business-automation
(26)
Caleb Gilbertson and the business that outgrew the spreadsheet
Two folding chairs and a Minneapolis apartment were enough to start Imprint Engine. Building a global company has meant learning which jobs to automate, which to hand over, and which still belong to him.
Dave Jangid and the business of getting things done
From last-minute accounts to connected software and a technology institute in Jodhpur, the Capsitech founder keeps returning to the work that gets stuck between people and systems.
Frederic Laluyaux and the Decision That Wouldn’t Go Away
A Paris startup taught him how quickly technology can erase a business. After SAP and Anaplan, Frederic Laluyaux built Aera around a question that kept returning: why do companies have so much information and still take so long to act?
Oleg Nesterov and the Art of Making Yourself Less Busy
Before he founded MindK, Oleg Nesterov asked developers which chores they wanted to stop doing. Seventeen years later, that small question still explains a good deal about his work.
Niels Tonsen and the fifteen-minute test
At Lamoda, Niels Tonsen helped turn a customer’s doorstep into a fitting room. His next company, turian, takes on the work waiting behind the order.
Elie Rubin and the business of staying connected
A chance reunion in a Jerusalem bank helped bring two founders together. Through Innitel, Deskforce and Squaretalk, Elie Rubin has kept working on what happens when a conversation crosses a border.
Bista Solutions makes the software fit the business
An ERP subscription buys the tools. Bista Solutions tackles the awkward part: making orders, warehouses, accounts, and people work together.
Giles Whiting Has Spent a Career Looking for the Seams
The former Air Force physicist now leads Decisions, where his job is to make sure a rush of AI agents, rules, systems and people can behave like one accountable enterprise.
Capsitech wants to put the back office on speaking terms
From accounting software to a technology institute in Jodhpur, Capsitech is building around one stubborn business problem: the work that falls between people, systems and skills.
Relay.app Built the Humane Automation Tool. Then It Pulled the Plug.
Relay.app made business automation feel less like plumbing and more like teamwork. Its shutdown leaves a useful product lesson - and a September 14 deadline for paying customers to export everything.
Tibor Vass Wants AI to Do the Busywork - and Leave Judgment to People
The Eccentex CMO began with databases, networks and systems. Now he sells a more human idea of automation: let machines handle repetition, while people keep the decisions that matter.
The Plan Was Boston. Then History Changed the Destination.
Roman Nykulyshyn spent years turning ideas into products, campaigns and enterprise sales. In February 2022, the Ukrainian entrepreneur traded a planned move to Boston for service in his country's armed forces - and discovered that practical judgment travels farther than any job title.
n8n Puts the Robots on a Leash
The automation canvas for people who like AI, distrust magic, and still want to see the wiring. n8n turns apps, APIs, code, and agents into workflows you can inspect before they touch the business.
Rippling Wants One Employee Record to Run the Whole Company
The $16.8 billion software company started with onboarding and kept going - into payroll, laptops, app access, corporate cards, compliance, and AI. The wager is simple: if worker data is clean, the back office can finally stop copying and pasting.
Magic Software spent 43 years making old systems talk - then joined a bigger machine
The Israeli software veteran outlasted several computing eras by connecting what companies already owned. Its products carry the story, but services pay most of the bills - and a 2026 merger gives that model a larger engine.
He Sold His Software Company. Six Years Later, He Bought It Back.
Sam Saab built Results from a one-person consulting tool, watched an acquisition shelve it, then returned with a new platform and the old team. His four-decade career is a study in patient software, customer memory, and the uncommon art of a second beginning.
Lori Stinson Spent 24 Years Moving Freight. Now She’s Moving Small Businesses Into AI
After two decades inside the unforgiving machinery of logistics, Lori Stinson is bringing an operator’s instinct to AI - fewer shiny demos, more systems that make Monday morning work.
Giovanni Farese Is Building the Missing Layer Between Small Businesses and AI
From a law degree and a decade in ICT operations to a $25 million growth round, the Webidoo CEO has built his career around one stubborn question: how do you make sophisticated technology useful to a small business on Monday morning?
Webidoo Bet $25 Million That Small Businesses Don’t Need Another App - They Need One Layer
After years of building websites and campaigns for small firms, the Milan-born company reached a blunt conclusion: the problem wasn’t access to software. It was getting twenty disconnected tools to do useful work together.
The $99-a-Month On-Ramp to Enterprise Software
Jcurve built a business around the awkward moment when accounting software stops being enough. Its answer is an ERP ladder - start small, connect the moving parts, and keep climbing without ripping everything out again.
SWK Technologies Wants to Make the Back Office Disappear
For growing companies stuck between QuickBooks and enterprise-scale complexity, SWK sells something more useful than another dashboard: a way to make finance, inventory, operations and IT behave like one system.
The Dhaka Company Quietly Building WordPress’s Business Layer
From a rented house in Bangladesh to hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide, weDevs built a product company around one practical bet: small firms should be able to run serious operations without assembling an enterprise software stack.
Sage
Sage grew from a pub-side solution for one printer's paperwork into financial infrastructure for millions of businesses. Its next act is less about replacing the accountant than teaching software to chase invoices, explain anomalies and show its working.
Alex Wright
He started at SEAD Software as a solutions architect in 2017. Six years later he was running it. Here is how Alex Wright turned messy data into a business.
Topline Pro
Topline Pro is a New York-based software company that builds an AI-powered platform for home service businesses - landscapers, roofers, painters, plumbers and other trades. It bundles a custom website, local SEO, review collection, social posting, lead follow-up, online booking, CRM, and invoicing into a single subscription, run by AI agents that handle marketing, sales, and operations so owners can stay in the field. Founded in 2020 by Nick Ornitz and Shannon Kay (Y Combinator W21), the company has helped pros book more than $655 million in work and raised a $27M Series B in 2025.
Zapier
Zapier is the automation platform that connects more than 8,000 apps so people can build workflows - called Zaps - without writing code. Founded in 2011 by Wade Foster, Bryan Helmig and Mike Knoop, the fully remote company has grown from a Y Combinator side project into a roughly $5 billion business serving millions of users, and it is now reorienting around AI agents that don't just move data between apps but make decisions inside the workflow.