🎧 START pod: JJ Maxwell, CEO & Founder, Pillar (trypillar.com) "Your App's Copilot"

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Setting up a single trigger in Zendesk takes 30 clicks

With Pillar it takes one sentence

JJ Maxwell built an open source copilot you build into your app. Users talk to it in natural language and it drives the app for them

The problem: products can do a lot but users don't always know what's there. So they ask support. Or they churn

Before Pillar, JJ built a creator ad marketplace with about 40,000 creators. Then spent two years on another product through YC W24. About $30M on the platform, real users, decent growth.

Pivoted anyway.

As soon as he lost belief it was gonna work, he ripped the bandaid off

Web MCP is already rolling out. Companies trying to stop agents from taking actions are fighting a losing battle

🎙️ JJ Maxwell, Founder & CEO of Pillar on the Fondo START pod

01:56 What Pillar is: a copilot that’s easy to build into your app
02:19 Why users ask support or churn when product complexity hides value
03:05 “30 clicks” in Zendesk becomes a sentence
03:39 Why AI can do this now: models are better at reasoning and chaining actions
04:19 What implementation looks like: wrap existing frontend code and tool calls
05:25 Why teams can often get Pillar working in about a day
06:09 The Double journey, real traction, and the decision to pivot
11:00 Web MCP and why agent-ready software is coming
12:23 Why companies may not be able to stop agents from taking actions forever