Wade Foster
Background
Wade Foster grew up in Jefferson City, Missouri, and graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with degrees in industrial engineering and business administration. An expert in digital marketing and customer support, Foster worked at a local web development firm before co-founding Zapier.
Role at Zapier Inc.
Wade Foster is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Zapier, Inc. In 2011, alongside Bryan Helmig and Mike Knoop, Foster founded Zapier in Columbia, Missouri to solve a simple problem: connecting disparate web applications without writing code. Under Foster's remarkably disciplined, capital-efficient leadership, Zapier raised only $1.3 million in venture capital, achieved operating profitability in 2014, pioneered 100% remote-first culture, built a programmatic SEO empire, and scaled Zapier into a $5.0 billion software powerhouse generating over $300 million in annual recurring revenue. Foster is widely celebrated as one of the most operationally disciplined bootstrapped software founders of the 21st century. Foster's leadership is celebrated across the global business landscape as the gold standard of capital efficiency and disciplined growth. An ardent advocate for remote work and asynchronous communication, Foster resisted the temptations of hyper-hiring and flashy venture capital rounds, steering Zapier to operational profitability and building a culture of deep customer empathy. He continues to guide global corporate expansion, product innovation across Zapier Central, and enterprise go-to-market ahead of Zapier's public debut.