Why We Invested in PixieBrix
In the past two decades, enterprises have adopted numerous technologies at a rapid pace. As the number of applications adds up, organizations have found themselves tangled in a map of disconnected applications and systems. This creates many problems such as increased manual workloads, lack of visibility across systems/apps, concerns about data accuracy, or loss of efficiency. Enterprises attempted to solve the app clutter by adopting modern apps, which are costly and not always effective, or adding to the clutter by enhancing legacy apps, which can lead to high custom costs, loss of speed, and continued inefficiencies.
The solution, PixieBrix! Co-Founders Todd and Mike are building a development platform that lets developers rapidly modify existing web apps, driving productivity for internal tools teams as well as end users throughout their company. PixieBrix does this through a browser extension that leverages the power of AI and automation to customize the UX on any web application and streamline workflows. Through low code editing software and reusable components called “bricks,” enterprises can automate, collaborate, and curate any webpage or application.
At JetBlue, this means PixieBrix can be used across the organization and teams that face operational inefficiencies or work on legacy applications, which are abundant in the airline industry. PixieBrix can enable JetBlue to quickly modernize/customize any web application and eliminate the need to rip and replace legacy applications or incur heavy customization costs.
PixieBrix has not only convinced NEA as an investor but also has a variety of customers from TaskUs to Teleperformance, the world’s largest BPO (Business Processing Outsourcing).
“The ease of integration and flexibility to work across many client tools and architectures really sets PixieBrix apart. As our TP genAI capabilities evolve so rapidly, the speed to market that PixieBrix offers makes it a truly amazing product.” — Danny Kuivenhoven, Global Head of Generative AI at Teleperformance
“It’s been exciting to see rapid adoption of PixieBrix from internal tools teams aiming to increase development speed and modernize applications across multiple departments. These are capabilities that help any company shine — especially organizations that compete on customer experience, which is one of the reasons we believe JetBlue Ventures is a valuable addition to the PixieBrix investor community.” — Hilarie Koplow-McAdams, Venture Partner at NEA
I recently had the opportunity to chat with PixieBrix Co-Founder & CEO Todd Schiller and ask him some questions about the company.
Ryan: Let’s start with the basics — what is PixieBrix?
Todd: PixieBrix is a low-code platform to create and deploy custom browser mods that boost productivity. Mods are modifications to your existing web applications that provide guidance, automation, and other context-aware enhancements. PixieBrix also integrates with third-party services including large language models like ChatGPT, which help mods understand context, make recommendations, improve writing, and more.
Ryan: Can you share with me a few examples of how the product is commonly used?
Todd: Absolutely! Customer success teams integrate PixieBrix with their CRM and favorite AI services to help customer service reps handle live conversations. PixieBrix surfaces the customer’s sentiment, key intents, recommended knowledge base articles, next best actions, and more. PixieBrix integrates with ATS and automation services to help talent acquisition teams collect candidate information, streamline outreach, and onboard new employees post-employment.
We also see productivity enthusiasts develop a variety of custom mods for personal use, which include automated ticket creation in their favorite collaboration tool, highlighting key information in websites and web portals, and even integrating with ChatGPT to improve their written communication.
Ryan: What inspired you to start PixieBrix?
Todd: At prior companies, Mike and I saw this wide divergence between software developers and everyone else, where software developers could build tools to vastly improve their productivity and make work more enjoyable, while everyone else was stuck with the status quo i.e. whatever tools their employer got locked into years ago. We thought, what if everyone could modify their web applications to provide the perfect user experience? I dive into this experience in detail on the Masters of Automation podcast.
Ryan: What do you do that makes your approach unique?
Todd: I’d highlight two aspects: permissionless innovation and composability and customization.
Permissionless innovation: Because PixieBrix mods deploy in the web browser, you can customize and automate any web interface i.e. websites, third-party SaaS apps, and homemade web apps. PixieBrix doesn’t require native integrations or native plug-in frameworks to augment and automate the user experience. This is valuable for both developers who want to make mods available anywhere on the web, as well as end users who work across many browser tabs.
Composability and customization: Developers build custom browser mods using low code “bricks.” You can think of bricks as building blocks that chain together to accomplish different tasks. There are currently over three hundred bricks in the PixieBrix ecosystem that do things like trigger actions, extract context, call API services, display information, and more. Furthermore, developers can create custom bricks and integrate with proprietary API services. For example, Teleperformance uses PixieBrix to enhance their internal technology:
“PixieBrix agent-assistance tools enable us to deliver a high tech high touch experience for our employees as well as end customers. Their platform compliments TP’s GenAI offering, adding significant value to us and our clients.” — Sidharth Mukherjee, Chief Digital Officer at Teleperformance
Ryan: How do you see PixieBrix evolving?
Todd: More and more our customers and community members want to embed artificial intelligence (AI) into everything they do across all of their applications and workflows. PixieBrix makes AI more accessible to everyone by filling two key gaps:
- Sensors: Think of sensors as the “eyes and ears” of AI that provide context to the model.
- Actuators: If sensors are the “eyes and ears” then actuators are the “hands and feet” that take the output of the model and perform an action.
Ryan: Finally, what do you think makes PixieBrix so popular?
Todd: PixieBrix helps you drive productivity, which can easily be measured in speed and accuracy. For customer support teams and contact centers, PixieBrix drives customer satisfaction scores and builds brand loyalty, resulting in revenue. For recruiters and talent acquisition teams, PixieBrix improves the candidate experience, leading to greater yield and faster time-to-fill. For productivity enthusiasts, PixieBrix is a way to make their workday more delightful and unlock greater creativity. It can deliver a lot of value to a variety of different people and groups.
Ryan: Thanks for your time, Todd!
PixieBrix is a free and open tool for individuals. You can check out PixieBrix and join their public Slack Group to get support and inspiration from what others are accomplishing on the platform.
