Erik Dunteman, the founder of the tech startup Pig, recently shared that exciting news. Read on to learn how he is pivoting from his original focus on Windows automation. In a Y Combinator podcast episode released Thursday, Dunteman shared Pig’s new direction for the first time. The company will now build a tool named Muscle Mem, which is intended to serve as an external cache memory storage system for AI agents. Dunteman and his team are taking a bold new tack. Until now, they’ve been putting all their eggs in the basket of creating a B2B cloud API product.
Muscle Mem allows AI agents to offload repeatable tasks, delivering a very cool and efficient solution for developers. The tool is now development-ready and available on GitHub to explore its functionalities. Dunteman has gotten out of the Windows automation game. Ironically, this decision was just announced on the heels of Microsoft introducing a new window in Windows 11, designed to guide users in better managing their settings.
Tom Blomfield, CEO of one of Europe’s most successful tech exports, Monzo, drew a clever analogy. He compared the trajectory of Pig to that of browser usage on Windows desktops. He noted that Browser Use gained immense popularity after the Chinese agentic tool Manus went viral, demonstrating how quickly tools can capture market attention.
“The advice I would give founders today is taking either Browser Use or Windows automation with Pig and trying to apply that into enterprise, into a vertical industry,” Blomfield stated during the podcast. That means there’s still an exciting market for automation tools — even as Dunteman moves onto other pursuits.
One company that has made the largest advancements in agent technology is Microsoft. There’s substantial interest in solutions that increase productivity for developers. Replit’s founder and CEO, Amjad Massad, on the opportunity for this shift to technology to succeed. “The moment that technology works, those two companies are going to do really, really well,” he said, hinting at the promising future for both Pig and Microsoft’s offerings.
Dunteman remembered some of the pain points that had existed in the legacy app automation space. He expressed a clear understanding of user desires: “What users in the legacy app automation space actually want is to hand me money and receive an automation.” This comment really highlights the difference between what users are expecting and the capabilities that are out in the market right now.
That decision to pivot showed Dunteman’s willingness and quickness to adapt to an ever-evolving tech environment. He acknowledged, “What we’re working on now is directly inspired by and applicable to computer use, just at the developer tooling layer. I remain very optimistic for computer use as ‘the last mile.’” This optimism would indicate that Dunteman recognizes strong unrealized market potential in creating innovative solutions to meet developer needs.
Dunteman declined to provide additional context about his decision to move away from Windows automation. He took deliberate and valuable steps to ensure that resources surrounding Pig would continue to be easily available. His Pig.dev website and GitHub documentation are still up for anyone who wants to dive deep into his previous work in automation.
