WhizardAPI: WhatsApp Business Automation Platform
WhizardAPI is a WhatsApp Business automation platform that I led as product owner and front-end builder from June 2020 to July 2023. It grew to 8 enterprise clients and over 2 million messages a month.
Nov 12, 2026 · @Abhishek
The problem
Businesses wanted to reach customers on WhatsApp, but sending campaigns, answering repeat questions and connecting the channel to their own systems was manual work or a patchwork of separate tools.
Every industry also needed something different: offers and bookings for hospitality, payment updates for payment gateways, lead follow-up for marketing teams. WhizardAPI was built to give them one platform for campaigns, chatbots and integrations instead of several.
My role and the team
I led the product from idea to scale and stayed hands-on: I owned the roadmap, designed and built the UI and front end, drove the Meta API integration, and managed three engineers.
| Person | Responsibility |
|---|---|
| Me | Product lead, UI and front end |
| Backend developer | APIs, messaging logic and data |
| Android developer | Mobile app |
| Cloud and backend developer | Cloud infrastructure and backend services |
What we built
WhizardAPI came as a web app and a mobile app on top of the WhatsApp Business platform, with three main capabilities:
- Campaign automation: plan and send WhatsApp campaigns to customer lists.
- Chatbots: automated conversations that answer customers and hand over to a person when needed.
- Integrations: connections to the client's own systems, such as CRM, web forms and payment tools.
For one hospitality client we also built a content management system for offers, web-to-chat conversion so website visitors could start a WhatsApp conversation, and mobile user flows.
From BSP to Meta Cloud API
The platform first ran on the WhatsApp Business API through a Business Solution Provider (BSP), and later moved to Meta's Cloud API.
- Launch on a BSP: the provider handled the connection to WhatsApp while we built the product on top.
- Move to Cloud API: Meta hosts the Cloud API, so messages no longer passed through a third-party provider.
I led the Meta API integration work in both phases and kept the product running for clients through the change.
Chatbots: rule-based first, then AI
We built customer chatbot automation in 2021, well before generative AI was available. Those bots followed fixed rules: menus, keywords and set flows that answered common questions and passed the conversation to a person when needed.
After ChatGPT launched in November 2022, I integrated it into Viral Pitch, our influencer marketing platform, to negotiate campaign prices between brands and influencers. The AI handled the back-and-forth on price, and the platform's automated campaign execution drove an 80% increase in platform revenue.
The same chatbot layer served both phases, so moving from rules to AI did not need a rebuild.
Client use cases
WhizardAPI served 8 clients across five industries: hospitality, restaurants, automotive manufacturing, marketing, and payment gateways.
The clearest example is a custom build for a leading hotel chain: an end-to-end customer engagement and marketing bot on WhatsApp. It included a content management system for offers, web-to-chat conversion that turned website visitors into WhatsApp conversations, and mobile user flows.
Results
- 8 clients across 5 industries
- 2M+ messages per month
- A 4-person team, including me, delivered web and mobile apps
- Moved from a BSP to Meta's Cloud API without a rebuild of the product
- 80% increase in Viral Pitch platform revenue from automated campaign execution and AI price negotiation
Challenges and learnings
- One platform, many industries: a hotel, a restaurant and a payment gateway want different conversations, so the platform had to be configurable rather than built per client.
- Changing the channel while live: moving from a BSP to Cloud API meant keeping clients' messages flowing during the switch.
- AI on top of working bots: adding ChatGPT worked best as a new layer on bots that already handled the basics, with a person able to step in.
- Leading while building: owning product and front end myself kept decisions fast, but meant protecting time for planning with the team.
Skills and takeaways
- Product leadership for a B2B messaging platform, from first release to 2M+ messages a month
- WhatsApp Business API (via BSP) and Meta Cloud API integration
- Chatbot design, from rule-based flows to ChatGPT-powered negotiation
- Leading a small cross-functional engineering team while building the UI and front end
- Serving clients in several industries from one platform
Related feature
The ChatGPT price negotiation shipped in Viral Pitch, our influencer marketing platform.