Hi, I'm seb from cloudXLS

Introductions
#1

Hi boostrappers,

I’m seb and i bootstrapped cloudXLS.com into private beta beginning of this year. The idea for that tool I had around 3 years ago, when we replaced a full rails app with a daily updated 15mbyte excel report. Huge win for us (got rid of a legacy system) and for the client (all the metrics he needs available instantly and transparently).

This was quite a turning point - before Excel was always my enemy (no Unicode support for CSV, html-tables-as-xls slow to load, ugly, poor on features, etc) but after that project I saw the potential when fully embracing that tool.

So, sometime last year I decided to get real and started working on some prototypes in between (Ruby/Rails/JS) consulting projects. After some pivots, I decided my first version to be an API that basically merges your CSV data into your xls files that contain the formatting, charts and formulas.

So I launched into private beta in January, feature freeze, and focussed on copy, marketing pages, which is kinda challenging for a coder. First customers in, and already pumping out excel files. Now i’m getting ready to open up the private beta.

#2

This is a very interesting space. Many business apps are being rewritten as SaaS web-apps, but most business still have some processes that are Excel-based. By offering this service you make it easier for a web-based service’s customers to integrate with their existing workflow.

I suspect you could also offer the reverse service: take a complete excel spreadsheet as input and make the data available via API for the web-service.

#3

This is brilliant!

I could definitely use this… the security/privacy aspects to worry me a bit, though. I see you have a on-premises option as well, so I guess that addresses that! Have you had much interest in the trial?

#4

@Oliver The reverse operation (and more) it is a bit more tricky to get right though. Just waiting for enough people to ask for it.

@danielstudds Thanks, to reduce risk I wipe all data (and all intermediary/temporary files) shortly after download and we only log statistical/useage data. For critical data I decided to sell server licenses so you can run the API completely in your datacenter.