Platforms to attach apps that wouldn’t usually speak 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. Nonetheless, 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 nicely. Throughout internships at tech giants like Meta and Stripe, they struggled to get automations working utilizing among the extra widespread app-linking instruments.
“I’d been dealing with the pain of designing integrations and automations from scratch,” Frazer instructed TechCrunch in an interview. “And Sam believed that generative AI models would solve the biggest problem in integrations — transforming data between APIs.”
So Brashears and Frazer, longtime pals who’d been constructing software program collectively since elementary faculty, determined to attempt their palms 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 email from a new prospect, ping the team on Slack and add them to HubSpot” — and handles the mandatory technical scaffolding.
“Currently, IT departments use complicated no-code tools to automate workflows on behalf of non-IT teams,” Frazer mentioned. “A natural language interface opens up automation to nontechnical people.”
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 So, I made a decision to provide DryMerge a go, hoping to exchange my outdated and rickety automations as soon as and for all.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., “Text me a summary of my calendar meetings every morning”) begins a brand new chat session, and these classes may be revisited at any time from an inventory on the left-side panel.
DryMerge hooks into an increasing library of apps, together with Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Salesforce, storage companies like Dropbox and OneDrive, social media platforms (e.g., X), and messaging shoppers (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 establishing just a few automations I assumed is likely to 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 the whole lot 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 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 utterly damage my DryMerge expertise. Giving credit score the place it’s due, the platform’s nifty when it really works. For instance, I efficiently obtained 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. Nevertheless it’s going to avoid wasting this reporter plenty of activity switching.
The bugs, Frazer assures me, will probably be addressed in time. He and Brashears are DryMerge’s solely staff, so there’s tons on the to-do checklist.
“We think we’re well-positioned to iterate quickly 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) house. In keeping with latest ballot launched by IDG and TeamDynamix, iPaaS is without doubt one of the fastest-growing software program markets, projected to achieve $2.7 billion this yr.
AWS has its personal iPaaS known as AppFabric. IBM just lately acquired iPaaS tech from Software program AG. A rising quantity of startups except for 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 easier to use” than drag-and-drop integration builders.
“Our users include online fashion retailers, school administrators, and asset managers — the vast majority of which have never touched a line of code,” he mentioned. “They use us to save hours a day on tasks ranging from customer support automation to customer relationship management data entry.”
Frazer’s not fallacious in regards to the alternative. Per the IDG and TeamDynamix ballot, 66% % of firms mentioned that they’ll put money into iPaaS to deal with inside automation and knowledge integration challenges.
“We think a gigantic enterprise opportunity is in increasing the simplicity of automation and delivering easy-to-use tooling that empowers nontechnical folks,” 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 time 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.
