[HN Gopher] Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) - Live data in your doc...
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Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) - Live data in your documents, without
code
Hi HN, I'm Arsalan, founder of Livedocs (https://livedocs.com).
Livedocs is a no-code analytics tool that lets you build simple
reports with live data from tools like Segment, Stripe, and Google
Analytics, without writing code. Here's a video of how it works:
https://cln.sh/6NKYiG. Working on early stage teams in the past, I
got tired of tracking and reporting even simple metrics. My team
would resort to either esoteric hacks, VBA scripts, or simply
nagging data guys for metrics--even simple ones. Tracking metrics
from multiple tools is a pain in the neck. That's when I realized
most teams rely heavily on software that already offer some sort of
embedded analytics on their dashboards. All they needed was a way
to compose data from these dashboards into a single place.
Livedocs lets non-technical users track common metrics like
retention, MRR, etc by connecting directly to tools via OAuth. IMO,
until teams or projects hit a certain size or success, writing SQL
queries or hopping between different dashboards to track simple
metrics is overkill. So we let these users build live reports and
documents using pre-built blocks that connect to their tools
directly. For example, solopreneurs, super-early stage startups,
and small businesses use us to keep track of metrics like MRR,
churn, web traffic, and product analytics like retention,
activation, etc., from Stripe, Google Analytics, and Segment. See
here for what that looks like:
https://livedocs.com/doc/1e2e4001-ed5a-44ad-8d13-806deafdde9....
To pick another example: side projects! I have so many side
projects, each with their own Google Analytics, Stripe, and
sometimes Twitter account that I lose track of how each is
performing. Now I just set up a quick report on Livedocs for each--
like this:
https://livedocs.com/doc/46a38473-e525-4482-aa46-4da4a77cf18....
We call these "live documents" because they are like a document
with live variables, graphs, etc. The closest comparison would be a
dashboard, but way more flexible--e.g. as editable as a document.
I also wanted these documents to be easy to replicate for other
projects and quick sharing, so I built a templates feature into
Livedocs. Commonly used templates are listed here:
https://livedocs.com/templates. You can easily clone one and
connect it to your own data sources to get started, so please feel
free to try it out. We charge $30/month and offer a free 14 day
trial (without a card). I'm keen to hear your feedback!
Author : arsalanb
Score : 60 points
Date : 2022-03-19 16:25 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (livedocs.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (livedocs.com)
| rdxm wrote:
| serialjoy wrote:
| Love this!! Does this actually replace the entire data stack for
| early teams? except Segment I suppose
| arsalanb wrote:
| Thanks! Yes! We realized that early teams don't even have a
| data stack -- they just rely on dashboards built into the tools
| they already use. The problem is, there's a dashboard on every
| tool, which means these teams have to hop between multiple
| tabs/dashboards to get a complete picture. We've built a way to
| view these metrics in a single place.
|
| Segment doesn't have a built in visualizing layer, and relies
| on destinations to handle that (like Mixpanel, etc)-- but even
| there, non-technical operators are lost because they have no
| mental model of how to transform a stream of events into
| something like, say, "Activation rate" or "Retention curve". We
| connect to Segment and have pre-written the SQL required to
| generate these commonly used metrics.
| alphabettsy wrote:
| Looks great but being able to use data from an API or SQL query
| is essential for any use-case I have right now.
| arsalanb wrote:
| We're looking to add support for connecting with APIs and
| databases (and passing SQL queries to those DBs) visually so
| larger teams can invite their data engineers to write queries
| for them.
| lewisjoe wrote:
| This is a really good idea! The power of editable documents
| combined with custom blocks that react to live data.
|
| Quick question: how do you plan to compete with existing
| platforms like Notion and Coda? For them, this could be just
| another block element type that they could ship with minimal
| effort?
| arsalanb wrote:
| Thanks! We're trying to build a more complete data solution.
| The pre-built block types are the first step, which let you
| setup basic metrics. We want to build connectors with custom
| APIs, databases, and even data warehouses, and then let teams
| invite data engineers to setup metrics for non-technical users
| in their team to use.
| gkoberger wrote:
| This looks great!
|
| I applied to YC almost a decade ago with a company called
| LiveDocs. Didn't get in at the time (I applied again w/ a
| different name), but glad there's finally a LiveDocs in YC :)
| arsalanb wrote:
| Appreciate it! I'm a huge fan of ReadMe!
| brycelarkin wrote:
| How is this different from Coda? Our team has a Coda doc that
| connects to Jira and GitHub to pull live data on open
| tickets/PRs.
| arsalanb wrote:
| Coda is a slick tool for building interactive documents!
|
| We're focused on allowing non-technical folks to track metrics
| and data from third party tools (although we do also support
| pulling live data on tickets/PRs from Github too, as that is
| something that most operators, particularly founders at early
| stage co's are interested in tracking to see dev team activity,
| open bugs, etc)
| u2077 wrote:
| Awesome, I'm actually spending the weekend building a personal
| project that's very similar. Right now it goes from 3rd party api
| > database > website that presents all the data with chart.js
|
| I've spent quite a few hours on it and am nowhere near done.
| Looks like this will save people some serious time. 1-click live
| data entry is a really powerful selling point.
| arsalanb wrote:
| Super cool! There are some tricky challenges to solve under the
| hood to make one-click data entry work, for sure! Curious to
| learn what prompted you to build this..
| u2077 wrote:
| I'm using 3 different apps for time tracking, expense
| tracking, and calendar. Existing solutions don't integrate
| well with my niche setup.(for example, time trackers with
| billable hours don't work for my side-project with variable
| revenue) Because I need granular data control and can't
| justify a subscription for a small-ish project, I decided to
| take the plunge.
|
| The end goal is to combine all 3 into one place that I have
| complete control of. (And make a bunch of cool looking graphs
| to look at)
| ankit219 wrote:
| Looks good. In early stage teams it's easier to teach teams the
| tool you use because this way they can dive deeper. The teams I
| worked with were keen to learn GA and analytics as it helps them
| for personal growth.
|
| At another startup, over the weekend, we connected tableau to our
| DB (which was also pulling in mixpanel via API) and scheduled
| reports to be sent to every employee.
|
| I like the idea of live data which can be a dashboard of sorts,
| as to how I can see myself using it. Connect your data source (eg
| segment) -> Use prebuilt queries -> it gives an overview
| dashboard which can be sent to everyone as a report in email
| every morning -> If people are reading it, makes your job easier.
| (of course, use it as a live source for wherever and whenever
| people open it.) makes all the meetings and discussions easier.
| arsalanb wrote:
| Thanks! We're trying to find the sweet spot between flexibility
| and ease of use, by adding features where you could dive deeper
| into metrics if you are an advanced user.
|
| BTW, you can also setup Livedocs documents to automatically
| send to a slack channel and/or by email daily.
| Callusing wrote:
| I am utterly shocked it has taken this long for something like
| this to come around. Direct integration of data flows into
| document processing has been an obvious next-step-up for any kind
| of scalable document production/management framework for at least
| the past few years. The amount of time I have to spend on a
| regular basis inputting, updating, and managing information that
| is presented in documents but compiled in other places has me
| apoplectic on a weekly basis.
|
| I'll tell ya, at the moment, this isn't quite where I need it to
| be, because every team I work in/with is entirely Drive / GDocs-
| centric, and so what I'll need in the long-run to roll it out is
| a native integration within that interface. I'd love for GOOG to
| just buy y'all and integrate that capability into their rapidly-
| growing Workspace capabilities. Until then, watching with great
| interest, may play around with it a bit.
| arsalanb wrote:
| Agree! The horrors of updating documents at a previous role is
| what led me to build Livedocs!
|
| We're trying to work with Google Docs currently. We're aware of
| the huge switching cost that comes with adopting a new editor,
| and we're trying to integrate with Drive/Gdocs. Will keep you
| in the loop!
| uncomputation wrote:
| This is also being worked on in other areas with varying
| degrees of focus:
|
| - https://coda.io/
|
| - https://patera.io/
|
| - https://grid.is/
| mdolon wrote:
| Congrats on the launch, this looks great! I've been looking for
| something like this for sharing metrics internally. Will give it
| a try.
| arsalanb wrote:
| Thanks! Feel free to reach out to me a(at)livedocs.com if
| you're looking for an integration that would be useful to you.
| Happy to hack something together for you :)
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(page generated 2022-03-19 23:00 UTC)