The essence of a startup is its ability to grow, and grow fast. Its sole purpose is to introduce a solution to a problem, grope the market and devise a strategy to make rapid profits. Entrepreneurs fuel these companies with their eloquent nature and ability to engender brilliant ideas. However, actuating these ideas is where problems usually start. According to Forbes (and many other sources), about 90% of startups fail; and the main reason for that is their misconception of the market’s needs. Probing the exchange with cheap and reliable methods can save you a hole in your pockets. Not every startup can afford mistakes and commitments in the beginning, also known as “the death pit” phase. This is why it makes perfect sense to develop an MVP (Minimum Viable Product); creating a partially operational product.
For many product or solution ideas, a prototype can be created easily with Excel. Proven examples of this concept include; financial consultancy, data analysis and surveys. The whole purpose of this half-baked product is to test the theory and the business plan. It is necessary to keep the costs down, so that the investors will have more confidence in the team. The product can then keep evolving based on the feedbacks from the users. Once you got an MVP in Excel format, SpreadsheetWEB can provide the boost it needs to become an online product and reach your audience. SpreadsheetWEB offers tracking and visualization of your online applications to help you see the traction; measuring interest and running analysis on this data is a reliable indicator of how likely the customers are willing to pay the company.
SpreadsheetWEB has been tested and verified by numerous entrepreneurs. “Without SpreadsheetWEB, I would have spent tens of thousands of dollars on development to build the Coffee Break Financials system from scratch.” says Tom Gorman, president and principal of Entrepreneurial Design, Inc. “To develop this system on Ruby would have been at least $80,000 to $100,000, but with SpreadsheetWEB, I could convert from Excel to a web app literally in minutes.”
In some cases, with the calculations and/or the data, an Excel document itself can be the product. If the business idea revolves around a logic that can be created in Excel, it can be transformed into a web application in a few minutes using SpreadsheetWEB. All businesses know the importance of safe-keeping treasured ideas. An idea fit into an editable document can be copied, modified or used by other parties without permission. Besides, version compatibilities become a problem too. In a server or cloud environment, SpreadsheetWEB offers maximum security with meticulous sharing options; all the users need is a device with a web browser.
Be it for keeping balance sheets, forming a business model or simply running calculations on spreadsheets; all businesses use Excel in a way. Thus, SpreadsheetWEB can empower a startup in other fashions too. For example; being able to share your Excel-based calculator on your website, while keeping it up to date of course; can greatly increase the publicity of a concept. Higher traction will then yield more investors and lead to a successful head start. Using an Excel or PDF document can, and will get frustrating, as you try to update your documents to catch up with the swift changes in the industry. Making adjustments on the fly or automating an application to update on a regular basis is a no-brainer, once your application is online.
Another case where SpreadsheetWEB would really shine is creating compilations of data from different sources. A seamless integration with PowerPivot and other data retrieval tools, make connecting workbooks a breeze.
Not every startup company might require the services of SpreadsheetWEB. But for those who do, this software can save them a tremendous amount of time and money. In a team with limited resources, labor, time and outsourcing; a simple tool with very wide applications can be a game changer.
Repost from Medium
