At Unito, our mission is to unite work across tools, teams, and organizations. We believe that no one should be limited by the apps or tools they use. They should feel empowered by them. With that in mind, we’ve built a software integration platform designed to be used by anyone, regardless of their professional background. You don’t have to be an IT technician or software developer to use our product.
Our platform enables marketers, product teams, developers, engineers, and a wide range of other professionals to collaborate seamlessly without having to compromise on their favourite tools. It allows you to stay in your preferred application while working alongside a colleague in another. It’s about fostering collaboration and efficient communication.
We’ve also built a very intentional company culture anchored on core values of transparency, community, and growth. Unito’s salaries are visible to all employees. We nurture a true sense of community and togetherness, and we promote from within. These values guide us as we continue to evolve and expand our services.
Tell us about yourself?
I’ve worked in the tech industry since I was 19, studying computer science. In my spare time, I’d set up websites for people and somehow wound up in my first startup at the beginning of the dot-com bubble. I wasn’t a programmer then, but I ended up being the most tech-savvy person in the room. I helped set up the office, hired people, and managed IT, and that’s how I got my first taste of the startup life. I’ve since worked in product leadership roles at two other startups in the medical and digital signage spaces before finally launching my own, Unito.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Well, a year ago, Unito was raising money for our Series B fundraiser, so fundraising was top of mind. We ended up raising 20 million dollars, but I would remind myself that raising funds is always harder than you expect and to keep going even through the “nos”.
What problem does your business solve?
Businesses today are purchasing and using more enterprise apps than ever before, with dozens of tools per department, if not more. Just maintaining that many tools is a chore that someone has to take on. But whether you’re big or small, if you use more than even one app or tool in your day-to-day, you’re creating data silos, possibly without even realizing it. As soon as you manually share information from one app to another, both become instantly out of date.
Unito acts as a bridge between those data silos to keep your tools up-to-date automatically. It’s no-code, which means anyone can learn how to use it quickly and easily to streamline their work and squash those data silos before they overwhelm you.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
The idea for Unito to sync tools 2-way so digital workers can collaborate at work without leaving their specialized tools had been on my “someone should solve this” list for a while. I had been working in product for years and had felt that pain firsthand. Product folks have to work with almost every other department in a company but have no authority over them. That equates to having to constantly jump through the many tools of those collaborators.
I ran the idea through an early-stage accelerator called Founder Institute, along with a couple of other ideas that didn’t end up making the cut. I also met my co-founders at the Founders Institute. We were each working on different projects, but I was able to build relationships and find the right people to collaborate with, and it all started there.
What is your magic sauce?
So, Unito’s key differentiator is what we call 2-way sync. That means the product can automatically create and sync data in both connected tools in real time without the user having to set manual triggers or actions, which is what a traditional automation platform would do.
We designed our product from the beginning with 2-way sync in mind, which made all the difference in helping us stand out from the competition. Non-technical users can set it up in around 12 minutes or less. Then, they can just set it and forget it.
With a lot of our competitors, you end up with months-long implementations that involve lots of dedicated IT experts or outside professional services consultants and that adds up in both time and costs.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
We’re now rolling out dozens of new integrations as we continue to scale and move upmarket. We’re expanding the categories of apps and tools we support to service an even wider, larger range of customers across industries. That trend is going to continue because the SaaS industry is still oversaturated with apps and tools that need integrations.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
We’re staying on course, actually. Even though tech companies laid off over 300,000 people through the first half of 2023, that only makes the need for integration more pertinent than ever. So our goals remain: staying focused on our objectives and keeping our brand name top of mind for our customers as a solution in a period of recession or tighter budgets. Unito can help big businesses save money rather than add additional costs.
How can people get involved?
Visit us at www.unito.io.
Unito includes a free 14-day trial, no credit card required. We’re always looking for more talent. Check out our career page. If you’re a startup, we’re always open to new partnerships.