We Must Separate Sense From Nonsense When Talking About Agentic AI, Says Tray.AI's Rich Waldron
Tech Monitor, Tuesday, November 25th, 2025
The UK-born entrepreneur discusses the dangers of AI marketing hype, CIOs being forced to play 'vendor referee', and the merits of extreme bootstrapping
Rich Waldron did everything to keep Tray.ai alive. Founding the firm in 2012, Waldron went without a salary and funded the no- and low-code specialist by selling shoes online, running an ad agency and printing a small magazine.
It worked. Having piqued the interest of investors, Waldron upped sticks from London to San Francisco with only a few days' notice and used its own automation software to seek out more venture capital firms. Tray.ai subsequently pivoted from an email-centric foundation to a broader integration fabric but maintained one tenet of faith: the need to simplify building software by connecting data and actions across systems.