"Automation unlocks people": How Dude Wipes used AI Agents to build a culture that fuels rapid growth

Dude Wipes, headquartered in the US, is a key player in the rapidly growing category of flushable wipes for men. Zack Means joined the company in November 2022 as employee number 14. At that time, Dude Wipes was celebrating $6 million in monthly revenue. The company was growing fast, but the internal processes needed to keep pace.

Three years later, Dude Wipes is on track to hit $250 million in annual revenue with just 40 employees. In September 2025 alone, the company generated $24 million in sales, four times what they did per month when Zack started.

And what is Zack most proud of? They didn’t get there by simply expanding headcount.

They got there by creating a working environment that empowers people, giving them time back to focus on what truly adds value to their departments rather than on repetitive tasks; all by automating duties like shipment processing and data management. Because according to Zack, for businesses to be successful, work should be fun and have an impact. And to enable this, culture is everything.

The challenge: Hypergrowth without headcount explosion

Dude Wipes had a problem many companies dream of: explosive growth. But the founders knew that growing headcount too quickly would stand in the way of building a stable, resilient business model.

They wanted to be deliberate and execute a lean-growth strategy. But how do you scale a business quickly and fuel growth without scaling headcount proportionally?

The answer was to automate manual, repetitive tasks that keep the ship sailing so people could focus their attention and effort where it delivers actual incremental business value.

The solution: Building the C.R.A.P. culture

Zack came to Dude Wipes from a logistics role with zero technical background. The company needed someone in a tech-focused role. Not to code, but to identify what could be automated and translate business problems into technical solutions. They gave this new strategy a suitably on-brand name – the C.R.A.P. initiative. This abbreviation stands for the Cognitive Reasoning and Automation Platform, a central project hub that delivers tailored, powerful automation wins across all departments.

Zack explored multiple automation platforms for the initiative before choosing Make. The decision came down to one critical factor: Make's ability to integrate with everything Dude Wipes used – NetSuite, their ERP, and the growing set of SaaS tools across departments. This lets them seamlessly solve problems across the entire business.

Working with automation partner Begin Automation, Zack became the translator, meeting monthly with every department lead to understand their problems, identify manual processes, and architect solutions.

In two years, they've automated over 100 processes.

Giving people their jobs back, one hour at a time

Zack's goal for the second half of 2025 was ambitious. He set out to bring 1,000 hours back to the business and give people time to do work that requires human judgment, and that actually matters.

• Meet Diesel Dan: The AI agent saving 200 hours per year

The C.R.A.P. initiative’s first AI agent, Diesel Dan, automates the creation of all inbound shipments from manufacturers to warehouses. Dan plans these shipments in the most efficient way possible, freeing up 200 hours annually for each supply chain team member.

• Giving a marketing team member 600 hours back

One team member spent a quarter of their year - 600 hours - reading through emails and manually inputting sample orders into forms. Now, a Make AI agent reads the emails, identifies which products to send to which customers, creates the orders, and even sends tracking updates.

The results: Lean growth by enabling people’s full potential

Today, Dude Wipes operates at a scale that would typically require hundreds of employees. Instead, they have 40 people doing work that matters.

• Sustainable international growth: Make changed how Dude Wipes handles its global growth. When they add a new system or tool to their stack, which happens frequently during hypergrowth, Make is the first consideration. This makes automation accessible to all teams.

• A culture where people matter most: None of the 100+ automations has eliminated jobs. It has unlocked people to focus on making a difference. Automating manual tasks has enabled them to do what they enjoy and bring actual value to the business.

This culture of meaningful work matters deeply to Zack. Seeing people's faces when they realize they won't have to do "the crappy part of the job" is what drives him.

• Measurable impact that compounds: Thanks to Make, the goal to save hundreds of hours across departments became a trackable achievement. Every automation is measured in hours returned to employees, which translates into business value. For example, one marketing person saving 600 hours means 600 hours of better marketing decisions. Across 100+ automations, the impact is transformational.

"Automation is about unlocking people"

For companies facing hypergrowth, the instinct is often to hire aggressively. Add more people to handle more volume. Or worse, keep the count and make employees overwork. Dude Wipes proves there's another way – strategic company-wide automation at scale.

There’s no doubt that the approach works. The company scaled from $72 million to $250 million in only three years. Its employee count increased from 14 to 40 as it transformed from manual churn to mature, efficient operations. That’s smart, sustainable growth. All by nurturing the culture that makes Dude Wipes so unique.

The culture where people love to work.

Because when automation unlocks people, that's when you make it happen.