Platforms to attach apps that wouldn’t usually speak to one another have been round for a minute (see: Zapier). But they haven’t gotten dramatically easier to make use of if you happen to’re nontechnical. Generative AI has lowered the barrier to entry considerably. However, getting probably the most out of those platforms — and fixing issues after they break — nonetheless requires a little bit of programming know-how.
Software builders Sam Brashears and Edward Frazer perceived this to be the case as properly. During internships at tech giants like Meta and Stripe, they struggled to get automations working utilizing a few of the extra common app-linking instruments.
“I’d been coping with the ache of designing integrations and automations from scratch,” Frazer advised TechCrunch in an interview. “And Sam believed that generative AI fashions would resolve the most important drawback in integrations — remodeling knowledge between APIs.”
So Brashears and Frazer, longtime buddies who’d been constructing software program collectively since elementary college, determined to attempt 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, “Whenever I get an e-mail from a brand new prospect, ping the crew on Slack and add them to HubSpot” — and handles the required technical scaffolding.
“Currently, IT departments use sophisticated no-code instruments to automate workflows on behalf of non-IT groups,” Frazer mentioned. “A pure language interface opens up automation to nontechnical folks.”
It appeared like a neat thought, a chatbot that may string apps collectively for you — significantly if you happen to, like me, have spent numerous hours wrestling with IFTTT. So, I made a decision to offer DryMerge a go, hoping to exchange my previous and rickety automations as soon as and for all.
DryMerge’s UI is sort of clear and minimalist. It jogs my memory a little bit of ChatGPT; there’s not a lot to have a look at apart from a textual content bot. Each new request (e.g., “Text me a abstract of my calendar conferences each morning”) begins a brand new chat session, and these classes could 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 shoppers (e.g., Discord). Once 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 establishing a number of automations I assumed may be helpful for a reporter with an overfull schedule, like one to throw Gmail contacts right into a spreadsheet and add dates from current e-mail invites to a Google Calendar. Things 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 thing was working correctly.
But then, issues began to crop up.
Several instances, DryMerge’s chatbot stopped responding altogether. Other instances, it missed key particulars in a request. I attempted repeatedly to get DryMerge to grasp that I wished to copy Gmail contacts to my Google Calendar, however each try, it thought I wished to manually enter contacts right into a spreadsheet.
The setbacks didn’t fully break 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 private Discord server I exploit to mixture numerous notifications. A distinct segment use case? Perhaps. But it’s going to save lots of this reporter a whole lot of process switching.
The bugs, Frazer assures me, will likely be addressed in time. He and Brashears are DryMerge’s solely workers, so there’s tons on the to-do checklist.
“We assume we’re well-positioned to iterate rapidly and nimbly,” Frazer mentioned.
Assuming Frazer and Brashears can get DryMerge’s platform in good working situation, the larger problem the duo must face is staying related within the fiercely aggressive integration-platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) house. According to current ballot launched by IDG and TeamDynamix, iPaaS is among the fastest-growing software program markets, projected to succeed in $2.7 billion this 12 months.
AWS has its personal iPaaS known as AppFabric. IBM just lately acquired iPaaS tech from Software AG. A rising variety of startups except for DryMerge are trying to interrupt into the section, 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 style 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 knowledge entry.”
Frazer’s not incorrect concerning the alternative. Per the IDG and TeamDynamix ballot, 66% % of firms mentioned that they’ll put money into iPaaS to handle inside automation and knowledge integration challenges.
“We assume a big enterprise alternative is in growing 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. But the corporate was accepted into Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 batch, and DryMerge this previous summer season closed a $2.2 million seed spherical led by Garage 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 crew within the subsequent few months.
