Our vision

From Roads of Ancient Rome to API Integrations

Our project and why the name of it is Apiway.ai

Hello everyone. My name is Anton Vyborny. I’m a co-founder of Apiway startup.

On this page, I’ll tell you a fascinating story that connects the roads of Ancient Rome and API integration. You will learn about our vision of the software industry and integration platforms.

I chose the title for a good reason. This name has its own historical context.

I studied at the Academy of Civil Engineering at the Faculty of Architecture with a degree in urban planning. Then I began my career as a marketer and entrepreneur, but I still have an architectural perception of the world.

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Let's imagine what the infrastructure
of the countries and cities looks like

All cities and software are connected by roads — API integration.

Each city has a scientific center, a business center, a tourist center, an industrial center, etc. Different cities have their own features. For example, New York is a business center of the world, Los Angeles is a center of show business, London manages with finances, Rome is an incarnation of history and culture.

If you look at the city structure, there are a supermarket, a stadium, administrative buildings, a library, a shopping mall, etc. Each building has its own purpose.

All cities and buildings are connected by roads. In ancient times, thanks to the road, people could quickly move around and share information.

In business, there’s a very similar situation. It has a digital ecosystem. This is a set of software that automates business processes. It can be CRM, an email marketing service, chatbots, payment gateways, project management tools, etc. Nowadays we have a need to transmit data from one service to another.

Let’s draw the parallel

Let's think about how cities evolve?

At the beginning there are flimsy buildings, then the paths between them. Buildings become more powerful, and roads become stony. In the Digital ecosystem, roads are API integration. Thanks to these “roads,” systems can transmit data to each other. The better integration you have, the more agile business you get.

“A stone road” is a correctly made two-way integration via API.
“A dirt road” is when you manually transfer data from one service to another and each time curse everyone for making you “going along the dirt road in the rain”.

I consider the Digital ecosystem as a city structure. That’s why I began to analyze countries that had developed successfully in the old times due to expensive infrastructure. Of course, it was Ancient Rome. The Romans had a unique technology for building roads and aqueducts. These were the arteries of the empire, which made it possible to move the army throughout the country quickly.

The army is 6 times faster on a stone road than on a path. The same is in business. The faster the information is transmitted inside the company, the better the productivity.

The most significant road of Ancient Rome —
the Appian Way

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I started looking for information about the roads of Rome and came across a Wikipedia article about the most significant road of Ancient Rome — the Appian Way.

It was named after Claudius Appius, who had built a road and aqueduct between Rome and the southern coast of Italy. Thanks to this way, the Romans actively traded with Italy, Persia, and the entire Balkan Peninsula. It was one of the key strategic advantages of ancient Rome.

Having found this information, I began to combine schemes of the future domain and company name.

API is the gateway through which integrations between systems
are made.
The app is applications (The first syllable from Appian) The way is the road.

All roads lead to Apiway.ai

So we came up with the name ApiWay in honor of the Appian Way and the ancient Romans. Somebody can think that it’s only fiction, but it’s true. In the beginning, I only had a concept of the digital ecosystem as a transport infrastructure of roads, and then I started to read about Ancient Rome.

In our vision of the world, the digital ecosystem will develop just like roads. What do we do planning routes on Google Maps? We just say point A and point B, and Google shows the best route for us.

Problem solving

Businesses constantly ask questions: “What CRM should I choose and which software should I use if I have an online store?”

Choosing and integration of software is a big problem for business. People don’t know what service they should choose.

We want to make a solution to this problem. In our vision of the world, a person can say: “I have an online store. What software will be appropriate?”. Apiway will analyze all best technological stacks for a certain niche and offer the most optimal solution.

Apiway artificial intelligence is Google maps for software. Apiway is a guide for software. In this way, our mission was born.

Our mission

Apiway's mission is to help businesses connect all parts of IT infrastructure and improve their effectiveness.

Choosing a business model

The easiest way to earn on integrations is by subscribing. But let's make a parallel with the roads again. Do you pay for the roads? Do you really want to pay for them?

Let's be honest, we want to drive on good roads, but we don’t want to pay for them. Surely, you faced a situation: there is an excellent sidewalk, green lawns near the building, but when you walk 10 meters, “nobody's” territory begins, and pits appear on the roads. Unfortunately, we only take care of our lawn, but not about street roads.

The same goes for the software. The vendor makes an open API and says: “You can do all the integration by yourself. Hire programmers.”

We believe that a vendor should pay for integration.

The user has already bought his software. It’s like a shopping mall. If I buy goods here, why should I pay for the asphalt road to this building? Convenient access to the shopping mall should be provided by this shopping mall.

We return to the Appian Way. Walking along it, the ancient traveler could see many attractions like taverns, tombs, and many other beautiful architectural elements, where he would happily spend money. The road itself was free, and the infrastructure was paid.

Today, everything is exactly the same. We ride the road between cities for free but pay for gas stations, hotels, and cafes that are located along the road.

The integration platform is a free road. Software is the elements, infrastructures (a café, hotels, gas stations) for which you have to pay.

Our concept is to get 10% of the amount of money that you spend in “cafes, hotels and gas stations along the road”, not to take $20 for riding this road.

We make digital roads free, affordable to each and every person.