After my third workflow automation build, I set out to create a third-party embeddable solution.
It started in 2017 when I worked as a lead engineer at Brivity, a real estate CRM. It was an exciting time. The company was hiring, the product was improving, and user growth was accelerating.
We had a lightweight system to schedule tasks for new leads then. However, we wanted to expand the functionality and create a workflow builder for users to automate actions.
The project was estimated to take six months, and in the end, it took eight months. We built a robust workflow system. Users could schedule tasks, emails, and text messages, and content included dynamic placeholders. Each action could have a delay or run at a set time, a holiday, or even a birthday. The point is that it was complex.
The feature is called Auto Plans, and the launch was a success. Users loved it. Correction, users love it. Still today, the quality exists and is bringing great value to real estate agents.
Fast forward a year, and I am consulting for a healthcare company. They are scoping out a similar workflow system, which would take twice as long to build, and the investment was well into six figures.
Now it’s 2020, and I am the CTO at Resorcity. Our core business had nothing to do with automation. However, our users would gain significant value if we had some workflow automation capabilities. Due to my experience, I had a good idea of this undertaking. We were a lean startup, and resources were limited. I considered buying a solution, and I came across embedded iPaaS products.
After a few demos and quotes, I was disappointed with our options. Implementing a full-blown iPaaS was overkill.
- We did not need a marketplace of 400-plus integrations injected into our product
- The terminology was too tech-savvy for our average user
- They cost anywhere from 2-30K per month.
- It felt like a rip-off since we only needed a fraction of the features.
As a result, we compromised on features, removed requirements, and elected to build it ourselves.
Now it’s 2022, and I’m doing some contract work for a gov-tech company when deja vu strikes. This time, I decided I won’t stick around for the build. Instead, I chose to create a third-party solution to offer my clients. It needed to:
- look and feel like an internal solution (white label / OEM)
- natively rendered and customizable. No iFrames!
- highly performant
- extensible
- most importantly, affordable for startups
With these properties in mind, Embed Workflow was born.
We are very excited to share our product with you. It’s been a long journey with many hard-earned learning lessons building similar solutions for several companies. With all that experience, we have successfully created an embedded workflow solution that only takes minutes to set up at a fraction of the cost of competing solutions.
If you want to learn more or get in touch for any reason, email me or connect via LinkedIn. I read them all and respond to all non-spam messages.