n8n CEO Jan Oberhauser on Building the Universal AI Automation Layer

When the AI wave hit, n8n founder Jan Oberhauser faced a critical choice: become irrelevant or become indispensable. He chose the latter, transforming n8n from a simple workflow tool into a comprehensive AI automation platform that lets users connect any LLM to any application. The result? Four times the revenue growth in eight months compared to the previous six years. Jan explains how n8n’s “connect everything to anything” philosophy, combined with a thriving open source community, positioned the company to ride the AI automation wave while avoiding vendor lock-in that plagues enterprise software.

Hosted by George Robson and Pat Grady, Sequoia Capital

Mentioned in this episode:

• Model Context Protocol (MCP): Open protocol that lets AI models safely use external tools and data that is used extensively by n8n for orchestration.
• Vector database: A database optimized for storing and searching embeddings. These “vector stores” can pair with LLMs for retrieval-augmented workflows.
• Granola: AI productivity tool mentioned by Jan as a recent favorite. 
• Her: A film that Jan says, “a few years ago, it was sci fi, and it’s now suddenly this thing that is just around the corner.”