Kaizen

What do they actually do

Kaizen is a hosted browser‑automation platform with a web UI and API. Teams define a task in plain English like an SOP, and Kaizen runs it in managed browsers that log in, click through forms, upload/download files, and return structured results. Workflows can be triggered via API, batch uploads, or simple integrations, and customers can monitor runs and outputs in the product Kaizen homepage Kaizen docs.

The platform focuses on production use: it handles logins, two‑factor authentication and captchas, supports proxies and parallel execution at large scale, and provides observability. The site lists HIPAA compliance and notes SOC 2 is in progress, and highlights use in industries like healthcare, logistics, and financial services where teams need to integrate with legacy web portals that lack APIs Kaizen homepage Execute API docs YC company profile.

Who are their target customer(s)

• Healthcare provider‑credentialing teams: Must enroll and maintain clinicians across many payer and hospital portals; repetitive logins/2FA and error‑prone data entry slow them down and require HIPAA‑aware handling of PHI.
• Logistics operations teams (dispatch, carrier/shippers, 3PLs): Need to push orders and pull tracking from many TMS/partner portals; manual cross‑portal updates and status checks don’t scale and are hard to batch reliably.
• Financial compliance/reporting teams: Have to submit filings or run government lookups on legacy sites; processes are long, site UIs vary, and audit/legal needs make outsourcing or DIY scripts risky.
• Engineering teams integrating with third‑party websites lacking stable APIs: Spend cycles building and maintaining brittle browser scripts; need an API‑driven alternative that reliably handles logins, 2FA, captchas, and monitoring for production use.
• Data/AI teams needing structured extracts from complex web apps: Lose time normalizing inconsistent scraped outputs; need scalable, repeatable runs with observability so data quality stays high across many sources.

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Run low‑cost pilots inside healthcare, logistics, and finance where a manual SOP can be replaced quickly; use YC introductions and targeted outreach to teams wrestling with payer or TMS portals to land referenceable wins.
• First 50: Package early wins as reusable vertical templates (e.g., credentialing flows, carrier onboarding) and run short paid pilots with look‑alike customers; publish 3–5 case studies showing time saved and auditability to speed procurement.
• First 100: Hire 2–3 vertical AEs and a customer success lead to convert pilots into annual contracts; complete enterprise certifications (e.g., SOC 2) and open two channel partnerships (credentialing vendors, logistics integrators) to drive steady enterprise leads.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Kaizen targets the browser‑based slice of RPA/web‑automation: teams that need to read/write data in third‑party web apps when APIs are missing. This segment spans healthcare, logistics, finance, and software teams that routinely integrate with legacy portals.

Bottom-up calculation:

Estimate ~30,000 relevant teams globally across provider credentialing, logistics ops, financial compliance, and engineering/data teams that maintain portal integrations. At an average of ~$25k ARR per customer for production automations and support, TAM ≈ $750M.

Assumptions:

• Roughly 30k teams worldwide have ongoing, production portal‑automation needs in the named verticals.
• Average customer spends ~$25k ARR (mix of small $10k pilots and larger $50k+ enterprise contracts).
• Focus is on production browser automations (not general scraping), excluding desktop‑only RPA use cases.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Apify: Cloud platform for running Puppeteer/Playwright “Actors,” with a marketplace of prebuilt scrapers/automations; overlaps on hosted browser automation but is more code‑first and marketplace‑driven than SOP/editor workflows Apify Actors Apify docs.
• UiPath: Enterprise RPA suite for desktop and web UI automation with strong governance and compliance; competes for similar buyers in healthcare/finance/logistics but is a broader platform than Kaizen’s API‑first browser agents UiPath platform UiPath trust & security.
• Robocorp: Developer‑focused, Python‑based RPA with cloud orchestration; overlaps on cloud‑run browser robots but is aimed at code‑centric bot development and Git workflows rather than natural‑language SOPs and packaged templates Robocorp portal Robocorp docs.
• PhantomBuster: Cloud browser automations focused on growth/sales use cases (e.g., LinkedIn, enrichment) with simple UI/API; less enterprise‑oriented on compliance/governance than Kaizen PhantomBuster Help center.
• Bright Data: Provides hosted browsers, proxies, and CAPTCHA solving to run Playwright/Puppeteer at scale; infra‑level alternative if teams want to build their own bots and unblocking, while Kaizen adds SOP logic and workflow observability Bright Data Scraping Browser.