API Questions for Wade Foster of Zapier over at Startup Juicer

by Kin Lane on 12/17/2012

Some great API questions for Wade Foster, Co-founder & CEO of Zapier over at Startup Juicer today.

Zapier is a company that couldn’t have existed even a few years ago as API’s were not commonplace. What other advanced do you envision changing the way businesses operate?

APIs are just the first piece, but it’s still the wild west in the API world with APIs constantly changing. One thing that will happen is APIs will move away from polling driven to push driven. That way API consumers don’t have to constantly asking providers for new data like a kid on a long trip asking “are we there yet” but can instead rely on the API provider to send us the data when we get to the proverbial travel destination.

What your thoughts are about the changing landscape of API access with some of the free big networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin are becoming increasingly restrictive in the way they allow developers to access their feeds?

The only services I’m seeing become more restrictive in how they allow developers to use their APIs are free tools. Many those services are in the high growth stage and are starting to think about monetization and are experimenting with lots of different ways to make money. Unfortunately this means instability for developers. Zapier leans heavily B2B though. And B2B services are doubling down on their APIs. For them, more usage of the API leads to more usage of the core product and since their core product is a paid service that means more paying users and the paying users are upgrading to higher plans. That means a service like Zapier is highly valuable to both API providers and to consumers alike.

Those are just two of the questions Startup Juicer asked, head over to the full interview with Wade Foster, Co-founder & CEO of Zapier at Startup Juicer.