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Bonus Episode: n8n’s Jan Oberhauser on building the Excel of AI
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Show notes
Jan Oberhauser was spending too much time on tasks that weren’t joyful. A former visual effects artist turned programmer, he lost hours each day rebuilding the same code instead of solving new problems. In 2019, Jan founded the German workflow automation startup n8n to end the drudgery. Now, hundreds of thousands of developers and thousands of enterprises use n8n’s automation platform to make work more efficient, more productive, and yes, more joyful.
Today, we announced that Accel is leading n8n’s Series C. Ahead of the announcement, Accel’s Ben Fletcher joined Jan in Berlin to retrace n8n’s journey from developer favorite to powerhouse of Europe’s AI boom. Jan and Ben talk about how n8n reimagined their product strategy for the LLM era, the choices that kept its community loyal while expanding in enterprise, and why the team set its sights on an ambitious goal: becoming “the Excel of AI.”
Conversation Highlights
0:43 - Meet n8n
1:45 - From VFX to n8n: Jan’s story
2:49 - Spending too much time on “not very joyful” tasks
5:26 - No-code’s “80% there” issue
7:14 - How n8n built its community
11:00 - “Do a few things right versus everything half-baked”
12:25 - AI-native vs. incumbents
14:47 - “I honestly was a bit scared”: reimagining n8n post-AI
22:52 - n8n’s secret to a high employee NPS
24:17 - The traits Jan looks for in team members
27:42 - Becoming the “Excel of AI”