After all, the opportunity to expand from a narrow product line into the full suite of business software doesn’t belong only to Airtable. That’s an ambitious statement-even in an industry that plows millions into immortality research and launches electric cars into orbit. “This is a $100 billion-plus revenue opportunity.” ![]() “People think we’re building an Excel or Google Sheets replacement, but we’re out to build the next Microsoft or Apple,” he says. That doesn’t stop Liu from imagining how his firm can capture a wide swath of the world’s data processing. It adds up to a powerful tool kit that lets anyone create custom applications (sales pipelines, client reports, project management flows, editorial calendars, inventory management) that previously required code writers or pricey consultants.Īirtable isn’t the only software vendor to talk about code-free programming Quick Base, a spin-off of Intuit, makes a similar pitch. (Enterprise packages start at $60 a head.) One in six users is a paying customer.Īirtable’s defining feature is a buffet of apps and functions, called “blocks.” With these you can overlay data sets on a Google map, apply rules and formulas, send alerts and messages to colleagues, share files via SMS messages or emails, integrate with services like Slack and Dropbox, aggregate surveys and forms, and push content onto a live website. Subscriptions, which cost $10 or $20 for a month per user, offer advanced features and generous storage space. The several million of lines of code, written in open-source Node.js, encrypt the data and back it up with restorable snapshots.Īirtable's revenue is on track to jump 400% to $20 million in 2018, mostly on word of mouth. And while Google Sheets is fine for projects with a team of ten or so, Airtable has the relational database underneath to run businesses with thousands of far-flung employees simultaneously accessing the system via computers, smartphones and tablets. All of these can be dragged into cells and opened with a click. It’s a collaborative spreadsheet that can store images, documents, videos and URLs. “It’s a joyful product to use.”Īt first glance, Airtable looks like a souped-up Google Sheet. “It’s an intuitive and fun way to build on data in a way you can’t with clunky products like Microsoft Access and Excel,” says Ray Tonsing of Caffeinated Capital. Last month it snagged another $100 million from Benchmark, Thrive Capital and Coatue Management at a post-money valuation of $1.1 billion.Īirtable has attached an approachable drag-and-drop experience to a powerful database, much as Windows replaced tedious text-based commands with a graphic interface or AOL offered a welcoming portal to the Web. In March, Airtable raised $59 million from CRV, Caffeinated Capital and Slow Ventures.
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