Zapier was founded in Columbia, Missouri by Wade Foster, Bryan Helmig, and Mike Knoop, as part of the first Startup Weekend Columbia in 2011.[8] After initially submitting an application for the Winter 2012 funding cycle and being rejected, they then built their initial prototype with 25 apps, and were accepted to Y Combinator[9] startup seed accelerator in the Summer 2012 funding cycle. As a result of the acceptance, the company temporarily relocated to Mountain View, California in Spring 2012.