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Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

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Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#241

Post by foxbee »

yoz wrote: post #214
yoz wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be missing Coda ( https://coda.io ) which (in my experience) comes remarkably close to “Excel with data powers”. Think of Notion’s document editing and tables, but with _much_ more power, a proper formula language, UI widgets, etc. The Coda team have churned out a ton of amazing features in remarkably short time. The main drawback I’ve encountered: no obvious way to separate code and data. I can’t find a…

Also missing these app builders, both of which are open source but offer managed hosting: * Budibase https://budibase.com * ToolJet https://www.tooljet.com They’re both more of the AppSmith/Retool sort of thing than Excel, but may be worth a look anyway.

FWIW, Budibase also has it's own multiplayer database that allows users to build workflows akin to Airtable.

I'm the cofounder of Budibase.

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#242

Post by blast »

rtpg wrote: post #224
paxys wrote: post #16

The biggest mistake a competitor can make is thinking Salesforce is a CRM. They may sell themselves as one, but that is just to get a foothold in a company's sales system. Salesforce actually sells (1) an ecosystem that lets your company connect to any other software out there and (2) a platform on which you can build...basically anything. These two together ensure that every one of their customers is 100% locked in…

I feel like people don't appreciate enough that Salesforce is selling a... Smalltalk OS that everyone shares access to. It's nifty!

How is it like Smalltalk?

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#243

Post by ToJans »

douglascorrea wrote: post #123
iFelix wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious why did you think about building you own? For us the frustration came primarily from the design, the developer experience to extend/customize, and the way data is pulled and fetched. I think that if we nail those 3 points, we would have a solution that is well enough differentiated from what currently exists in the market

Well, first of all, becaused we are all trying to build the new [put_some_big_company_name_here]. But besides my entrepreneurship, I think the space for building such application goes to 3 routes: 1) Build one "traditional" CRM, to handle accounts, contacts, oppportunities, etc, etc. Without or just few customizations being possible. So then you felt in the "commodity" bucket to compete with all other CRMs in the mar…

My (layman) path to growth suggestion would be to start with nr 2 using the mechanisms you describe in nr 3 internally ($1M to $3M ARR), and then slowly expand to comparable verticals until you have about $10M to $20M ARR. After that you can start productizing the internal tools you built to the public and become a platform.

(Mostly written from a GTM perspective, and including the obligatory disclaimer thatI'm still way below $1M ARR myself, so take this with a grain of salt...)

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#244

Post by lkrubner »

I worked on a "Salesforce killer" that was actually meant to make Salesforce stronger by fixing its biggest known problem: that sales people hate using it. Our goal was to let sales people send text messages, which we would then use NLP to interpret correctly, and then add to salesforce. A sales person might sell a million bottles of shampoo to Hilton Hotels, then she might get in her car and drive home, on the way home she could talk to her phone, using voice-to-text to create the text message that would go to us. We would then use NLP to convert that text to appropriate objects and actions in Salesforce. The idea is that no sales person would ever again have to log into to Salesforce.

Of course, the leadership of the startup was a complete disaster, and the startup ended as a disaster, so we were never able to fulfill the potential of that vision, but I do think the future must involve NLP technology that allows sales people to talk to CRMs.

For anyone interested, I wrote a fairly popular book about this misadventure, How To Destroy A Tech Startup In Three Easy Steps:

https://www.amazon.com/Destroy-Tech-Startup-Three-Steps-eboo...

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#245

Post by Closi »

bravura wrote: post #151
Closi wrote: post #140

Best of luck! Generally agree with launching early - although this feels very early! We are currently looking for a replacement to our HubSpot account (20 person company for context with c4 people who use HubSpot - so probably a potential customer!), however this appears to be very buggy to start with and misses some basic functions: * Doesn't seem to be a way to name / describe an opportunity (pretty fundamental) *…

What don't you like about hubspot?

Mostly the commercial model.

We are fairly-lightweight users, and although only 2-4 people really use it (again infrequently) would like everyone in the org to have access to the sales pipeline and information.

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#246

Post by arethuza »

e12e wrote: post #182
iFelix wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good summary! And Microsoft through the Productivity apps? (Word, Excel...)

Microsoft also has Dynamics 365 (née Navision).

D365 has elements descended from Dynamics CRM, Dynamics AX, Dynamics NAV and probably lots of other stuff!

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#247

Post by actionfromafar »

lkrubner wrote: post #244

I worked on a "Salesforce killer" that was actually meant to make Salesforce stronger by fixing its biggest known problem: that sales people hate using it. Our goal was to let sales people send text messages, which we would then use NLP to interpret correctly, and then add to salesforce. A sales person might sell a million bottles of shampoo to Hilton Hotels, then she might get in her car and drive home, on the way h…

I may have too limited an imagination, but using NLP to interact with a computer UI is a Very Hard Problem. To me it feels like the old joke you know, 1 - Use NLP to interact with SalesForce competitor. 2 - something something. 3 - profit! Apologies in advance for the snark, I'm really curious.

I mean, how much time would be really saved by talking to the phone vs more traditional inputs? Is it the dictaction which saves most time? If not, what is?

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#248

Post by carstenhag »

nickelcitymario wrote: post #46

I work at a company that uses Salesforce as the system that runs the whole business. CRM barely touches on what we use it for. We use it for inventory, logistics, accounting, customer support, managing our partners (dealers), managing our suppliers... as well as sales. I spent 2 years as a Salesforce developer, and still dabble in APEX from time to time. All of that is context for what I'm about to say: Salesforce is…

To be honest, it sounds 100% like SAP / ABAP. A lot of terribly outdated stuff. But it can do everything you can imagine. If it can't, there's 1-2 recommended products that expand features on top of SAP.

The moment your business wants to do things a way that isn't SAP's way, you completely butcher everything though. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17541092

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#249

Post by mrklol »

actionfromafar wrote: post #247
lkrubner wrote: post #244

I worked on a "Salesforce killer" that was actually meant to make Salesforce stronger by fixing its biggest known problem: that sales people hate using it. Our goal was to let sales people send text messages, which we would then use NLP to interpret correctly, and then add to salesforce. A sales person might sell a million bottles of shampoo to Hilton Hotels, then she might get in her car and drive home, on the way h…

I may have too limited an imagination, but using NLP to interact with a computer UI is a Very Hard Problem . To me it feels like the old joke you know, 1 - Use NLP to interact with SalesForce competitor. 2 - something something. 3 - profit! Apologies in advance for the snark, I'm really curious. I mean, how much time would be really saved by talking to the phone vs more traditional inputs? Is it the dictaction which…

It’s the advantage (like they said) that you don’t have to login into Salesforce. This tool slows them down, and via voice they don’t have to use the salesforce application directly. Imagine you have awesome ideas and plans and have 8 hours a day. But if you can only be productive for ~6, you’re losing a ton of time just because the tool is bad designed/planed/slow/{insert more words here}.

If you want more about that, I would recommend reading the book. Quite interesting read :).

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