AI-Powered Platform Playmaker Focuses on Advanced Integration and Workflow Scenarios

Efecan Erdur's latest venture, Playmaker, is an AI-powered platform designed to facilitate advanced integration and workflow scenarios. After selling his shares in Kolay IK, Erdur shifted his focus to an API-based startup. Together with Alexander Gordon-Furse, he founded Playmaker in late 2023, based in the UK. The startup recently completed its pre-seed investment round, led by Fuel Ventures and joined by angel investors specializing in the UK software sector.

Playmaker aims to address complex scenarios that existing market tools struggle to handle or require technical development for, as highlighted by Erdur. The platform's primary focus is on the problem of data extraction from documents. In this context, the team launched its first Product Hunt product with Document AI, which managed to secure the top spot on launch day.

Recalling his experience with Kolay IK, where he spent approximately seven years growing the startup from scratch, Erdur emphasizes the valuable insights gained during this journey. His co-founder, Alex Gordon-Furse, previously held the role of CSO at Startup Grind, overseeing operations in hundreds of cities worldwide. Before that, Gordon-Furse was one of the early employees at Freshworks in the EMEA region, managing sales teams from the company's early days through to its IPO, and generating millions in revenue by establishing new markets from scratch.

Erdur explains that before founding Playmaker with Gordon-Furse, they held discussions with over 100 companies:

"Despite the numerous alternative tools in the market, many desired integrations could not be achieved due to various reasons. The primary reason being that existing tools focused on simple scenarios like moving data from point A to point B. Additionally, these tools only supported the most popular applications. In essence, there was a need for a platform capable of going beyond data transfer and working compatibly with all applications."

This understanding led to the vision of creating a platform akin to combining Zapier and Airtable into one, as Erdur puts it.

Playmaker currently operates with a team of five, including the co-founders. The startup plans its goals based on the monthly revenue per employee ratio. The founders believe in maintaining financial discipline rather than hiring more staff to force an unworkable business model.

According to Erdur, the team acquired their first users and issued invoices before beginning product development. Following this phase, they developed the initial versions entirely in-house within just six weeks, without relying on any ready-made infrastructure. Erdur mentions that they continually improve and refine the product based on customer feedback. The founders stress that the distribution strategy is more important than the product itself. Their goal is not to search for a market for a product but to solve a significant, annoying problem in the market and deliver this solution to users as quickly as possible.

Though still in its early operational stages, Erdur states that their priority is reaching "product partners" and tailoring the platform to their needs:

"By the end of the year, we aim to reach 20 product partners before opening our product to everyone. At this early stage, our focus is on achieving a strong product-market fit."

According to Erdur, to achieve the integration scenarios that Playmaker offers, at least three different tools are typically needed: a data warehouse platform (e.g., Snowflake), an ETL tool (e.g., Fivetran), and a traditional integration tool (e.g., Zapier). However, these tools fall short in less popular or complex integration steps. Additionally, processes like data extraction from documents become nearly impossible without custom coding.

Playmaker provides a distinctive solution by addressing all these needs through a single platform. With its AI-powered co-pilot, the platform can complete integration projects about ten times faster than usual, saving customers both time and money.

Playmaker's revenue model is entirely usage-based. The team uses a metric called "Run," which represents each integration/workflow execution. The lowest package starts at $299 per month, including 720 run credits and five integration rights. For higher needs, various packages are available, increasing the number of credits and integration limits. The startup is currently working closely with all its users, focusing on solving their specific needs rather than merely offering the product for use.

In terms of goals, Playmaker aims to reach at least 20 paying customers by the end of the year and prepare the product for end users. Erdur elaborates on the startup's goals:

"We shape all our decisions and resources towards reaching $250,000 in revenue before our seed investment round."

Their broader objective is to find an answer to how software should interact with each other. Aware of the power and future of AI tools, the founders are striving to shape Playmaker accordingly. While many are searching for problems for AI to solve, Playmaker is focused on improving solutions to existing problems.