APIs are the new Business Development

APIs are the new Business Development

Back in 2008 I spent months and months on integrating with a new partner that the company had hit up.

Literally hit up.

Talk, meet, go out for lunch, out for beers, meet and talk some more and then see what the technical aspects of such an integration would look like, how will it benefit customers (mutually) and how does that affect our businesses.


Today if you want to integrate your product with another one to provide more value to your customers, you basically just find an API that does what you need, hit up the documentation and evaluate the feasibility of the time it will take vs. the value it will provide.

Any developer can do that. It's even fun to do. And you don't need to think about how it benefits the provider of the API - since they're offering it, it's all up for grabs.

Business Development is going away.

It's 2015 and there's a ton of stuff built already that you can take advantage of. There're even API marketplaces and directories where you can search for an API that does image manipulation and get a list of providers that does that.

Your job is to solve problems, so as longs as the business can align their thinking about which problems to solve you should be just fine to go an hit up APIs to help you solve them.

If you're an indie developer, this is even better. The world of APIs is a giant box of LEGO bricks waiting to be poked, mashed together and brought to life.

You can even use integrations as marketing which is often the point, since you now extend your product with new capabilities you want your customers to know.