Windmill

The context graph for your people

[zoe snow @zoesnownyc]

Idk I kinda think @zocomputer , @LorimerVentures & @trywindmill venue mogged the hardest ..

[ben guo 🏇 @0thernet]

🗽NY @Techweek_ x @zocomputer🐴

Today
building & demos at @zocomputer hq
event with @GammaApp + @trywindmill + @LorimerVentures

Wed
panel w @Venmo cofounder @iqramband
AI x edu event w @Vibethinker

Thurs
huge party with @andruyeung

Fri
drinks & building at our office

[Inspired Capital @InspiredCap]

What if every employee at your company had a world-class coach in their corner?

In a world of AI, human employees become more important than ever. On this episode of Inspired, @alexavontobel sits down with @_maxdshaw and @bdistel, two of the three co-founders of @trywindmill, the AI-powered people platform replacing the broken, once-a-year performance review with something employees actually love. Brian previously founded Yext, taking it public in 2017, and now the team is building what may be the most important missing system in every company. Inspired is proud to have led Windmill's recent seed round.

In this conversation, they talk about why performance management is so broken, how AI is going to make managers dramatically more effective as their teams grow, and why the companies that win the next decade will be the ones that invest in their people, not automate them out.

Listen to the full episode:
Apple: https://t.co/KDEOgNJmIC
Spotify: https://t.co/Rq9ZIVPvlR
Youtube: https://t.co/PL34wpsmAo

[Alexa von Tobel, CFP @alexavontobel]

Such a treat to have @_maxdshaw and @bdistel on Inspired this week. While everyone debates how many jobs AI will replace, @trywindmill is focused on putting the best people in the right roles and helping them grow. At @InspiredCap, we are so proud to back Windmill!!

[The Shortlist NYC @TheShortlistNYC]

every headline right now is about AI replacing workers.

@bdistel thinks that's the wrong bet.

@yext co-founder. $1.3B IPO. 10,000+ people through companies he's built.

now he's building @trywindmill — the AI context graph for your people. shows you who's growing, who's stuck, and who makes everyone around them better.

100+ customers. $12M seed announced last week.

the day after he presented at our showcase.

this is shortlist nyc.

[Windmill @trywindmill]

After their first cycle on Windmill, managers asked to do it again.

What started as one review cycle became RetailNext's continuous-feedback infrastructure. Not because HR mandated it, because managers asked for more.

Full case study 👉 https://t.co/T0T5th9HHf

[Windmill @trywindmill]

Under 4 minutes. That's the average manager check-in time at @RetailNext after they moved performance management onto Windmill.

Their CPO Andrew Golden on the difference:

"I really love Windmill's pre-read reports. They're super condensed. We were using a different tool before and I'd get six-page summaries…which isn't a summary."

[Windmill @trywindmill]

RetailNext wanted to move from annual reviews to continuous feedback. The problem is well-known: it only works if managers engage, and most won't, because they don't have the time.

We solved that by bringing the context to managers, making continuous feedback actually possible.

[Merge @merge_api]

Here's how @trywindmill saves $10,000+ a month on LLM costs without sacrificing performance using Merge Gateway. ↓

[Andrew Yeung @andruyeung]

I spent the last year talking to partners at most major VC funds and hundreds of founders across NYC/SF.

The conversation is always the same.

The #1 bottleneck for founders today is ... talent.

Startups are having trouble finding top engineers, heads of growth, marketers, salespeople, and more.

Because these people aren't spending their time scraping job boards or scrolling LinkedIn.

They're heads down at their company – building

... and the best way to reach them is through someone they trust.

So, a year ago, we started building the event format we wish existed:

@TheShortlistNYC Founder Showcase.

100 operators in the room. 6 founders on stage, their only job is to convince the people in the audience to work for them.

Last week, the co-founder of a billion-dollar company, Yext, (NYSE: YEXT), even brought $5,000 in cash to convince founders to pitch him on the spot.

Thank you to our founders for putting on an awesome show!

– @reganjayne_ from @rediemco
– @bdistel – previously cofounded @yext, now @trywindmill
– @0thernet raised $28m to build @zocomputer
– building personal cloud infra – @ndrewpignanelli raised $10m to build @intelligenceco – the infrastructure for fully autonomous businesses
– @akashmagoon just closed his Series C for @AdonisRcm
– Daniel Kahn raised $7m for Sparrow to help financial institutions build personalized digital relationships

The companies that win the next decade will be the ones who can hire the best talent.

And if you're hiring or you're the kind of person founders want to hire, you'll want to be at our next event.

Follow @TheShortlistNYC for more.

[Yash Gogri @yashgogri1]

I've taken the last two products at Merge from 0→1.

Nothing matters more in that phase than your first customers. The ones who give you raw feedback, push you through every edge case, and help you build something that actually works.

@trywindmill was one of those customers for Gateway.

They migrated from OpenRouter in a single PR and are now saving over $10K/month on LLM spend. Their engineer put it plainly: "Merge Gateway offers better LLM routing, cost control, and observability than OpenRouter."

What they're running:
- Intelligent routing across Claude Sonnet 4.6, Haiku 4.5, Kimi K2.5, and GLM-5
- Spend caps and alerts so finance stops getting surprised
- Centralized governance and request-level logs

Seeing a customer go from launch to scaling and saving real money. That's the most rewarding part of building.

I recommend checking out how Windmill took a bet on us and started seeing the dividends immediately: https://t.co/94IwJ7vywW

[Windmill @trywindmill]

📣Meet Windmill AI Tool Analytics.

Native integrations with Claude, Cursor, and Codex can pull usage per person, per day, and incorporate these stats directly into performance reviews and 1:1 meetings.

What gets tracked:
- Claude: conversations, claude code sessions, commits, edit acceptance rates, office agent usage
- Cursor: agent edits, tab completions, messages by model, MCP tool usage
- Codex: threads, turns, credits, token consumption by client

AI adoption is finally visible and measurable, without any extra effort.

[Lorimer Ventures @LorimerVentures]

Please join Lorimer Ventures on Tuesday, June 2nd for our 4th Annual @Techweek_ event. No boring speeches, just 💻 live demos, 🍺cold beers, and the 🧑‍🏭 best builder community in New York.

Join us for demos from three amazing companies whose products enable anyone to experience the magic of AI as we all grapple with the rapid change we're living through in the Age of the Builder.

✨ @GammaApp (@thisisgrantlee, @KristinFracchia)
✨ @zocomputer (@perceptnet, @0thernet)
✨ @trywindmill (@bdistel, @_maxdshaw)

📍 Where: Gothic Refectory in Chelsea
🗓️ When: Tuesday, June 2nd
🎟️ RSVP: https://t.co/FqXZ4D1vOe

Space is limited. See you there! #NYTechWeek
🫡@roseajohnson, @KatiaAmeri @a16z.

[Windmill @trywindmill]

@bennyautomatic hey, that's me

[Windmill @trywindmill]

Introducing the Windmill MCP. Use Windmill from anywhere you already work.

Ask things like:
→ "pull my Linear tickets, summarize them, and add to my 1:1 agenda"
→ "create a pulse for engineering, nudge anyone who hasn't responded by Friday"
→ "who are my top collaborators this quarter?"

Your AI now has context about your people.

[Inspired Capital @InspiredCap]

The most important decisions a company makes are about its people. Yet most organizations are still making them based on memory, instinct, and an annual survey.

We're thrilled to share that Inspired Capital led @trywindmill's $8M seed round, bringing their total raised to $12M. Founded by @_maxdshaw, @bdistel, and @TarkManner, Windmill is building the context graph for your people: a continuously updated understanding of your workforce that starts with performance reviews that complete in 1/10 the time with 93% employee satisfaction.

The signal about who is performing, who is growing, and who is ready for what comes next already exists inside your organization. Windmill makes it legible.

Excited to welcome Max, Brian, Mark, and the entire Windmill team to the portfolio!

Read Why We Invested: https://t.co/8rEIRJW2wk
Read more in Axios: https://t.co/NoDpLZlJJn

[Brian Distelburger @bdistel]

We just raised $12M for @trywindmill

We believe the AI Doomers have it exactly backwards.

In the age of AI, people will matter more, not less.

Everyone is about to get massive leverage. The companies that win will be the ones with the right people, set up for maximum success. Work isn’t going to disappear. It’s going to expand.

A few voices have been right about this all along: @levie @pmarca @DavidSacks

What’s missing is the infrastructure to make this future real. It's not all these dumb HRIS and legacy performance management systems.

What companies need is actually a Context Graph for their People.

More to come on this, but for now thank you to our customers and investors that backed us in building for a future where people matter more.

[Windmill @trywindmill]

Today we're announcing a $12M fundraise led by @InspiredCap, with participation from @PrimaryVC, @fcollective, and @oceansventures.

In the age of AI, we believe people matter more, not less.

That's why we're building the first context graph for your people: a continuous, cited understanding of your workforce so HR can lead strategically, managers can see their teams clearly, and every person's work speaks for itself.

[Andrew Yeung @andruyeung]

I'm ridiculously excited to announce the lineup for our upcoming founder showcase for @TheShortlistNYC on Apr 27 at @betaworks

This one is extra special.
I'm an angel investor in multiple companies on the list.
My childhood friend and my partner both work at two of them.
And I've known one of the founders for over a decade.

These are the founders who are hiring:

– @reganjayne_ & Sarah raised $3m to build @rediemco, the platform that turns customers into communities, and communities into brand moats. The work with brands like Olipop and Vita Coco. Fun fact: I went to high school with Regan and have known her for 15+ years.

– @bdistel previously cofounded @yext , turning it into a $1B+ outcome (NYSE: YEXT), and is now building @trywindmill. More to come soon here 👀 (I'm also lucky to be an angel investor)

– @0thernet raised $28m to build @zocomputer. He was one of the earliest engineers at Stripe and Venmo. He's building the personal cloud infrastructure reimaged for the next billion people who aren't developers. I met Ben a few years ago when the cofounder of Venmo (@iqramband) introduced us, and was lucky to be an angel investor.

– @ndrewpignanelli raised $10m to build @intelligenceco, the infrastructure for fully autonomous businesses. Their product, Cofounder, lets anyone automate an entire company using natural language.

– @akashmagoon just closed his Series C for @AdonisRcm to fix one of healthcare's most expensive, invisible problems: revenue cycle management. Akash is a successful, multiple-time founder, and they are hiring a TON.

– Daniel Kahn raised $7m for Sparrow to help financial institutions build targeted, personalized digital relationships with their members at scale.

Come meet them on April 27!

Link below.

[Windmill @trywindmill]

Your company has its own way of doing things.
Windmill now knows it.

With Company Knowledge, you can add leveling frameworks, job descriptions and more.

→ Performance reviews now grounded in your company's standards
→ Employees stop asking HR the same 5 questions