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I built an n8n-first automation/AI agency. Great start, hard middle, exiting now. I will not promote
Hi everyone - I’m the founder of an automation / AI agency in France, launched \~2 years ago (early 2024). We were early on “n8n-first” in our market (maybe among the first locally). End of this month, I’m selling my 50% shares to my business partner and stepping away (Jan26) Not posting to self-promote. Just sharing a real post-mortem for anyone building (or thinking of building) a business around n8n / no-code automation. # The beginning: amazing timing Two years ago there was almost no competition around automation/no-code here. We could promise things people had never heard of, and the traction was *insane*. We launched at a retail trade show and signed 2 huge clients early (think “national bank” + “training industry”). They still pay to this day. # The first hard wall: hiring is brutal Hiring “someone who can build workflows” is not the hardest part. The hardest part is hiring people who: * can understand what they’re automating (business context), * actually care about your client’s business, * can communicate when they’re blocked. I cared. My employees… not always. And without that curiosity, automation quality collapses fast. # Team setup reality * 2 founders: 1 technical (me) + 1 non-technical * 2 employees * We had to fire one after a few weeks: no progress, no output, and worst of all: no warning, no “I’m stuck”, no escalation. # The moment the “no-code hype” died (for me) About 1 year in, we had references, process, credibility. And then it hit me: **We’re basically a development agency.** Clients don’t care if it’s n8n, Zapier, Make, Node, Python, whatever. They care about: * results, * reliability, * time-to-market, * price. So we stopped talking about “n8n / no-code” and focused our messaging on: * AI / outcomes, * ready-to-go solutions, * fast time to market. # Competition isn’t “other n8n agencies” At first, I watched new “no-code/n8n agencies” appear and thought: *we’re safe, we’re early, we have exposure.* Reality: the real co
This is a service-based agency rather than a scalable venture-backed startup, evidenced by the founder's exit and the realization that they are essentially a development shop. While they secured impressive enterprise clients early on, the lack of proprietary technology and the difficulties in scaling human capital make it a poor fit for VC investment.