What’s new in founder tools: 5 updates I’d actually use
Introducing a brand new show in town: your founder-friendly blog series for what’s new in the world of tech, AI and automation.
I’ve picked a few updates from the past month for the tools founders use most for task automation. It’s also a great chance to understand more about what is currently possible, and to see if any of it is a good solution for your business.
1. Zapier now waits for your go-ahead
Raise your hand if you’ve ever built an automation and then lain awake wondering what it just sent to a client.
On 23 September, Zapier rebuilt its automations from the ground up. You can now describe what you want in plain words. The part I’m most excited about is a new pause in the middle of a workflow, so a real human (👋🏻 hello, you!) approves the next step before it happens.
This matters because invoicing and onboarding are the areas founders most want to automate, and also the ones they’re most nervous about. With a pause for approval, the boring part runs itself and you still have the final say.
→ Try this: a payment reminder that drafts itself on the dates agreed in your contract, then waits for your click before it goes out.
Good to know: it’s in early access right now and coming to all paid plans.
2. Claude for Small Business: a weekly business brief that writes itself
On 15 September, Anthropic added 43 ready-made workflows to Claude for Small Business, along with new connections to tools like Xero, Stripe, Shopify and Gusto.
The one I’d start with is the weekly business brief. It pulls your cash, sales and overdue invoices into one short summary, so your Monday money check no longer means opening four tabs and squinting. Another favourite turns a voice memo into a proposal draft: you talk it through on your walk, and the draft is waiting when you’re back at your desk.
Every workflow starts in approval mode, so nothing runs without your say.
→ Try this: switch on the weekly brief and read it with your Monday coffee for a month before you automate anything else.
3. Google Workspace Studio: automation without another subscription
If your business already runs on Gmail and Google Drive, this one’s for you.
On 17 September, Google’s built-in automation tool, Workspace Studio, started connecting to outside apps like HubSpot, Asana, QuickBooks and Slack. It rolled out to Google Workspace Business plans between 21 and 30 September.
The biggest win here is that you don’t need to pay for another tool. Simple flows you might have built in Zapier or Make can now live inside the Google account you already have.
→ Try this: when a contract is signed, have it create a client folder from your template, draft a welcome email for you to review and add a task to your list. Write the personal welcome yourself, though; that’s the part clients remember.
Good to know: the outside app connections are still in beta, so test with one client before rolling it out to everyone.
4. Notion 3.7: your processes finally do some of the work
This one is my favourite, and it makes a lot of sense if you’re a Notion user. With the new Skills feature, you write your instructions once (your weekly client report, say, or your onboarding checklist) and share them across your workspace. Notion’s agents then actually follow them. Custom Agents can also file action items for you after a meeting, and the same instructions can travel into Claude. That process document you feel guilty about can finally start doing some of the work.
→ Try this: pick the process you find yourself explaining most often and turn it into your first skill. Remember, a skill is just a written instruction for your AI partner, like Claude or Notion AI 🙂
5. Google Meet Quick Notes: the action list you’ll actually read
Meeting transcripts are lovely in theory. In practice, they’re forty minutes of “can you hear me?” that never get read twice.
Google Meet’s automatic notes now open on a new Quick Notes tab with the main takeaways and action items, while the full detailed notes sit on a second tab. The same summary appears at the top of the follow-up email, and there’s no setup needed.
→ Try this: after your next client call, paste the Quick Notes straight into that client’s project page in Notion, so decisions live in one place instead of in someone’s inbox.
If you’d like to learn more about AI tools and automations for your business specifically, I offer an AI Clarity Call where we dive deeper into what is possible to hand over to the tech.
About the author
Jagoda Puczko is a business operations partner who helps growing founders close their laptop at 6pm. She has run operations for teams of 100+ at Apple and Little Dot Studios, directed award-winning films, and once had a headshot photography business with a very sophisticated pricing strategy.
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