Tag: spreadsheets

  • Airtable: A Low-Code Platform to Build Collaborative Apps

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Airtable.

    Are you looking for a database tool? There are tons of software available in the market, but it’s difficult to get one that is simple to use, like a spreadsheet but compared to a database. Although you can also make comparisons in spreadsheets, databases are much more efficient.

    With spreadsheets, you need to learn SQL scripting. Airtable is a perfect fusion of spreadsheets and databases that allows you to curate information into different data formats. Moreover, the UX/UI is engaging and doesn’t require SQL scripting.

    This article covers about Airtable’s startup story, founders, funding, products, growth, partners, competitors, and more.

    Company Highlights

    Company Name Airtable
    Headquarters San Francisco, California, United States
    Sector Software Development
    Founders Howie Liu, Andrew Ofstad, Emmett Nicholas
    Founded In 2012
    Revenue $11.7B (2021)
    Website Airtable.com

    Airtable – About
    Airtable – Founders and Team
    Airtable – Startup Story
    Airtable – Mission and vision
    Airtable – Business Model
    Airtable – Revenue Model
    Airtable – Products and Services
    Airtable – Funding and Investors
    Airtable – Mergers and Acquisitions
    Airtable – Patents and Trademarks
    Airtable – Growth
    Airtable – Partners
    Airtable – Awards and Achievements
    Airtable – Competitors

    Airtable – About

    Airtable is a cloud-based platform that makes it easier to build robust, custom applications and, thus, connect data, workflows, and teams. Moreover, it allows companies to build applications without any code. The user-friendly and simple interface allows organizations to spin up a database in minutes.

    Founded in 2012, the company has many offices in the United States in Austin, London, Mountain View, Los Angeles, and New York. Over 300,000 innovative companies use Airtable daily to connect data and people.

    Airtable – Founders and Team

    Howie Liu, Andrew OfStad, and Emmett Nicholas are the founders of Airtable.

    Howie Liu

    Howie Liu graduated in Mechanical Engineering and Computational Airfoil Design from Duke University. Presently, he is the co-founder and CEO of Airtable. He also co-founded Etacts in San Francisco.

    Howie Liu - Co-founder & CEO, Airtable
    Howie Liu – Co-founder & CEO, Airtable

    Andrew OfStad

    Completed BSE in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Economics from Duke University; Andrew Ofstad co-founded Airtable. He worked as Engineering Research Onetrn, Technology Labs Development Group, and Product Manager in top firms.

    Andrew OfStad - Co-founder, Airtable
    Andrew OfStad – Co-founder, Airtable

    Emmett Nicholas

    Obtained a degree in CS and ECE from Duke University, Emmett Nicholas is the co-founder and CTO at Airtable. Moreover, he worked as Software Engineer at Stack Overflow and Microsoft.

    Emmett Nicholas - Co-founder & CTO, Airtable
    Emmett Nicholas – Co-founder & CTO, Airtable

    Currently, the employee strength of Airtable is more than 1000.

    Airtable – Startup Story

    When Liu was working as a Product manager at Salesforce, he realized that many people were using spreadsheets as an organizational tool. And most spreadsheets were cluttered and contained data haphazardly. Rather than making spreadsheet better, Liu developed an entirely new product enabling users to create simple applications in a familiar and intuitive way.

    Liu and his co-founder Andrew Ofstad developed an MVP, and Kutcher was the first individual to invest in the product. Although Airtable was officially established in 2012, its development was underway for two years prior to its public launch, during which time it was being developed in a closed-door setting. After two years in development, the software was officially launched in 2014 as a part of an invite-only open beta. Moreover, Airtable makes another smart move by launching its iOS app.

    In 2015, the company unveiled API Builder along with its embedded database features. And Airtable integrations came into the picture in August 2015. Over the years, many features and functionalities were added to the platform, and Airtable succeeded.

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    Airtable – Mission and vision

    The company’s main aim is to democratize software creation by making it possible for anyone to build tools to meet their needs. People worldwide prefer using Airtable to do everything from cattle tracking to filmmaking.

    Airtable – Business Model

    Airtable is a spreadsheet-database hybrid, having features of a database but can be applied to a spreadsheet. The fields in the Airtable table are just like cells in a spreadsheet but feature multiple types, like ‘checkbox,’ drop-down list,’ and ‘phone number.’ Moreover, the platform can reference file attachments similar to images.

    It enables users to create a database, set up column types, link tables, add records, sort records, collaborate, and publish views to external sites.

    Airtable – Revenue Model

    Airtable offers different plans for the team’s needs, Free, Plus, and Pro. The ‘Plus’ plan charges $10 per seat/month, and the ‘Pro’ plan is available for $20 per seat/month, and these plans are billed annually.

    How to Use Airtable & Getting Started Tutorial

    Airtable – Products and Services

    Its main product, Airtable, offers multiple features, including interface design, templates, views, automation, sync, and reporting. In addition, Airtable provides several solutions, such as marketing, operations, product, human resources, sales, and finance.

    Airtable – Funding and Investors

    Airtable has undertaken over 10 funding rounds in which it has raised $1.4 billion. Its latest funding round – The secondary Market Round, was conducted on July 1, 2022, and raised $300 million. Around 50 investors fund the company, and the main ones are Salesforce Ventures, Silver Lake, XN, Greenoaks, Thrive Capital, and Benchmark.

    Date Round Number of Investors Money Raised Lead Investor
    July 1, 2022 Secondary Market
    December 13, 2021 Series F 15 $735 million XN
    March 15, 2021 Series E 6 $270 million Greenoaks
    September 14, 2020 Series D 8 $185 million Thrive Capital
    November 15, 2018 Series C 11 $100 million Benchmark Coatue, CRV, Thrive Capital
    March 15, 2018 Series B 4 $52 million Caffeinated Capital, CRV
    July 17, 2017 Series B 1
    June 29, 2015 Series A 14 $7.6 million CRV
    February 25, 2015 Seed Round 16 $3 million
    March 18, 2013 Seed Round 2

    Airtable – Mergers and Acquisitions

    The company acquired 2 enterprises. Its recent acquisition was Walrus.ai on December 21, 2021, and Bayes was acquired on August 11, 2021.

    Airtable – Patents and Trademarks

    The platform has 5 registered trademarks, and the most popular class is ‘Scientific and technological services.’

    Airtable – Growth

    The estimated annual revenue of the company in 2021 is $220.8 million ($209,507 per employee). The post-money valuation of Airtable is $11.7 billion as of 2021. With monthly visits at the website over 21,785,500, the monthly site visit growth is 7.74%. Moreover, the employee count increased by 14% last year.

    Airtable – Partners

    It has 260 partners, of which 228 are technology partners, and 32 are channel partners. Some of the main partners are:

    Airtable – Awards and Achievements

    Airtable has won a few awards during its journey. Some of these are:

    • Ranked 6 on the Forbes Cloud 100
    • CNBC Disruptor 50 list
    • Products that Count award

    Airtable – Competitors

    Its main competitors are:

    • Notion
    • Smartsheet
    • Asana
    • Excel
    • ClickUp
    • Trello
    • CODA
    • FileMaker
    • Workboard

    FAQs

    Who are the founders of Airtable?

    Howie Liu, Andrew OfStad, and Emmett Nicholas are the founders of Airtable.

    What is Airtable and what does it do?

    Airtable is a cloud-based platform that makes it easier to build robust, custom applications and, thus, connect data, workflows, and teams. Moreover, it allows companies to build applications without any code. The user-friendly and simple interface allows organizations to spin up a database in minutes.

    What pricing plans does Airtable offer?

    Airtable offers different plans for the team’s needs, Free, Plus, and Pro. The ‘Plus’ plan charges $10 per seat/month, and the ‘Pro’ plan is available for $20 per seat/month, and these plans are billed annually.