Ask HN: Why are there over a dozen recent no code Excel spreadsheet startups? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why are there over a dozen recent no code Excel spreadsheet startups?

8 pointsiLoveSheets10 comments

I recently noticed this mostly from reading TechCrunch and talking to a friend. Once I noticed 2 or 3 and actively started searching them out, I noticed a lot more.

To give you an idea, here are all I've found. I'm sure there are other ones out there. I've also seen many on IndieHackers, but these are all the ones that have raised VC capital:

Rows.com

Clay.com

Spreadsheet.com

GetGrist.com

Nobodb.com

Retool.com

Equals.app

Coefficient.io

ActionDesk.io

Parabola.io

Rowy.io

They all seem to have been formed in the past 3 years, have raised funding in the $10 million range and all seem to do the same exact same things in slightly different ways. Basically import in data from various Databases and other sources like Twitter and Instagram and do excel operations on the data as well as some other additional functionalities they've added and generate charts. I'm not even sure if this is solving a real problem. Does anyone here have experience with this space or know more details about it or have used any of these SaaS products?

"No-code Data Processing/Analytics" (as I would call these) is a very generic category and some of these products are quite different in their approach. I mean, (almost) everything in computers is Data right? And there is nothing Excel-Specific about grids (and even formulas) : These are very primary paradigms, so is it any surprise they all use them ?

The existence of so many apps with such basic computer functions does not surprise me because you can implement it (at the detail level) in so many different ways (let the market decide the winner)

The sudden proliferation is another matter. I think it is just part of the recent (and more general) wave to build "higher level" (=no-code) platforms. Here, its is more "Data processing" oriented ones, that is all.

I'd say one reason. It's an absolute nightmare for the regular end user to handle relational data in a spreadsheet. I've tried a lot of those below (you missed of AppSheet from Google which kinda falls into this bracket too).

I regularly work with intelligent people (who aren't techies) who by themselves figure out their project needs to be relational all by themselves (knowing nothing about SQL).

I think, and I guess these companies do, that there must be a market for those millions of people who want to manage a few thousand rows of project data but are never going to learn SQL + web development to put a UI on it, but are struggling to keep their data managed "logically" and easily.

Because a lot of business operations run on Excel. Therefore large total addressable market.

For some reason, every startup that gets a modicum of traction immediately attracts copycats. Most of these don't get very far.

If someone can break down the languages used by these companies that would be great.

There are even some open source projects in this space. Why not?

It's already a pretty boring space to build a product for, but this feels kind of surreal with this much competition and lack of product differentiation. Like having all these super catered names like Rows.com and Spreadsheet.com but if you go on the actual home pages they pretty much look like carbon copies of each other in terms of what they do and their features. I'm not even sure if this whole category has that much product market fit so I'm asking, it feels like a solution looking for a problem to me.

Boring spaces can be really profitable.

Besides that, I agree with you. Many companies already use excel because they are deep into the Microsoft stack. A lot of companies won't pay for another solution to do spreadsheeting.

I didn't check all of these tools but often there is some automatic data ingestion, automatic dashboard generation, ... which might make it more valuable in the long for data driven businesses.

> Boring spaces can be really profitable.

A book I read a long time ago about startups said, in effect, if you really want to make money, start a trash-hauling company. If you want to make money doing computer stuff, continue reading this book.

Yeah, and why not ask them or use their own product features to compare product details...

One might even learn something about leverage offered by the tools...likely not a conspiracy to meaninglessly suck up funding

Reply on news.ycombinator.com