Date: 22.10.2025 (2025-10-22)
Karl Villanueva (22.10.2025) Context: • https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlmfvillanueva/ • Co-Founder Ostrom • Ostrom is a Certified B Corp™ digital energy management platform based in Berlin that makes green electricity affordable and straightforward for households in Germany. • Unlike other traditional providers with lengthy contracts, Ostrom offers monthly tariffs, end-to-end English and German support, and electricity at market purchase price, which comes from 100 percent renewable energy sources. • Raised 20+ Mio USD • We’re building a business process automation platform (similar to UiPath, Zapier, or n8n) that integrates seamlessly with legacy software without APIs - using a new generation of RPA powered by computer vision. On top of that, AI automatically identifies relevant workflows and generates them in just a few clicks.
Questions: • Are they automating today? If yes, which tools (Excel macros, Zapier, RPA, ERP features)? • If yes: who does it? Which tools? What works? What does not work? • • If no, why not (cost, complexity, lack of time, no clear ROI)? • • They use Zapier, make and n8n -> they use make from now on • Zapier is a bit linear -> smaller things • Make: they tried it after a dinner for founders in Berlin -> they bought the enterprise plan -> teams use it on their own -> e.g. operations team uses it the most -> it is most process driven • Operations does a lot - some have 100 nodes for processes • In marketing they have a few • Daily AI newsletter -> reads news and creates daily blog post -> forwards his newsletters to an LLM • They tried n8n • They bill per run; make bills per module • They are a good tool, but self hosting is expensive (8k retainer), a lot of lockin into the tool; also they have a lot of processes and did not want to transfer -> reduce to make.com • He was at make waves conference? • There are a lot of tools -> what is the differentiation -> make is better for enterprise -> there is vendor lockin • Who does the automations? • They started with everyone doing automation -> teach people how to use make • People are able to fix the errors • They hired the first business automation specialist - embedded in ops team -> understand and define process is important (e.g. data validation) • Best processes / most valuable? • A lot of stuff around billing and invoicing • Integrations with energy software -> APIs are missing • The value is: if sth. happens in A then I want it in B -> repetitive topics • More processes to automate: • • Other automations from other people / departments: • • How does he see legacy software in the energy sector? • • Pitch: finance / accounting and purchasing automation / optimisation! • His friend raised a pre-seed (“Emblematic”) • https://www.linkedin.com/in/edgar-%C3%A1lvarez-5a198845/?locale=en_US • They did a user interview with them -> the summary was that they are quite automated already • Manual layer: bcs of Datev & bank software • They use Moss, Wise, make • they have 1.5 guys doing that -> not the largest department • The operations part is the more difficult part because API are missing • Day-to-day reality: What are the most admin-heavy processes in his finance role (invoices, reconciliations, reporting, payroll, compliance, audits)? • • Legacy systems: does he deal with them (accounting tools, banking interfaces, HRIS, ERP)? How painful are integrations? • They kept Zapier around for a while -> HR management tool; Hotjar; Google MyBusiness was better in Zapier • -> not all integrations are the same - e.g. make has a worse API than Zapier • Trigger when thing happens vs. repeatable polling is important • They also work with older systems from the energy sector -> sometimes they use SOAP instead of RestAPI - they tried RPA / browsers but it is not really there yet -> has to be reliable -> we could sell RPA 2.0 to them -> he thinks in 6 months browser automation will become viable -> error handling is a challenge (e.g. 10 digit thing is only 9 digits -> what should happen) • Results vs. process reward -> he cited the Karpathy podcast • He thinks latency is not a big problem of browser agents • Their main challenge: reliability is a problem; error rate (testing is a challenge) • In Cursor plan mode is good • Successes & frustrations: if he had a “magic wand,” what would he automate first? • • Ask if he can introduce you to 3 peers in similar roles (finance leads in other startups). • Make conference: • Make builds a Cursor like tool • Make Code -> code module -> 1 credit per second of runtime