![]() That’s an ambitious statement-even in an industry that ploughs 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. 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. One in six users is a paying customer.Īirtable’s defining feature is a buffet of apps and functions, called “blocks”. 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. 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. Revenue is on track to jump 400%Īt first glance, Airtable looks like a souped-up Google Sheet. “It’s a joyful product to use.”Īirtable has taken hold in 80,000 organisations, from Netflix to small non-profits. “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. Later in the year, 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 2018, Airtable raised $59 million from CRV, Caffeinated Capital and Slow Ventures. Revenue is on track to jump 400 percent to $20 million in 2018, mostly on word of mouth. Liu’s cloud-based software has taken hold in 80,000 organisations, from Netflix to small non-profits. ![]() It’s a minimalist uniform à la Steve Jobs, the guy who would fuss forever over the shade of white of an iPod: “Instead of trying to rush a new product out the door, we introduce a period of forced delay, so people have a chance to sleep on an idea,” he says. Liu, 30, is sitting in his San Francisco headquarters dressed in a black leather jacket and black shirt, slacks and shoes. After reading Kenya Hara’s design book White, Liu spent months focusing on the interplay of colour and empty space. ![]() The trio pored over academic papers on collaborative software theory, agonised about the Node.js architecture and obsessed over the speed at which windows popped open. Then they spent three years building a prototype. They wanted to create a spreadsheet with the power of a database. With Andrew Ofstad and Emmett Nicholas, he launched Airtable in 2013. In the frenetic world of tech, where the ruling ethos is to move fast and break things, Howie Liu moves at a glacial pace. ![]()
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