Connecting and Integrating Software and Applications with API Nation’s Michael Davidovich

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0:00
Welcome to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. I'm Josh Elledge, Founder and CEO of UpMyInfluence.com. We turn entrepreneurs into media celebrities, grow their authority, and help them build partnerships with top influencers. We believe that every person has a unique message that can positively impact the world. Stick around to the end of the show; we'll reveal how you can be our next guest on one of the fastest growing daily inspiration podcasts on the planet in 15 to 20 minutes. Let's go.

Alright, and with us right now, we've got Michael Davidovich. Michael, you are the founder and CEO of API Nation. And listen, my friend, I don't think we could have been talking at any better time because I've got an API issue right now. And I'm hoping you can help me. So first off, Michael, thank you so much for joining us.

0:58
Love it. Thank you so much.

1:00
All right. So what does API Nation do? By the way, your website is API nation.com. And please explain how it works.

1:09
Yeah. So what we are is we're a bridge between different software applications. So when you said, Hey, I have an API problem right now, that usually means you're trying to take one type of software you're using, plug it into some other type of software, get something going. And that's exactly what API nation is. It's a it's a platform for it's a bridge between different software applications.

1:32
Yeah. And so so a lot of people are familiar with Zapier, how would you compare the Zapier and API Nation?

1:40
I think, I think that's a good tool. And it's very generic. And it's built for pretty much everyone for everything. And it's a and, and they solve a good problem. they solve a middleware problem, right? That's exactly what we're doing. And lots of other companies are solving this issue. The big difference is we are market focused. So we we, we instead of offering kind of a do it yourself platform for technologists, which I'm sure if you use up everything, you know, you got to be pretty tech savvy. We decided to go a little different rounds and said, Let's pick a market like industry. And let's build a platform that has a predefined pre build automation stuff that are relevant for that industry, instead of being everything to everyone. Let's be amazing. But for this segment of a more, and and that's been our approach, so it has been working out really well for us.

2:23
And it looks like you dominate real estate.

2:37
That's right. Yeah. But we we selected a few markets where we ended up in residential real estate, we think it's an amazing industry. What I love working with folks, and in that space, because they're all, every single one isn't as entreprenuer. Right? I mean, think about the guys out there that are hustling, selling, buying, you know, homes, while they're intrapreneurs that they work for themselves conditions only job. So this is it's been it's been great. And yes, we do dominate that industry. We do more real estate, integrations and connections and pretty much anybody else in the world.

3:15
So in the real estate game, for those who don't work in real estate, can you give us an idea of like, you know, if we were to compare real estate to just like maybe generic marketing or whatever, what's, what's unique about real estate, where it's really important to get things talking to each other? Well?

3:34
Well, you the real estate, you really make you make money by doing more deals and doing them at a higher margin, right? If you think about this is where the money is in real estate. So if you get more leads that have people that are trying to sell their homes, or they're looking to buy a home, right, you're gonna make more deals. So how does marketing work in that space, all you need to reach the right people at the right time, perhaps in a life events that are happening, people are thinking about selling their homes, there's some some data that you need to be looking at. So if you look generically at the marketing and lead generation activities in real estate, but not only that, not a whole lot of different than your marketing in general, well get the right product to the right person at the right time. But the tools, right, the tools that are built for these for that industry are specific to that industry. If you're using a CRM system created for real estate, then I'm going to use it in podcasting. Because there's probably a better CRM for you for that space or in oil and gas. They have their own products and so forth. So this is what enables our growth and what makes a nation successful is because we're we're very good at what we do in this space, hundreds and hundreds of software applications, their franchises, brokers and all the nuances of that space, and the tools built specifically for that space. Yeah, it's what we do. interconnect and, and then on the flip side the money making side if you can automate your process of closing the deal and getting it to the finish line and, and and make a higher margin on it, then yeah, you're you're going to do that right. And there are tools that help you do that. And we bridge those toes together and get to the bathroom.

5:21
Mm hmm. And so again, explain the model. So when people I see we can sign up for free, but is the model similar to Zapier? Or is this more of a, hey, we're just going to take care of getting these all integrated for you.

5:42
Yeah, the model is similar in the sense that you pay a monthly subscription fee. Like, you use it, you pay, you pay a fee, and, and everything is kind of pre built and pre configured for you. So if you are, if you walk in, this is how you're going to do it. And then some of the software companies we work with, they decide to make things full the integrations available to their, their customers at no cost and, and say, Hey, you know, can you make us free for our clients and send me the bill? And? Sure.

6:15
Okay, so I'm sorry. So just make sure I understand so. So someone who is a non technical person, they can come to API nation, what's their experience? Like?

6:27
They come in, they say, Hey, this is what I'm looking to do. I'm looking to build my email list. They use this. Oh, here's, here's the reason for that. Click that button. And it's all pre configured and pre built for them. And it starts building that email list from that CRM.

6:45
Yeah. Okay. So it's an API. There's no coding overhead. Yeah, no coding.

6:51
Right. Exactly. So so if you're, if you're sitting there reading API documentation, and that's what you want to be doing, we're probably not the system for you. Yeah, we want to take the we want to serve the customer who is just your entrepreneur, small business owner, that doesn't have the desire. Maybe they have the hours to spend it, but they just don't want it. They want it done for them. And, and, and, and that's, that's what we deliver.

7:24
Okay, so when what led to you launching it, so, so API Nation launched about four and a half years ago? And, like, what were you doing beforehand? And and how did you just say, you know what, I'm gonna start API Nation.

7:40
Yeah, exactly. I wish it was like that you wake up in the morning with a good idea. That's never the case. I I've been in software integration, middleware space, pretty much my entire career. So it's like that article. And then started a few companies in the space for supply chain automation, e commerce out of retailers, and so on. So and I mostly worked on kind of a mid to enterprise businesses level. And it was great, because you had these large software providers that build these tools that here's a tool, it does everything. And we just need to configure it and plug it into the few things. And then the world changed. And what happened was, the software become became fragmented, instead of a selection of 50 marketing applications. So you have 5000 marketing applications, and a company is running, not 10 or 20 different software packages, they're now running 300 of them. So the the enterprise guys have had this integration space figured out forever. But the SMEs Yeah, guys, like you and I, right. That's right. You know, we're small businesses. There, there are no tools that has a price like less than 100 grand on the market for the for you. And that's just quiet. I don't know, I don't have that kind of budget. And guess what, most small businesses, they don't have that money. Right. So we thought, let's, let's take a crack at this by pre building things. Right? Yeah, it's gonna take a few bucks to do it. But then instead of charging each person because there's so much reusability and repeatability that, let's take a crack at pre building small integration pieces that are highly fine tuned to a specific market and then sell them to 1000 people. Right, sell them at scale. Can we do that then kept combat work? And until about five years ago, four years ago, we started testing with that test. Yeah, markets figured it out. And guess what, it does work. Because when you deliver that at a reasonable price that and it solves your business problem, you kind of go wherever Wouldn't you do this? Right? Yeah, no, it becomes a no brainer.

10:03
All right. So Michael, here's where I'm coming to you with my hat in hand, their hand like, can you please help me out? And I don't know if you can or not so. So here's my challenge is we're trying to launch a partner program, but we needed to integrate with our scheduler, and they just don't talk well together. So I'm having to add an opt in form first, that then would feed an affiliate software, I don't care any Affiliate Software, right. I prefer tap affiliate. But it's, you know, I wish that this stuff were much more native, but so we're thinking opt in monster will grab the email address, and then that way, it's the partner who sent that the the customer to this page, then tap affiliate, when they submit that email address would tap affiliate would say, Okay, let's create the customer. And, and assign it to the partner based on the cookie so that I don't want to get too down in the weeds here. Right now, that's not native, you can't do that. Right? It's and so right now, both providers are like, yeah, you gotta go in and use our API tools. And I'm looking at it, I'm like, my eyes are starting to glaze over. Like, I'm comfortable with a lot of tech, I PHP, HTML, like, I know, all that stuff. css, you know, I'm good at that. But you know, it's like, I don't have the time. I don't have the patience. I have a job out on Upwork right now. But even the guys like that I'm trying to communicate with like, there's just not a lot of, I don't know, it's it's like I, I end up like I'm just trying to describe it is as best as I can. And it would be great. If I could just go to someone who's like an API expert. And like, Look, give me the documentation. I'll get it figured out. And I'll charge a couple hundred dollars. I don't know, can you? Can you help me out? Or do you only work with the tools you've got listed?

12:07
So there's

12:08
someone else listening to me and wants to reach out to me? Well, my problem was six weeks ago by the time it's published, so come and see how things went for me. But

12:18
Exactly. So Josh, I wish the answer was yes, I can absolutely help you out. Yeah. And the but but the reality of it, we are focused on our vertical. Yeah, right. Right, or not in it. But this is an amazing and a perfect example of why we exist. Because if there was a Josh, in the real estate space that seniors graduating with that exactly, same problem, right. But the rules with the process kind of going this should be simple. My eyes are bleeding radius, API integration, right. So so you know, when we enter the year vertical, we're gonna have a solution for you.

13:07
Yes, good, good. Good. That's what I love to hear. So I, you know, again, your website is API nation.com. And so for someone who's like, okay, I like what I like what Michaels talking about here. What would you recommend like and again, if you know anyone in the real estate space, is it mainly for those? Are you just talking about realtors?

13:34
We service franchises, software companies, brokers and agents. Pretty much everybody who's engaged in that space. We've got something for you.

13:47
Yeah, okay. Well, Michael, again, API nation.com. And then, you know, right. When you get on the site, you'll see all of the, you know, I love browsing through all the different apps and things that you've got, you sign up for free. And then, like, how much is someone going to pay? Like if they it's all custom? It's all based on what they need

14:09
it based on how much they use? Um, so we anywhere from free? 200 bucks a month. Yeah.

14:18
Okay. All right. Sounds great. Well, again, Michael, devout homeboy, David Davidovich. Did I say it

14:26
right salary data?

14:28
Alright, sorry about that. Michael, who Thank you so much. Again, API nation.com. Thanks.

14:35
Thanks.

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