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Equals Raises $6.6M from David Sacks at Craft Ventures to Replace Excel

7 points by beefman 4y ago

gidorah 4y ago
$6.6m doesn't sound like that's a lot of money to make an Excel killer. Also, it looks very much like a spreadsheet to me.
- Cilvic 4y ago
  Well it said replace "Excel", not replace the "spreadsheet" ;-) I can definitely see the appeal after watching the video. Not sure whether that would be enough to pull me away from Excel/Google sheets especially since that is "free" if you are in microsoft land or google land.
  - gidorah 4y ago
    Aren't Excel and slreadsheet synonyms? Certainly seem to be! Excel seems so ingrained at this point, supporting something else would be very hard I think.
HarveyKandola 4y ago
Looks neat. Causal [1] seems to be another option (they also raised funding recently). [1] https://www.causal.app https://www.causal.app
p33p 4y ago
Copy excel shortcuts is smart, but no, this will not replace Excel. Transpile VBA into something like python, automagically open and translate Excel files, and then maybe, MAYBE you'd find a niche of other startups that don't want to integrate with the Microsoft stack. Otherwise, good luck.
skeeter2020 4y ago
>> we all STILL invariably end up back in a tool that was built in the 80’s: Excel. You lose a lot of goodwill with intentionally misleading statements like this. I'm writing this on a computer, and they were built even earlier than the 80s!
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
sto_hristo 4y ago
I've seen seemingly immortal tech giants die to the newcomer, but MS's office is just too ubiquitous and embedded everywhere. So even if there's a superior excel alternative, who would use it when they already have Excel along with tons of other office tools.
layer8 4y ago
It sounds like if they get any significant traction, it would be trivial for Microsoft to add the equivalent features to Excel.
beej71 4y ago
Version control and easy pulling of data... it's a good idea, for sure. But if I were them, I'd be worried that if these turned out to be compelling features, Microsoft would just roll them out in the next release.
- rad_gruchalski 4y ago
  Not even that. Excel has a great add-in framework: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/excel/excel-add-ins-overview https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/excel/ex.... I’ve been doing this back in 2006 with .net and c#. Today it apparently can be done even with js.
diplodocus1 4y ago
Both excel and sheets already do this. connected data in sheets, power query in excel. so a less mature version of Excel to push a feature that already exists among the behemoths?

7 points by beefman 4y ago

$6.6m doesn't sound like that's a lot of money to make an Excel killer. Also, it looks very much like a spreadsheet to me.

Cilvic 4y ago
Well it said replace "Excel", not replace the "spreadsheet" ;-) I can definitely see the appeal after watching the video. Not sure whether that would be enough to pull me away from Excel/Google sheets especially since that is "free" if you are in microsoft land or google land.
- gidorah 4y ago
  Aren't Excel and slreadsheet synonyms? Certainly seem to be! Excel seems so ingrained at this point, supporting something else would be very hard I think.

HarveyKandola 4y ago

Looks neat. Causal [1] seems to be another option (they also raised funding recently). [1] https://www.causal.app https://www.causal.app

p33p 4y ago

Copy excel shortcuts is smart, but no, this will not replace Excel. Transpile VBA into something like python, automagically open and translate Excel files, and then maybe, MAYBE you'd find a niche of other startups that don't want to integrate with the Microsoft stack. Otherwise, good luck.

skeeter2020 4y ago

>> we all STILL invariably end up back in a tool that was built in the 80’s: Excel. You lose a lot of goodwill with intentionally misleading statements like this. I'm writing this on a computer, and they were built even earlier than the 80s!

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

sto_hristo 4y ago

I've seen seemingly immortal tech giants die to the newcomer, but MS's office is just too ubiquitous and embedded everywhere. So even if there's a superior excel alternative, who would use it when they already have Excel along with tons of other office tools.

layer8 4y ago

It sounds like if they get any significant traction, it would be trivial for Microsoft to add the equivalent features to Excel.

beej71 4y ago

Version control and easy pulling of data... it's a good idea, for sure. But if I were them, I'd be worried that if these turned out to be compelling features, Microsoft would just roll them out in the next release.

rad_gruchalski 4y ago
Not even that. Excel has a great add-in framework: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/excel/excel-add-ins-overview https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/excel/ex.... I’ve been doing this back in 2006 with .net and c#. Today it apparently can be done even with js.

diplodocus1 4y ago

Both excel and sheets already do this. connected data in sheets, power query in excel. so a less mature version of Excel to push a feature that already exists among the behemoths?