Simplex

What do they actually do

Simplex provides an API, SDKs, and a dashboard that let developers run automated browser workflows against ordinary websites. Teams define step-by-step “workflows” (log in, navigate, fill forms, download files, extract data), trigger them from their app or backend, and watch runs with live logs and session replays. Outputs like files and extracted fields are returned via API/webhooks for use in downstream systems (homepage, docs).

Today, the product includes Python and TypeScript SDKs, a sessions dashboard with replays, logging and a session store, and guidance for production concerns such as constrained workflows, caching for repeatability, realtime execution, and handling two‑factor auth. Early users run Simplex in production to automate tasks on legacy portals, including submitting data, downloading invoices, and calling internal site APIs (docs, YC profile, engineering blog).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Backend engineers at startups integrating with customer/vendor websites: They spend weeks building brittle, site-specific scrapers that break whenever a portal UI changes, creating constant maintenance and slow debugging. They want a controllable SDK + run/replay workflow instead of bespoke scripts (docs, YC profile).
• Product/operations teams at logistics and transportation companies (TMS/WMS users): They must submit loads, pull tracking, and retrieve invoices from portals without reliable APIs. Manual effort or fragile automations slow operations; they need dependable portal automation without dedicating an engineer per site (YC profile, homepage).
• Startups building AI agents that act on behalf of users: Agents often fail in production due to flaky web interactions and poor observability, so demos don’t scale. They need reproducible runs, logs/replays, and tooling that closes the demo-to-production gap (blog, YC profile).
• Finance / accounts‑payable teams working across many vendor portals: Teams waste time logging into multiple sites, handling multi‑step logins, downloading files, and reconciling data by hand. They need reliable automation that can manage file downloads and enterprise login flows like MFA (docs, homepage).
• Enterprise automation/IT/SRE teams running background automations at scale: They’re wary of fragile scripts without auditability. They need session logs, replays, robust retries/caching, and clear failure visibility to run web automations safely in production (docs).

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

• First 10: Founder-led, high-touch onboarding with short paid POCs for early developer teams and AI‑agent builders; the team builds or hardens one portal integration and sits with users in the dashboard to debug and ship fixes quickly (homepage, docs).
• First 50: Publish a small library of portal-specific templates and a few case studies, then target logistics, finance, and ops teams via LinkedIn/industry lists; partner with boutique integrators to surface use cases (docs, blog).
• First 100: Open a self-serve trial with clear SDK examples and onboarding guides, add light sales coverage for larger ops/enterprise deals (SLA, onboarding services), and establish channel partnerships with RPA/automation vendors and AI‑agent platforms (docs, YC profile).

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Simplex operates within business process automation, especially when tasks must be executed through web portals rather than APIs. Anchor markets include Intelligent Process Automation (~$14.6B in 2024, growing meaningfully by 2030) and adjacent workflow automation, plus verticals like AP automation and freight/TMS that frequently rely on portals (Grand View Research – IPA, GMI – Workflow Automation, Grand View – AP Automation, IMARC – Freight Management System).

Bottom-up calculation:

Treat IPA/workflow as the primary universe and estimate the share that requires browser/portal automation. If 10–25% of IPA needs portal-level work, 2024 TAM ≈ $1.45B–$3.65B (10–25% of $14.6B). Applying the same 10–25% to IPA’s projected 2030 size yields roughly $4–$12B (Grand View – IPA).

Assumptions:

• 10–25% of automation spend requires browser-level portal interactions rather than API/back-end automation.
• Avoid double counting by using IPA/workflow as the base and treating vertical reports as context, not additive.
• Legacy portals and MFA-heavy flows will remain common through 2030, sustaining demand for portal automation.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• UiPath: Enterprise RPA and automation platform used to automate desktop and web workflows at scale; relevant when companies standardize on a broad suite rather than a developer-first SDK approach (site).
• Automation Anywhere: Enterprise RPA suite for building and orchestrating software robots across business processes, including browser tasks (site).
• Robocorp: Python-centric RPA stack with cloud orchestration (“Control Room”) for building and running automations, including browser-driven flows (docs, portal).
• Apify: Web scraping and automation platform with deployable ‘Actors,’ proxies, and monitoring—used for extracting data and automating website interactions (site).
• Browserbase: Serverless browser infrastructure designed for AI agents and applications, offering managed browsers and integrations for web automation workloads (site).