SaaStr 163: Scaling Zapier to $35m in ARR with Just $1.3m in Funding &Why Most Founders Should Ignore Fundraising & How To Harness The Power of Completely Remote Teams with Wade Foster, Founder & CEO @ Zapier

Wade Foster is the Founder & CEO @ Zapier, the startup that moves information between your web apps automatically, so you can focus on your most important work. A couple of incredible achievements from Zapier, they have scaled to a phenomenal $35m in ARR, they have built a time of over 130 people, all without a central office and they have done this with just $1.2m in early stage funding from the likes of Bessemer, Y Combinator and DFJ.  

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

• How Wade made his way into the world of SaaS and came to found Zapier?
• Why does Wade believe that founders need to put in place traditional management sooner than they normally do? What should this structure look like? When is the optimal time to start considering it and then implementing it?
• Wade has said before that most startups should “ignore fundraising”, why does he believe this? How has bootstrapping Zapier influenced how he manages and scales the company? What lessons has he taken from VC backed founders that he has applied to the growth of Zapier?
• Zapier is a completely remote team, what is the secret to seamless communication and company culture when building a team to 130 with no central office? What are the core benefits? What are the fundamental challenges?

60 Second SaaStr

1. What does Wade know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
2. Why should everyone on the team do support?
3. How does Wade look to scale himself as CEO?

If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:

Jason Lemkin

Harry Stebbings

SaaStr

Wade Foster

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