How I Lead This: Behind the Leadership Brand of Zapier’s Wade Foster

Not too many business leaders can say they used to play saxophone in a jazz band. Wade Foster did just that before co-founding software firm Zapier, and he says the experience showed him he didn’t have to follow the path of least resistance. 

“It kind of shook me out of my element and said, ‘Go try stuff,’” recalls the Zapier CEO, an industrial engineer by training. “And when you start a company, that’s all you’re doing. There’s no rules in front of you. It’s just build — just figure it out.”

Zapier has long been a godsend for users looking to automate repetitive tasks, without any technical know-how or code. (For example: automatically sharing a blog post to social media … or adding a new customer contact to a CRM … or sending an email when payment is received.)

AI has only amped up its power, and Zapier now bills itself as “the most connected AI orchestration platform,” allowing anyone to connect AI to the almost 8,000 tools on the platform. From Fortune 500 companies to brand-new startups, 3.4 million businesses use Zapier. Among them: Disney, Meta and Procter & Gamble.

… when you start a company, that’s all you’re doing. There’s no rules in front of you. It’s just build — just figure it out.

As a leader, Wade’s never been afraid to be different — and he encourages other founders to do the same. Zapier, which he’s described as a “weird” company, reflects that ethos. 

For starters, the business bootstrapped itself, a rarity in the tech world. With just $1.2 million in funding to start, Zapier turned a profit in three years. By 2021, when the company raised a secondary funding round, it had $140 million in annual recurring revenue and a $5 billion valuation.

Zapier was also an early adopter of remote work, giving employees that option long before the pandemic.

When it comes to sharing thought leadership, Wade uses a combination of social platforms, podcasts and blogs. He’s active on LinkedIn, where he has 57,000 followers and recently posted about a new study that shows 95% of generative AI pilots are failing. 

Wade makes regular podcast appearances, too. And he just launched his own: Agents of Scale, aimed at leaders building AI into the bones of their business. He also contributes to Zapier’s blog, where his latest posts include an account of how the company spent two years embedding AI itself. The result? Almost 90% of the team now uses AI day-to-day.

Here’s what Zapier’s Wade Foster had to share with The Helm:

Emoji you can’t live without: 👋 It’s simple, friendly and feels like the digital equivalent of a head nod in the hallway.

TED Talk you’d really love to give: “How to Automate Your Business Like a 1,000-Person Company (Even If You’re a Team of One).” It would be about making automation approachable so any team can work smarter, not just the tech giants.

… even if you don’t know what the ideal solution is, simply launching and getting things out there often is the fastest way to learn and get feedback.

Stories are everything in business. What’s your go-to story that moves people? My favorite story is our first pricing and packaging plan. We had decided to launch Zapier, and we were up late one night. It must have been midnight, 1 am, something like that. 

We were having a vibrant debate about what our first pricing model should look like. And I remember the debate with my co-founders. One person was saying we should have three plans because that’s what this post said on the internet. One person was like, “No, I heard four plans is better because this is what this other post said on the internet.” Another said, “We should have a plan that ends in nine because that’s going to convert better.” Another said, “No, we should have plain plans that end in tens because humans like those.”

After lots of debate back and forth, at some point we realized none of us knew what we were talking about. And once we landed there, we decided to have fun with it. So we leaned heavily into the Zapier brand. We said, “We’re going to name our plans after Zaps.” So we had a plan name that was “Amps,” we had a plan name that was “Ohms,” we had a plan name that was “Volts.” And we said, “What the heck? Let’s actually have the dollar amounts attached to the Fibonacci sequence.” So there was an $11 plan, a $23 plan and a $58 plan.

Now, if this sounds ridiculous, it’s because it is. But we launched with those plans, and people started buying. People started subscribing. And it was just a great lesson that even if you don’t know what the ideal solution is, simply launching and getting things out there often is the fastest way to learn and get feedback.

Wade plays saxophone at the Zapier Summit in New Orleans. Credit: Zapier

As a leader, what keeps you up at night? Helping our customers transform their business with AI. There is so much opportunity right now. I want us to be the ones helping light the way for companies trying to revamp how they work with AI automation.

What three words or phrases define your leadership style? Demanding and supportive.

My biggest insecurity about how people perceive me as a leader is … That my love of change and bias toward the upside might make me seem like I’m glossing over the risks. I get energized by new ideas and can move quickly, but I know not everyone feels ready to jump as fast as I do.

Ways you’re currently leveraging AI to share your leadership message: Writing’s always been my go-to, and AI helps me move faster with cleaning up drafts, tightening ideas, etc. It’s like having a ghost editor with endless energy.

Social media as a leader: love it or leave it? Tell us why. Bit of both. Love the reach. Still feels cringy sometimes. I focus on sharing things I’d want to read myself. I specifically have a goal to maximize “bookmarked” posts because that feels like the best signal of value.

Your #1 must-follow account on social media: I’m biased, but @mikeknoop on X. He shares a ton of great tips on AI usage, and his work on Arc Prize keeps me up to date on the latest with AI model advancements. 

The ROI question — Biggest benefit you’ve seen from building your leadership brand or developing your leadership toolkit: It opens doors for my team, for the business and for future hires. People want to work with folks who feel human and clear. That’s the ROI.

Thanks to Wade Foster for sharing his thoughts on building a leadership brand with The Helm. You can follow Wade on LinkedIn or stay up to date on the Zapier website.