About Us
Bringing clarity to the human side of APIs
APIsFirst helps organisations turn API ambition into decisions, habits and results.
The hardest part of API work is rarely the technology alone. It is aligning business, product and engineering around the opportunity, the trade-offs and what needs to happen next.
We bring a commercial, human-centred perspective that connects technical choices to business value and gives teams the confidence to act.
Who we are
APIs sit at the heart of modern products, platforms, partnerships and AI-enabled services. Their value depends on whether the people involved understand their potential and can act on it together.
We work with organisations that see APIs not as integration plumbing, but as strategic assets. We translate between business leaders and technologists, expose hidden assumptions and turn ambition into a realistic course of action.
Lead by Claire Barrett
Claire Barrett
Founder
Claire Barrett has spent more than 35 years working inside complex enterprises across four continents, with experience spanning financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, distribution, insurance and energy.
She is also the founder of Women in APIs and The API Economy, and leads a global community of more than 1,200 technologists. In recent years, she has delivered around 50 talks, workshops and training sessions annually, trained more than 550 people, and achieved a programme Net Promoter Score of +70.
Her wider work focuses on helping technologists be seen, heard and taken seriously — particularly women and people from underrepresented communities — and on developing the structured thinking, storytelling and contextual insight that matter even more in the age of AI.
How we work with you
Listen before prescribing
We begin with your ambitions, what you have already tried and what is getting in the way.
Ask the awkward questions
We create space to address the questions that may feel too basic, political or difficult to raise internally.
Make the challenge visible
Plain language, simple visuals and concrete examples help teams untangle ownership, investment and the relationship between API and AI ambitions.
Fit the work to your context
Support may take the form of a focused session, a workshop series, API Acupuncture, an in-house programme or a summit-style event — shaped around your people, constraints and wider change efforts.
Leave your team stronger
We work alongside your people, building the confidence and capability to make better API decisions without creating dependency.