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#53: Wade Foster of Zapier on Going From Y Combinator to 2.5 Million Customers and 1,000 App Integrations

About the Episode:

In today’s episode, we’re talking to Wade Foster, the CEO, and Founder of Zapier, the connector tool that allows you to sync data between web apps.

Zapier now has over 2.5 million customers, including companies like Buzzfeed, Spotify, Adobe and even I use the platform to connect and integrate with more than 1,000 different apps & tools.

After studying industrial engineering and getting his MBA at the University of Missouri, Wade went on to join Y Combinator, the famed startup accelerator, to focus on bringing Zapier to life—and they’ve had incredible success at growing their business through strategic partnerships & content marketing.

Today’s interview is another that I originally recorded for The Inside Sales Summit a few months back—that was the online event I co-hosted with Close.io (the inside sales CRM of choice for startups) and for that event I did interviews with people like Chase Jarvis, Hiten Shah, Neil Patel, Steli Efti and more.

So, if you like what you hear today and you want to keep going—then check out the other 50 plus interviews just like this one over at The Inside Sales Summit. But for today, we’re here with Wade Foster.

In Today’s Episode, We Talk About:

[02:37] Some of the early customers of Zapier.
[03:48] A tipping point in the history of Zapier.
[05:07] Their most effective channel for bringing in new customers.
[06:39] Various sales tactics they try out at Zapier.
[08:53] What’s motivating them to test out an outbound strategy.
[12:45] How they intend to carry out the strategy.
[13:57] What he thinks is the biggest challenge that’s facing the modern marketer.
[15:15] A common trait he looks for when he hires people.
[15:57] How he carries out interview when potential team members.
[16:53] The most inspirational sales person he’s come across.
[17:30] The best investment he’s ever made in building his selling skills.

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Resources mentioned:

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Connect with My Guest:

Zapier

Wade on LinkedIn and Twitter

Subscribe, Review, & Share:

If you enjoyed this episode of The Side Hustle Project, I would love your support. Head over to the show on iTunes or in the Apple podcast app and give us a rating please! And as always you can catch every episode on the Apple podcast app, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for tuning in.

In this episode, we have an interview with Wade Foster, CEO and Founder of Zapier, the world-renowned connector tool with more than 1,000 app integrations. The company went from joining Y Combinator to now having over 2.5 million customers in just a few years. Here's the Zapier story, as told by Founder Wade Foster...

Hi I'm Ryan Robinson

Blogger, podcaster and recovering side project addict. Head of Content at Close. Join me here, on ryrob.com to learn how to start a blog, make money blogging and grow a profitable side business. Be sure to try my popular free keyword research tool & AI article writer tool, as well. Somehow, I also find time to write for publications like Fast Company, Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Next Web, Business Insider, and more. Let’s chat on Twitter and YouTube about our feelings (and blogging, of course).

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