Spreadsheets 2.0
- 2. © 2020 Dawn Capital LLP ● Versatility: Spreadsheets can be tuned to fit use cases in virtually any business setting, niche and industry. Excel is the world’s most successful no-code platform. ● Ease of use: Spreadsheets have no dependencies, can be run anywhere and have a gentle learning curve starting with entering data into a cell all the way up to e.g., complex VBA programs. ● Support community: Any problem you can have in Excel – someone else has had before you ● UI: Spreadsheet users get instant feedback - they see the effect of changes they introduce to their model in real time, rather than e.g., iterating on a database with SQL queries ● Relevance: One third of job descriptions list Excel, it is a marketable skill and many want to learn it With 1bn+ users and 30+ years on the market, spreadsheets are the world’s most successful piece of software “Think about a world without Excel. That’s just impossible for me.” - Satya Nadella, CEO MSFT What makes spreadsheets so successful?
- 3. © 2020 Dawn Capital LLP The spreadsheet value chain Data manipulation Data entryData import Sharing Purpose-fit sheet layout Collaboration/Iteration Building the sheet Architecture Insight generation Data retrieval Interaction with sheet/application layer Data export Visualization/Presentation Data storage 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 Source: Dawn Application build Stream (to other applications) 7
- 4. © 2020 Dawn Capital LLP Integration ● Spreadsheets are decoupled from other software systems, which makes e.g. data imports a burdensome manual prerequisite for data analysis Workflows ● Results and insights cannot natively be pushed into other applications and systems (e.g., to trigger action), integrations are prerequisite for this; there is no interface to encode and automate repeatable tasks How to improve on perfection 1/2 Collaboration & privacy Category Painpoint Integration/ workflows Architecture Consolidating inputs from different parties requires manual copy-pasting Limited privacy and protection if cloud collaboration tools such as GSheet are used: manually protecting cells with passwords, hiding/unhiding sheets is tedious process Spreadsheet architecture restricts depth and relational structure of data and data types that can be handled (e.g., images) Spreadsheets are not built to handle big data applications Collaboration tools with features for granular access control (on cell/tab level) and versioning Connect Excel sheets to other applications (e.g., Salesforce, Mailchimp, Stripe) Interface/logic to encode tasks and workflows (e.g, updates) between Excel and connected applications Solutions that unify flexible architecture with the familiar UI of spreadsheets Solution (potential) Affected value chain step 6 8 1 3 7 1 93
- 5. © 2020 Dawn Capital LLP Applications: UI and robustness How to improve on perfection 2/2 Category Painpoint Solution (potential) Visualization/ Presentation Output is static, viewing is not user-friendly (what can I touch and play with without breaking the model?) Results are not natively separated from model, e.g., colour coding is used to distinguish input from output Solution that can turn spreadsheets into purpose-built (web) applications that are easy to use Solution that, like Jupyter Notebooks for code, can display Excel models/simulations in interactive user interface sharable on mobile/web Affected value chain step 21 3 5 6 UI is not purpose-built, i.e. user sees an entire sheet even though he may only need to update 1 cell For applications (e.g., lightweight CRM, delivery tracking) robustness and ease of use are important factors, excel sheets can break
- 6. © 2020 Dawn Capital LLP Market map - new spreadsheet tools 6 UI = spreadsheet UI spreadsheet Privacy & collaboration Visualization/ Presentation Applications Architecture SaaS unbundling of Excel use cases “Augment spreadsheet” “Replace spreadsheet” Integration/Workflows
- 7. © 2020 Dawn Capital LLP The spreadsheet value chain Data manipulation Data entryData import Sharing Purpose-fit sheet layout Collaboration/Iteration Building the sheet Architecture Insight generation Data retrieval Interaction with sheet/application layer Data export Visualization/Presentation Data storage 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 Source: Dawn Application build Stream (to other applications) 7
- 8. © 2020 Dawn Capital LLP How new spreadsheet tools solve pain points 8 Pain point Collaboration Description Tools that simplify sharing and simultaneous editing of spreadsheets Presentation Integration Workflows Architecture SaaS unbundling of Excel use cases Use case example Player Finance department needs input from country managers for huge Excel Mastersheet, instead of carving out sections and sending multiple files, Finance head uses tool to share ”subset” of cells in Masterfile with request for input, that update and link to Masterfile Tools that make sharing the output of spreadsheet calculations visually appealing Sales head has built simple model with some assumptions, to provide his colleagues with better intuition of results, he shares it as interactive “notebook”, his colleagues can play around with bars and see charts changing on screen Tools that simplify data ingestion from alternative data sources into spreadsheets You have a business and want to see which of your products are bestsellers, instead of going to stripe, exporting CSV of sales and copying to Excel you directly read Stripe data (or other sources) into spreadsheet tool (e.g., Actiondesk) through API Tools that integrate with other SaaS solutions and can trigger interactions between them E.g., build spreadsheet that can read-in Mailchimp subscribers, then uses function to enrich email data with background info sourced from Crunchbase, filters by lead segments and pushes into CRM Tools that could be built as lightweight solutions with spreadsheet, but where use case is large/repetitive enough to carve out SaaS niche Practitioners in the financial services industry rely heavily on Excel for financial modelling, tools like Causal capture common elements of financial models (e.g., sensitivity analysis, naming variables, uncertainty models) and make them easier to use Databases with visual UI that are flexible and can address many spreadsheet use cases more flexibly and with more technical depth For project management, you might want to build to-do lists with status trackers and assignees. Tool would allow to increase “depth” of list because it is in fact a relational database. If you “click” on assignee, another layer pops up that displays e.g., info on this employee, his linkedin profile and e.g., contact details Applications Tools that can be used to publish spreadsheets as websites/apps You have an Excel list of all your deliveries need to be made (courier), tool can be used to build app for pending orders, when driver presses “order completed” button in App, row in excel is marked as “completed”