Our investment in Spreadsheet.com

Asking someone whether they use spreadsheets is like asking if they use the internet. Spreadsheets are everywhere. Small businesses track their cashflows on them. Individuals log their exercise routines on them. Teams run their daily operations on them. Financial analysts value companies on them. To-do lists. Invoicing. Recruiting pipelines. Due diligence. Task management. Budgets. Spreadsheets are the fabric of our work and lives.

The O.G. spreadsheet, VisiCalc, dates back to 1979. At the time, VisiCalc introduced a new level in application software. Companies who previously built financial projections with manually calculated datasheets, could now use VisiCalc to change any cell in a datasheet and automatically recalculate the entire sheet. It was magic. VisiCalc was quickly challenged by Lotus 1–2–3 and Microsoft Excel.

Microsoft Excel became a phenomenon — and arguably one of the most successful products in the history of software. Workers across the globe boast their proficiency in Excel on their resumes, and Excel ranks as the top-cited skill on LinkedIn. Financial analysts pride themselves in building a financial model “mouse-free” relying solely on keyboard shortcuts. Companies are built with the sole premise of “replacing Excel” for specific industry workflows. And, TikTokers have even built careers off of it.

Yet, almost four decades after its inception, Excel has seen little innovation, despite its widespread adoption (1B+ people use spreadsheets worldwide) and massive shifts in the way we communicate and work.

Why hasn’t one of the most widely-adopted software applications of our time changed to match our new ways of work and life?

Enter Spreadsheet.com. I’m thrilled to announce our Seed investment and join the board at Spreadsheet.com, an all-in-one spreadsheet that combines the traditional spreadsheet you know and love (including 400+ formulas!) with the power of a database and project management system.

Spreadsheet.com allows you to go beyond text and numbers with over 25 rich cell data types, attachments that live in cells, worksheets that connect together like database tables, forms for collecting data, and built-in project management features like Kanban views and Gantt timeline views — all with real-time updates and messaging. Its visual, no-code workflow editor lets you create automations and integrations with other popular apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, and more — all without leaving your spreadsheets. With Spreadsheet.com, individuals and teams can build customized workflows and applications that are simple enough for anyone to assemble, yet powerful enough to suit the needs of any organization, in any vertical.

When we first met founders Matt Robinson and Murali Mohan, we were struck by the depth of their product and their expansive vision for the future. The duo combines technical prowess with deep empathy for their users. Their steadfast focus has allowed them to surgically build an incredibly rich product (building a spreadsheet is not for the faint of heart!) — one that pushes beyond the status quo and captures a user’s imagination for the endless possibilities of collaborative work. With their vision, we believe Spreadsheet.com can not only disrupt several existing categories of software but also capture the long tail of software applications and workflows.

We’re excited to welcome Matt, Murali, and the entire Spreadsheet.com team to the Spark Family, and team up with an awesome group of co-investors, including Todd Jackson at First Round Capital, Mitch Kapor (founder of Lotus), Steven Sinofsky (former president of Microsoft Windows), and more. If you’re excited by Spreadsheet.com’s vision, the team is hiring! And are also bringing people off the waitlist as quickly as possible.