Airtable Became a Unicorn by Reinventing the Spreadsheet

I remember in the 90s there were all these neat and wonky 4/5GL databases like Clarion, Foxpro, Powerbuilder, etc.

They were neat because they were ways for data users to design all the workflow around their subject. They had downsides, of course, that are apparent if you ever had to debug or support one. But a cloud dev front end that recreates the freedom and flexibility of these dB tools has massive potential.

Airtable srrms the closest to this dream.

Notion (https://www.notion.so) is doing something similar yet simpler with its 'Databases' view.

Tbh to me it looks more like reinvented MS Access than Spreadsheet

I believe it was Big Brother that had a patent for AI using spreadsheets back in the early 1980's. It did not stand up to scrutiny if I recall.

It's crazy how such a simple CRM dashboard like Etacs could bring in 700k funding in 2010. Nowadays that's a hackathon project.

Is there something about Kutcher I don’t know? Why would you think of him as your potential first investor into your spreadsheet app?

What have Google Apps been doing in the meantime? Google Drawing expecially hasn’t changed in years. Google Sheets isn’t improving at anything close to a rapid pace.

Last time I tried, it was slow as hell. Let me try again!