comes from experience. There's something to learn from everyone.

If you could sit down with freshman year Wade, what would you tell him?

Looking back, I would tell myself to find more real world opportunities outside of the classroom. If you want interesting things to come your way, you need to create opportunities for yourself. And of course I would tell myself that we should go all in on Zapier sooner. When I first started Zapier, it was a part time project. I didn’t have access to huge savings, and I had student loan debt. My co-founders and I had to keep our day jobs just to stay afloat. We spent a year working on Zapier part time.

Share your best piece(s) of advice for current and aspiring entrepreneurs at Mizzou.

Just start. People can be intimidated by entrepreneurship, but getting started is often one of the hardest steps. So many people delay trying something because they don't think they are good enough yet. The path to getting good at something, starts with being bad at something. School work alone won’t prepare you for entrepreneurship. Classes are good and will help on the margins but if you want to get good at entrepreneurship, start a company.

Share the title of a book or two that you would recommend to any entrepreneur.

Working Backwards – by Bill Carr and Colin Bryar

Amp It Up – by Frank Slootman

Seven Powers – by Hamilton W. Helmer

The Great CEO Within – by Matt Mochary

The Goal – by Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Thank you! Check back next Monday for a new Founder Feature!