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Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code

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Re: Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code

#31

Post by arsalanb »

ohashi wrote: post #27

You chose to call them live documents and seem to veer away from dashboard idea. It's cool to export 'reports' to whatever channel I'm interested in communicating over, but I wonder if you plan to offer a more Dashboard type view as well? I could see building a custom dashboard with your tools and have it look less 'documenty' for lack of a better word.

We did consider that, and have something in the works although it’s not top priority right now. I’m curious what would the distinction be? What would differentiate it from a document with only graphs etc and no text?

Re: Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code

#32

Post by arsalanb »

thedays wrote: post #25

Looks great! Integration with Excel seems to be missing and is what I’d need to use it. Do you have any plans to integrate Excel soonish? Beyond that, integrations with CRMs like Salesforce could also be really powerful for a too like this. Also, have you considered integrating with a tool like Zapier rather than integrating directly with each app to accelerate the number of apps you’re integrated with?

Hi! I’m trying to nail the UX of excel. We already support Google sheets, but excel IIRC is a file-based format? Do you imagine re-uploading the latest version of the spreadsheet in order to update the document?

Re: CRMs, we currently work with smaller teams who use CRMs like Hubspot (we have a Hubspot integration), but salesforce could be interesting too.

Zapier I believe doesn’t give you data in a structured format, rather a series of “events” as and when they happen. This is workable, Ofcourse, and I will look into it today.

Thanks for the feedback!

Re: Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code

#33

Post by arsalanb »

cloudking wrote: post #24

Great idea! Since you're already integrated with Google sign on, you should consider building a Workspace app and get into the marketplace: https://workspace.google.com/marketplace You could integrate directly into Drive so customers can create LiveDocs from Drive, and get marketing exposure in the marketplace.

We’re already working on this! It’s our goal to reduce the barrier to entry to using Livedocs by taking the docs to where your work already happens :)

Re: Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code

#34

Post by arsalanb »

rdxm wrote: post #22

you can do this today with Jupyter Notebooks. Can you provide a value prop vis-a-vis Jupyter Notebooks? (aside of course from the raging dumpster fire of lack of curation in JN re vulns...)

Yes! I could probably do this with Jupyter Notebooks, but Livedocs is built for, say, a growth or sales role who want to track a simple metric from Twitter or Stripe, and might not have the time to learn Jupyter and it’s nuances.

Notebook styled tools were the inspiration for Livedocs, for sure.

Re: Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code

#35

Post by arsalanb »

soederpop wrote: post #29

This is one of the goals I have for https://active-mdx.soederpop.com https://github.com/soederpop/active-mdx . With this you can turn a collection of markdown into a graphql database and more. let me know if you need help!

This looks interesting! Thanks for sharing!

Re: Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code

#36

Post by Aeolun »

arsalanb wrote: post #32
thedays wrote: post #25

Looks great! Integration with Excel seems to be missing and is what I’d need to use it. Do you have any plans to integrate Excel soonish? Beyond that, integrations with CRMs like Salesforce could also be really powerful for a too like this. Also, have you considered integrating with a tool like Zapier rather than integrating directly with each app to accelerate the number of apps you’re integrated with?

Hi! I’m trying to nail the UX of excel. We already support Google sheets, but excel IIRC is a file-based format? Do you imagine re-uploading the latest version of the spreadsheet in order to update the document? Re: CRMs, we currently work with smaller teams who use CRMs like Hubspot (we have a Hubspot integration), but salesforce could be interesting too. Zapier I believe doesn’t give you data in a structured format…

One it’s in Office 365 you may be able to query Excel from elsewhere with an API (or load the whole sheet, not sure).

Re: Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code

#37

Post by arsalanb »

Aeolun wrote: post #36
arsalanb wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi! I’m trying to nail the UX of excel. We already support Google sheets, but excel IIRC is a file-based format? Do you imagine re-uploading the latest version of the spreadsheet in order to update the document? Re: CRMs, we currently work with smaller teams who use CRMs like Hubspot (we have a Hubspot integration), but salesforce could be interesting too. Zapier I believe doesn’t give you data in a structured format…

One it’s in Office 365 you may be able to query Excel from elsewhere with an API (or load the whole sheet, not sure).

True! That's a great idea! We tried with Airtable for a proof of concept, but Airtable is not issuing metadata API tokens anymore..should try with Office 365

Re: Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code

#38

Post by arsalanb »

u2077 wrote: post #26
arsalanb wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool! That's my favorite part of this format of "live" documents — based on what integrations exist, the output might be an entirely different tool. What tools do you use for time and expense tracking?

A couple of small and simple iOS apps after being frustrated with more enterprise based solutions. Thiro [ https://apps.apple.com/us/app/thiro/id1555982483 ] a basic time tracker that does grouping and reports right. The only thing it lacks is billable hours. Emerald [ https://apps.apple.com/us/app/emerald-money-journal/id143705... ] A super simple expense tracker that does most things right, but unfortunately has a…

Ahh, these are interesting! None seem to have an API though :(

Re: Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code

#40

Post by dmolot »

arsalanb wrote: post #37
Aeolun wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One it’s in Office 365 you may be able to query Excel from elsewhere with an API (or load the whole sheet, not sure).

True! That's a great idea! We tried with Airtable for a proof of concept, but Airtable is not issuing metadata API tokens anymore..should try with Office 365

Thought I could hop on here and plug my YC company, hotglue. We help people building products offer native integrations much more quickly, just thought it would be worth mentioning if you’re exploring building more integrations.
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