UiPath

UiPath: RPA software watching your mouse, now multi-billion-dollar

Shaan explains UiPath's robotic process automation — software installed on your computer that watches your clicks and typing, learns repetitive patterns, and automates them — and notes it's a very large multi-billion-dollar company.

“And UiPath is a very big multi-billion-dollar company. It works with big companies that need more efficiency. And so I think UiPath is probably the craziest way to solve this problem. And I'm pretty fascinated with this idea of robot. It sounds almost too good to be true, right? If somebody pitched me this, I'd be like, nah, that's not how it works. A computer can't just watch what I do on a screen and automate me. And the reality is apparently it can.”

The real innovation at UiPath isn't software, it's the sales channel

Daniel Gross argues founders wrongly attack enterprise incumbents on software quality; like Salesforce, UiPath won via sales machinery and channel/reseller sales, not better code.

“the thing to realize about UiPath that I feel like a lot of people miss in enterprise startups is the innovation here is not the software. The innovation is the sales machinery and the sales channel. And a lot of people, for every sales company, a common meme amongst founders is to look at it and say, "Dude, dude, the software is awful. We're going to make better software." And you forget. Salesforce, the software is just as good as it needs to be.”

Steal thisWhen attacking an enterprise incumbent, copy their distribution and channel sales, not just a cleaner UI.