The Great AI Unbundling

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The defining software product of the last several decades is the spreadsheet. 

Before Excel came VisiCalc, a spreadsheet often known as the first killer app for computers. It transformed how professionals did their jobs and became so essential that people bought computers just to use it. In the 1980s, companies fought a full-on battle for spreadsheet dominance. Entrants like IBM’s Lotus-1-2-3 gained ground, and in 1985, when Microsoft released Excel, VisiCalc encountered fierce competition. With the release of Windows 3.0 in the 1990s, Excel became the dominant spreadsheet program. And we haven’t looked back since.

Excel is a good product because it’s easy for beginners to get started: All you have to do is start typing in a cell. But it became a great product because it’s also incredibly powerful: Expert users can do everything from complex financial modeling to data analysis and visualization to building video games.

Excel was originally designed for business users working in finance and accounting roles, but its versatility has made it a ubiquitous, general-purpose tool. It’s also become the source of startup ideas. Just find a customer who’s manually operating a process in Excel and build a SaaS app designed for them.