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Airtable gets $52M in funding

businessinsider.com

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Re: Airtable gets $52M in funding

#121

Post by kareemamin »

yoshyosh wrote: post #107
2_listerine_pls wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet every developer that has used sheets in a business setting has come to realize that there was a need for an intuitive web database with relations and forms. I was thinking about doing something like this the other day, also saw it Pg's startup list.

I bet there's still room for such a solution if it was targeted specifically to developers. I personally really liked Parse because of this functionality.

Definitely! You should check out https://base.run - it's a solution targeted to developers that want to quickly build and test out ideas or internal tools

Re: Airtable gets $52M in funding

#122

Post by akurilin »

I really want to use it, but I'm not fully clear on the use-cases. We already have specialized tools for project management such as Asana. We already have specialized tools for sales, such as Salesforce.

Seems like Airtable is the step between a simple CSV / excel file and a hyper-specialized tool for that problem. So if you're not quite ready for the latter, but you are experiencing pain with Excel, then Airtable is the way to go?

Re: Airtable gets $52M in funding

#123

Post by quickthrower2 »

I had a quick play to create a project plan for the team. Yes it's very nice indeed. And intuitive if you happy with Excel/Google Sheets. However I like how you can effortlessly create a 'schema' on the fly. So it isn't as fast and loose as Excel.

Re: Airtable gets $52M in funding

#124

Post by quickthrower2 »

jlarocco wrote: post #99

So... time to dig through the terrible ideas of 20 years ago, and see which ones are now good ideas when adding "... on the internet"? And I'm only being partially sarcastic. Their implementation looks neat, but having seen ugly Excel "apps" in the past, the idea of "spreadsheets programmed by anybody" makes me cringe. IMO, if they're smart they'll have some kind of easy migration to "real" applications.

They do seem to have a schema which I like. You can say a column is a "pick from list" or a "date" and it'll enforce it and provide the best ux for picking the thing you need. This is much better than Excel. It's like an Excel/Access hybrid but for the web and very usable.

Alas, it's not an application development environment

Re: Airtable gets $52M in funding

#126

Post by erlend_sh »

Airtable is fantastic. My only wish is that they formalize a “Airtable open format specification”. At the moment, in spite of all its shortcomings, an excel file is far more portable than an Airtable doc. We need the Airtable data structure to become an open standard.

Re: Airtable gets $52M in funding

#127

Post by infinite8s »

graeme wrote: post #108

I’m having trouble understanding what I would use Airtable for. I run an online business and work with a few long term contractors. We mostly communicate in trello or slack. There isn’t really any inventory to mamage. I’m assuming there’s an airtable use for me. But I haven’t been able to figure it out from their marketing. Is there a use case in particular I should look at as a start? (Personal life management stuff…

Your profile says you are an LSAT tutor. How do you keep track of everyone you tutor, whether they've paid, etc?

Re: Airtable gets $52M in funding

#128

Post by oddgoo »

viraptor wrote: post #62

I'm really happy about airtable. My use case is basically "shared access/excel-like with easier row grouping and simple projections". I used the API as well. The feature I miss most is charts/graphs. Really hope they'll add them one day.

It seems that charts exist as part of their blocks offering:

https://airtable.com/blocks

But only for customers in the Pro tier.

Re: Airtable gets $52M in funding

#130

Post by [deleted] »

kareemamin wrote: post #121
yoshyosh wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet there's still room for such a solution if it was targeted specifically to developers. I personally really liked Parse because of this functionality.

Definitely! You should check out https://base.run - it's a solution targeted to developers that want to quickly build and test out ideas or internal tools

[deleted]
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