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May 2, 2020 · 24m · top-founders

1743 Zapier Hits 100k Customers, $50m in ARR, Eye on Doubling YoY with New Partnerships

Wade Foster · 15m spoken Nathan Latka · 6m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this interview, Zapier CEO and co-founder Wade Foster explains how the company scaled to $50 million in ARR and over 100,000 paying customers with under $1 million in outside capital. He shares insights into Zapier's product-led growth, app ecosystem expansion, 100% remote culture, and customer retention strategies.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 29.9% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.8 Guest teaching 3.5 Guest disagreement 1.3 Nathan pushing back 2.5
05100:0010:0020:000:45–4:38 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Overview of Zapier and Product-Led Growth Nathan probes Zapier's pricing model and whether high-volume users churn to enterprise competitors like MuleSoft. Wade corrects Nathan's revenue figure and clarifies that Zapier rarely sees churn to legacy enterprise tools due to off-the-shelf simplicity.4:39–8:06 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 App Partnerships and Internal Workflow Utilities Nathan quickly runs the math on Zapier's customer count and ARR to point out that ARPU has actually doubled rather than increased slightly. He also draws technical parallels between Zapier's internal utilities and legacy VBA macros.8:07–14:18 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 App Discovery Signals and Capital Efficiency Nathan playfully calls out Wade for comparing app discovery to VC scouting given his contrarian funding stance. Wade reframes remote management, arguing that in-office presence gives managers a false sense of oversight compared to tracking concrete digital deliverables.14:18–18:06 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Churn Prevention and Long-Term Scale Ambitions Nathan references his own experience reverse-engineering Zapier's lifecycle email strategy to understand churn prevention. Wade shares how customer impact stories and the challenge of scaling to millions of users keep him energized.18:06–20:27 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Family Perspectives and Platform Data Risk Nathan presses Wade on platform data risk, speculating whether investors like YC could gain unfair market intelligence from backend metrics. Wade dismisses the premise, asserting that focus on customer execution outweighs hypothetical data and competitive threats.20:27–24:38 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 The Famous Five and Decision-Making Principles Wade shares the mental model of Chesterton's Fence to explain why he moderates his contrarian instincts. Nathan looks up the definition in real time to read the nuance back into the discussion.0:45–4:38 · Guest teaching 3/10 Overview of Zapier and Product-Led Growth Nathan probes Zapier's pricing model and whether high-volume users churn to enterprise competitors like MuleSoft. Wade corrects Nathan's revenue figure and clarifies that Zapier rarely sees churn to legacy enterprise tools due to off-the-shelf simplicity.4:39–8:06 · Guest teaching 2/10 App Partnerships and Internal Workflow Utilities Nathan quickly runs the math on Zapier's customer count and ARR to point out that ARPU has actually doubled rather than increased slightly. He also draws technical parallels between Zapier's internal utilities and legacy VBA macros.8:07–14:18 · Guest teaching 5/10 App Discovery Signals and Capital Efficiency Nathan playfully calls out Wade for comparing app discovery to VC scouting given his contrarian funding stance. Wade reframes remote management, arguing that in-office presence gives managers a false sense of oversight compared to tracking concrete digital deliverables.14:18–18:06 · Guest teaching 2/10 Churn Prevention and Long-Term Scale Ambitions Nathan references his own experience reverse-engineering Zapier's lifecycle email strategy to understand churn prevention. Wade shares how customer impact stories and the challenge of scaling to millions of users keep him energized.18:06–20:27 · Guest teaching 4/10 Family Perspectives and Platform Data Risk Nathan presses Wade on platform data risk, speculating whether investors like YC could gain unfair market intelligence from backend metrics. Wade dismisses the premise, asserting that focus on customer execution outweighs hypothetical data and competitive threats.20:27–24:38 · Guest teaching 5/10 The Famous Five and Decision-Making Principles Wade shares the mental model of Chesterton's Fence to explain why he moderates his contrarian instincts. Nathan looks up the definition in real time to read the nuance back into the discussion.0:45–4:38 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Overview of Zapier and Product-Led Growth Nathan probes Zapier's pricing model and whether high-volume users churn to enterprise competitors like MuleSoft. Wade corrects Nathan's revenue figure and clarifies that Zapier rarely sees churn to legacy enterprise tools due to off-the-shelf simplicity.4:39–8:06 · Guest disagreement 1/10 App Partnerships and Internal Workflow Utilities Nathan quickly runs the math on Zapier's customer count and ARR to point out that ARPU has actually doubled rather than increased slightly. He also draws technical parallels between Zapier's internal utilities and legacy VBA macros.8:07–14:18 · Guest disagreement 2/10 App Discovery Signals and Capital Efficiency Nathan playfully calls out Wade for comparing app discovery to VC scouting given his contrarian funding stance. Wade reframes remote management, arguing that in-office presence gives managers a false sense of oversight compared to tracking concrete digital deliverables.14:18–18:06 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Churn Prevention and Long-Term Scale Ambitions Nathan references his own experience reverse-engineering Zapier's lifecycle email strategy to understand churn prevention. Wade shares how customer impact stories and the challenge of scaling to millions of users keep him energized.18:06–20:27 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Family Perspectives and Platform Data Risk Nathan presses Wade on platform data risk, speculating whether investors like YC could gain unfair market intelligence from backend metrics. Wade dismisses the premise, asserting that focus on customer execution outweighs hypothetical data and competitive threats.20:27–24:38 · Guest disagreement 1/10 The Famous Five and Decision-Making Principles Wade shares the mental model of Chesterton's Fence to explain why he moderates his contrarian instincts. Nathan looks up the definition in real time to read the nuance back into the discussion.0:45–4:38 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Overview of Zapier and Product-Led Growth Nathan probes Zapier's pricing model and whether high-volume users churn to enterprise competitors like MuleSoft. Wade corrects Nathan's revenue figure and clarifies that Zapier rarely sees churn to legacy enterprise tools due to off-the-shelf simplicity.4:39–8:06 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 App Partnerships and Internal Workflow Utilities Nathan quickly runs the math on Zapier's customer count and ARR to point out that ARPU has actually doubled rather than increased slightly. He also draws technical parallels between Zapier's internal utilities and legacy VBA macros.8:07–14:18 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 App Discovery Signals and Capital Efficiency Nathan playfully calls out Wade for comparing app discovery to VC scouting given his contrarian funding stance. Wade reframes remote management, arguing that in-office presence gives managers a false sense of oversight compared to tracking concrete digital deliverables.14:18–18:06 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Churn Prevention and Long-Term Scale Ambitions Nathan references his own experience reverse-engineering Zapier's lifecycle email strategy to understand churn prevention. Wade shares how customer impact stories and the challenge of scaling to millions of users keep him energized.18:06–20:27 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Family Perspectives and Platform Data Risk Nathan presses Wade on platform data risk, speculating whether investors like YC could gain unfair market intelligence from backend metrics. Wade dismisses the premise, asserting that focus on customer execution outweighs hypothetical data and competitive threats.20:27–24:38 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 The Famous Five and Decision-Making Principles Wade shares the mental model of Chesterton's Fence to explain why he moderates his contrarian instincts. Nathan looks up the definition in real time to read the nuance back into the discussion.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 62.8% · guest 37.2%0:00 · Nathan 62.8% · guest 37.2%3:00 · Nathan 33% · guest 67%3:00 · Nathan 33% · guest 67%6:00 · Nathan 17.6% · guest 82.4%6:00 · Nathan 17.6% · guest 82.4%9:00 · Nathan 32.5% · guest 67.5%9:00 · Nathan 32.5% · guest 67.5%12:00 · Nathan 19% · guest 81%12:00 · Nathan 19% · guest 81%15:00 · Nathan 17.1% · guest 82.9%15:00 · Nathan 17.1% · guest 82.9%18:00 · Nathan 32.5% · guest 67.5%18:00 · Nathan 32.5% · guest 67.5%21:00 · Nathan 16.4% · guest 83.6%21:00 · Nathan 16.4% · guest 83.6%24:00 · Nathan 94.7% · guest 5.3%24:00 · Nathan 94.7% · guest 5.3%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 19:51 Wade dismisses platform data risk premise

Wade brushes aside Nathan's elaborate theory about investor data exploitation and regulatory intervention as non-issues compared to straightforward customer execution.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 9:04 Nathan challenges Wade's modest ARPU framing

Nathan refuses Wade's modest characterization of their pricing gains, pointing out that jumping from twenty to over forty dollars is a full doubling of unit economics.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 22:54 Wade teaches Chesterton's fence framework

Wade introduces an unfamiliar conceptual decision-making framework to Nathan, prompting the host to pull up Wikipedia to follow along.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 5:44 Nathan calculates ARPU doubling live

Nathan instantly crunches the customer count and ARR figures to correct Wade's understated description of revenue expansion.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Overview of Zapier and Product-Led Growth 4313 Nathan probes Zapier's pricing model and whether high-volume users churn to enterprise competitors like MuleSoft. Wade corrects Nathan's revenue figure and clarifies that Zapier rarely sees churn to legacy enterprise tools due to off-the-shelf simplicity.
App Partnerships and Internal Workflow Utilities 6211 Nathan quickly runs the math on Zapier's customer count and ARR to point out that ARPU has actually doubled rather than increased slightly. He also draws technical parallels between Zapier's internal utilities and legacy VBA macros.
App Discovery Signals and Capital Efficiency 4523 Nathan playfully calls out Wade for comparing app discovery to VC scouting given his contrarian funding stance. Wade reframes remote management, arguing that in-office presence gives managers a false sense of oversight compared to tracking concrete digital deliverables.
Churn Prevention and Long-Term Scale Ambitions 5202 Nathan references his own experience reverse-engineering Zapier's lifecycle email strategy to understand churn prevention. Wade shares how customer impact stories and the challenge of scaling to millions of users keep him energized.
Family Perspectives and Platform Data Risk 5434 Nathan presses Wade on platform data risk, speculating whether investors like YC could gain unfair market intelligence from backend metrics. Wade dismisses the premise, asserting that focus on customer execution outweighs hypothetical data and competitive threats.
The Famous Five and Decision-Making Principles 5512 Wade shares the mental model of Chesterton's Fence to explain why he moderates his contrarian instincts. Nathan looks up the definition in real time to read the nuance back into the discussion.

Statements from this episode (12)

Assertion Supported
Foster: Zapier passed $50 million in ARR
“We passed fifty million.”
Wade Foster May 2, 2020 ▶ 1:46
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Foster: Zapier has broad Fortune 500 usage through bottoms-up adoption
“We do have customers across a Fortune 500 broadly, so we have lots of enterprise usage, but it's very much a bottom-up, bottoms-up product-driven sale.”
Wade Foster May 2, 2020 ▶ 2:14
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Foster: Zapier customers almost never churn to enterprise tools like MuleSoft
“And very rarely, I can't even think of a time when someone said, you know, I'm stopping using Zapier. I'm going to go start using something like a MuleSoft.”
Wade Foster May 2, 2020 ▶ 3:08
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Foster: Zapier's average revenue per user exceeds $20 monthly
“Yeah, we've raised it quite a bit. So we're doing a little better than that, but in the ballpark.”
Wade Foster May 2, 2020 ▶ 4:05
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Foster: Zapier has over 100,000 paying customers
“We have over a 100,000 paying customers today.”
Wade Foster May 2, 2020 ▶ 4:47
Insight
Foster: Users do not join Zapier for internal utilities, but retain for them
“Users don't come to Zapier for these things, But they stick around for them, which are things like our filters, our formatter, our code steps, our delay steps, our scheduler, our email parser.”
Wade Foster May 2, 2020 ▶ 6:58
Assertion Supported
Foster: Zapier has raised right at $1 million in capital
“Right at a million.”
Wade Foster May 2, 2020 ▶ 9:20
Disclosure
Foster: Zapier has kept early investors on its cap table
“No, they're still on the cap table.”
Wade Foster May 2, 2020 ▶ 9:26
Opinion
Foster: Y Combinator continues to add value to Zapier at scale
“We went through YC, a big stakeholder for us, one of the larger stakeholders for us, and they continue to just provide a lot of useful value, even at the stage that we're at.”
Wade Foster May 2, 2020 ▶ 9:38
Assertion Supported
Foster: Eight of Zapier's First Ten Employees Remain at the Company
“You know, of our first 10 employees, eight are still here.”
Wade Foster May 2, 2020 ▶ 11:05
Insight
Foster: Remote Work Strips Away Superficial In-Office Management Illusions
“So I actually think that that when you're in a remote environment kind of strips away all of the like ornaments of being in an office where you kind of kid yourself that you're doing a good job at management where you're like, Oh, I see him sitting there. I sm…”
Wade Foster May 2, 2020 ▶ 13:53
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Foster: Zapier's monthly logo churn remains sub-5%
“Yeah, that's right. More or less.”
Wade Foster May 2, 2020 ▶ 14:26
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