You have to have a certain level of fearlessness to compete in the crowded world of tech startups. The industry is filled with high-risk, high-stakes entrepreneurs dreaming of birthing the next unicorn. Showing them how it’s done is robotic process automation software provider UiPath Inc.

After its initial seed funding in 2015, UiPath became a unicorn with a $1.1 billion valuation in early 2018. That’s when things started to go crazy. UiPath hit triple unicorn status in late 2018, more than doubled to a $7 billion valuation by early 2019, and just last month hit the Forbes Cloud 100 list in the number three position, leaving closest RPA competitor Automation Anywhere Inc. trailing back in 29^th place.

“We were not the typical Silicon Valley company,” said Daniel Dines (pictured), chief executive officer of UiPath Inc. “We went global from day one.”

Dines spoke with Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the UiPath Forward event in Las Vegas. They discussed UiPath’s fast rise to the top of the RPA market and the company’s plans for the future (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

Business as usual means inefficiency rules

People often question the necessity of RPA under the assumption that any business process that can be automated already has been. Before he started UiPath, Dines was one of them.

“I’m a software engineer, so I didn’t believe there are so many inefficiencies within the business world,” he said. “I thought that large enterprises should have been automated completely. Everything should run as smooth, as effectually. But the reality is far away from this.”

The problem is that when employees build business processes, they always interact with the system through a user interface, which is readable only by a human, according to Dines. “So, when you go and automate them, it’s kind of difficult to translate into APIs,” he said.

UiPath’s solution is to create robotic processes that replicate humans using the same tools. “It’s the only technology that can work at the large scale.” Dines said. “This is … the only way you can achieve automation on these smaller type of processes but large volume.”

Global goals and humble culture secrets to UiPath’s success

Starting from a base in Dines home country of Romania helped the company’s swift rise to success, according to Dines. Rather than being constrained by first conquering the North American market, then moving out to the world, UiPath started in Romania and quickly opened offices in London, New York, Bengaluru, Paris, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, D.C.

The second factor is the company’s combined focus on the customer and culture of humility. “Humility gives a great framework of how to operate,” Dines stated. “It makes you listen to people; it makes you able to change your mind. It makes you actually accelerate [toward solutions] because people that change their mind are able to find faster, better solutions than people that are stuck.”

UiPath currently leads the RPA market and is expected to hold that lead as the demand for automation in the workplace increases exponentially. It has been a fast ride for Dines, who is more used to the secluded life of a software engineer than addressing thousands of UiPath Forward III attendees.

“Five years ago I couldn’t see me even in front of a hundred people — not to talk about 3,000 yesterday,” Dines said.

UiPath’s new status means that Dines doesn’t just wear his favorite logoed T-shirts anymore; he has added a jacket now. However, his success means more to him than financial gain or the pride of creating a successful product.

“We are proud as engineers to build the best technology that we can, “ Dines said. “But it’s a lot more touching seeing that you can help humans to become better, to become healthier, to even save lives, to help refugees. It’s an amazing feeling.”

Is an initial public offering in store for UiPath? Not yet, but probably soon, according to Dines.

“I think for a good enterprise software company, they will always be a place to land a good IPO,” he said. “We are still a young company in many ways,” only four years from its initial funding. “So, we won’t do an IPO in 2020, but we’ve believe that 2021 would be a good year for that,” he said.

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of UiPath Forward. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for UiPath Forward. Neither UiPath, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE