Platforms to attach apps that wouldn’t usually discuss to one another have been round for a minute (see: Zapier). However they haven’t gotten dramatically less complicated to make use of in case you’re nontechnical. Generative AI has lowered the barrier to entry considerably. Nevertheless, getting probably the most out of those platforms — and fixing issues after they break — nonetheless requires a little bit of programming know-how.
Software program builders Sam Brashears and Edward Frazer perceived this to be the case as properly. Throughout internships at tech giants like Meta and Stripe, they struggled to get automations working utilizing a number of the extra in style app-linking instruments.
“I’d been coping with the ache of designing integrations and automations from scratch,” Frazer informed TechCrunch in an interview. “And Sam believed that generative AI fashions would clear up the most important downside in integrations — reworking information between APIs.”
So Brashears and Frazer, longtime buddies who’d been constructing software program collectively since elementary college, determined to strive their fingers at a streamlined, easy-to-use app-to-app integration platform.
DryMerge is the fruit of their work. A chatbot for constructing workflows, DryMerge enables you to describe an automation you need between apps — for example, “Each time I get an e mail from a brand new prospect, ping the group on Slack and add them to HubSpot” — and handles the required technical scaffolding.
“Presently, IT departments use difficult no-code instruments to automate workflows on behalf of non-IT groups,” Frazer mentioned. “A pure language interface opens up automation to nontechnical individuals.”
It seemed like a neat thought, a chatbot that may string apps collectively for you — notably in case you, like me, have spent numerous hours wrestling with IFTTT. So, I made a decision to offer DryMerge a go, hoping to exchange my outdated and rickety automations as soon as and for all.
DryMerge’s UI is kind of clear and minimalist. It jogs my memory a little bit of ChatGPT; there’s not a lot to have a look at in addition to a textual content bot. Every new request (e.g., “Textual content me a abstract of my calendar conferences each morning”) begins a brand new chat session, and these periods will be revisited at any time from a listing on the left-side panel.
DryMerge hooks into an increasing library of apps, together with Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Salesforce, storage providers like Dropbox and OneDrive, social media platforms (e.g., X), and messaging purchasers (e.g., Discord). As soon as the platform creates an automation with these, it plops that automation right into a devoted window displaying when the automation final run and whether or not DryMerge encountered any errors.
I attempted organising just a few automations I believed could be helpful for a reporter with an overfull schedule, like one to throw Gmail contacts right into a spreadsheet and add dates from latest e mail invites to a Google Calendar. Issues began out promising — DryMerge had me log into the related apps and requested whether or not I’d like to check the automations to make sure every part was working correctly.
However then, issues began to crop up.
A number of instances, DryMerge’s chatbot stopped responding altogether. Different instances, it missed key particulars in a request. I attempted repeatedly to get DryMerge to know that I needed to copy Gmail contacts to my Google Calendar, however each try, it thought I needed to manually enter contacts right into a spreadsheet.
The setbacks didn’t fully smash my DryMerge expertise. Giving credit score the place it’s due, the platform’s nifty when it really works. For instance, I efficiently acquired DryMerge to arrange an automation that copies posts from my X account to the non-public Discord server I exploit to combination numerous notifications. A distinct segment use case? Maybe. However it’s going to save lots of this reporter quite a lot of job switching.
The bugs, Frazer assures me, shall be addressed in time. He and Brashears are DryMerge’s solely workers, so there’s tons on the to-do listing.
“We predict we’re well-positioned to iterate shortly and nimbly,” Frazer mentioned.
Assuming Frazer and Brashears can get DryMerge’s platform in good working situation, the larger problem the duo should face is staying related within the fiercely aggressive integration-platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) area. In accordance with latest ballot launched by IDG and TeamDynamix, iPaaS is likely one of the fastest-growing software program markets, projected to achieve $2.7 billion this yr.
AWS has its personal iPaaS referred to as AppFabric. IBM not too long ago acquired iPaaS tech from Software program AG. A rising quantity of startups apart from DryMerge are trying to interrupt into the phase, whereas incumbents like Zapier and IFTTT are aggressively deploying generative AI capabilities.
Frazer makes the case that DryMerge’s differentiator is — and can stay — “being 10x simpler to make use of” than drag-and-drop integration builders.
“Our customers embody on-line vogue retailers, college directors, and asset managers — the overwhelming majority of which have by no means touched a line of code,” he mentioned. “They use us to save lots of hours a day on duties starting from buyer assist automation to buyer relationship administration information entry.”
Frazer’s not incorrect in regards to the alternative. Per the IDG and TeamDynamix ballot, 66% p.c of firms mentioned that they’ll spend money on iPaaS to handle inner automation and information integration challenges.
“We predict a big enterprise alternative is in rising the simplicity of automation and delivering easy-to-use tooling that empowers nontechnical of us,” Frazer mentioned.
It’s very early days for DryMerge, which solely has round 2,000 customers at current. However the firm was accepted into Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 batch, and DryMerge this previous summer season closed a $2.2 million seed spherical led by Storage Capital with participation from Goodwater Capital, Ritual Capital, and angels whose names Frazer wouldn’t reveal.
Frazer says that the funds are being put towards including new app integrations and doubling the dimensions of DryMerge’s group within the subsequent few months.
