Public APIs Enable Deeper Integrations
Zachary Kirby, co-founder of Vessel, on building the Vercel for integrations
This points to a stack shift, where better integrations start one layer deeper with better APIs. Every customer facing integration is a wrapper around someone else’s API, so as more SaaS companies expose cleaner endpoints, better auth, and richer docs, integration builders can ship faster and go deeper. That is why a company like Vessel sits next to the new API tooling layer, not against it. One sells the raw pipes, the other turns those pipes into product features.
-
Vessel’s own framing is that unification is only part of the job. The harder work is pulling data reliably, handling auth, rate limits, webhooks, ETL, and edge cases across many downstream systems. Public APIs make that extraction easier when they are well designed, which expands what native integration platforms can build on top.
-
This is also creating a separate developer experience category. Tools like Speakeasy and Stainless are built around turning an OpenAPI spec into SDKs, docs, code samples, and agent friendly interfaces, which means API quality itself is becoming a product surface, not just backend plumbing.
-
The clearest comparison is with harder data categories like banking or HRIS. Vessel distinguishes open API heavy SaaS integrations from companies like Plaid or Finch, where access often depends on harder extraction problems. In open SaaS categories, the advantage shifts toward speed, breadth, and developer ergonomics.
Over time, more B2B software companies will treat their public API the way they already treat login or billing, as core infrastructure for distribution. That should strengthen both layers of the market. More companies will buy tooling to publish cleaner APIs, and more product teams will use platforms like Vessel to turn those APIs into integrations that help win deals.