START: Tarun Vedula & Alex Blackwell, Co-founders, Zatanna: “Turning all software into agent-first APIs”

START: Tarun Vedula & Alex Blackwell, Co-founders, Zatanna: “Turning all software into agent-first APIs”

Author: Fondo July 15, 2026 Duration: 16:33

Right now most AI agents interact with software the way humans do

They open a browser, look at a screenshot, and try to figure out what to click

That's like ripping the LIDAR off a Waymo and handing it a camera

Tarun & Alex kept running into this problem. 

They were building an AI receptionist for dentists, and at conference after conference people asked the same thing: do you integrate with X or Y platform?

Seven other people were doing the same thing. None of them could integrate. Alex and Tarun could, because they knew how to reverse engineer network requests

That's when they stopped digging for gold and started selling shovels

Zatanna turns legacy software into APIs by working at the network layer. No browsers. No screenshots. Just requests


10x faster on the workflows they benchmarked. Near-zero browser costs. Reliability goes from 70% to nearly 100%.


Computers shouldn't navigate the web like humans do. Humans use screens. Computers use requests

"No browser bots to babysit"

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🎙️ Tarun Vedula & Alex Blackwell, Co-founders, Zatanna on Fondo START

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00:57 From jury research to API infrastructure

02:04 The "sell the shovels" realization

03:18 Why browser agents break at scale

04:42 Turning legacy systems into APIs

05:47 Why repetitive workflows shouldn't use browsers

06:37 Teaching AI agents to navigate like computers

08:34 Founder-market fit and knowing when to pivot

10:20 From sneaker bots to reverse engineering anti-bots

12:23 The future of AI vs anti-bot warfare

13:37 Why companies are still stuck at 70% reliability


Check out www.zatanna.ai to learn more. 


Behind every startup's big idea is the less glamorous, but utterly essential, work of building a real business. The Startup Growth Podcast, from the team at Fondo, digs into that reality. Fondo itself is an all-in-one accounting platform designed for startups, handling everything from closing the books to filing taxes and even helping secure cash back from the IRS. This practical experience informs every conversation. You’ll hear founders and operators talk not just about vision, but about the tangible systems, financial decisions, and marketing pivots that actually fuel growth. Episodes move beyond theory to explore the operational choices that separate promising companies from sustainable ones. It’s a resource for entrepreneurs who understand that strategy is meaningless without execution, and that a healthy bottom line is the truest measure of progress. Tune in for honest discussions that bridge the gap between entrepreneurial ambition and the business fundamentals required to make it last.
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