What do they actually do
RetroFix runs an early‑access AI automation platform that turns plain‑English instructions into runnable workflows. The system can write, test, deploy, and monitor automations, with support for browser‑based agents, coding agents, knowledge bases, and connections to thousands of third‑party apps (the site markets “2,800+” integrations) (RetroFix homepage). They list a Professional plan at $500/month and an Enterprise option with custom connectors and priority support, indicating a paid product aimed at teams and agencies (Pricing).
A typical workflow starts with a user describing a task in plain English; RetroFix composes the steps using existing connectors or generates API‑calling code if a connector doesn’t exist. For dynamic sites, it can spin up a real browser agent to log in, wait for content, and extract data, then run the automation on a schedule or trigger with monitoring, retries, and human‑in‑the‑loop controls (RetroFix homepage, YC profile, LinkedIn). The product remains invite‑only/early access, and the team is small (YC S24) as they continue onboarding customers (RetroFix homepage, YC profile).
Who are their target customer(s)
- Freelancers and small automation agencies: They need to turn varied client requests into working automations quickly but lack engineering time, so they end up stitching together fragile scripts or manual steps that are hard to maintain.
- Growth/SDR teams: They spend hours scraping, filtering, and pushing lead data into CRMs/Slack, and current integrations often break when websites change.
- Operations or IT teams at growing companies: They worry about reliability, monitoring, and governance because many automations fail silently, lack retries, and are difficult to audit or control.
- Product or analytics practitioners: They need recurring data from dynamic sites and third‑party apps, but scrapers and custom API connectors are brittle and require frequent maintenance.
- Enterprise platform/product ops and vendor owners: They require custom connectors, security controls, and SLAs; they can’t adopt tools without clear admin controls, priority support, and enterprise integrations.
How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers
- First 10: Recruit 10 freelancers/small agencies via early‑access and YC/founder networks, comp an initial plan, and personally build 2–3 automations per account to prove value and gather case studies and testimonials (RetroFix homepage, Pricing).
- First 50: Turn early users into referral/implementation partners, publish 6–10 reusable templates for top tasks, and share short demos/step‑by‑steps in LinkedIn and niche communities to shorten sales cycles; test small, targeted paid campaigns.
- First 100: Open a low‑friction self‑serve path with templates and guardrails, and hire one SDR/BDR for outbound to mid‑market ops/product teams; prioritize a few custom connectors and an enterprise onboarding playbook to win SLA‑driven deals (Pricing).
What is the rough total addressable market
Top-down context:
RetroFix spans intelligent process automation, RPA, and iPaaS. Public estimates place IPA at about $14.6B in 2024 (Grand View Research), RPA software at ~$3.2B in 2023 (Gartner), and iPaaS at ~$8.5B in 2024 (Gartner), with broader workflow management projected to reach ~$86.6B by 2030 (Grand View Research) (GVR IPA, Gartner RPA, Gartner iPaaS, GVR Workflow).
Bottom-up calculation:
At $500/month (~$6,000/year) per team, 100 paying teams ≈ $0.6M ARR; 1,000 ≈ $6M; 10,000 ≈ $60M (Pricing). The buyer pool is large: WEF cites ~400 million SMEs globally and the SBA tracks tens of millions of U.S. small businesses, indicating ample potential accounts if adoption materializes (WEF SMEs, SBA Profiles).
Assumptions:
- Analyst categories (IPA, RPA, iPaaS, workflow) overlap, so top‑down figures are an indicative envelope, not a strict sum.
- Average deal size near the published Professional plan ($6k/year) is representative; enterprise deals and usage‑based pricing could raise ARPU.
- Adoption depends on shipping reliable integrations, governance, and templates to win non‑engineering teams and enterprise buyers.
Who are some of their notable competitors
- Zapier: Popular no‑code automation tool with thousands of app integrations; strong SMB adoption and a large template ecosystem.
- Make (formerly Integromat): Visual workflow builder favored by power users/agencies for complex multi‑step automations and granular data handling.
- Workato: Enterprise iPaaS with robust connectors, governance, and devops features; strong presence in IT/ops and mid‑market/enterprise.
- Microsoft Power Automate: Automation and RPA integrated into the Microsoft ecosystem; broad reach in enterprises using Microsoft 365 and Dynamics.
- UiPath: RPA leader with desktop/browser automation, AI features, and enterprise orchestration; widely used for back‑office process automation.