Several months ago I began to experiment with Zapier (Pronounced ZAP-YEAR), a new service that allows wicked-fast integration between two or more platforms. Initially I used it solve a problem that a client had, namely monitoring orders that came out of WooCommerce. The back-end office staff wasn't WordPress savvy, so they were not comfortable logging in and checking on things from the admin area. They were however very in-tune with Google docs and Google spreadsheets. Zapier is what I used to build the bridge between the two in near real-time.

With Zapier I was able to create a “zap” script that could monitor every new order and add it as another row in the Google spreadsheet. Because Google sheets is universal with Excel, the client staff had no issues in retrieving the data on a shared doc. Problem solved!

I found Zapier so useful that I decided they would be a great guest for WordPress Weekly. If I found such great value in it, I knew that others in the WordPress community would as well. So I invited Wade Foster, who is the CEO and also one of the co-founders of the company to come on the show. We found a lot in common right away and discovered that WordPress integration was only a small part of what they do. Wade is a great guest and shared a lot of detail about their startup and what the process has been like migrating from the Midwest to Silicon Valley. Enjoy the interview!