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Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code (livedocs.com)

129 points by arsalanb ↗ HN
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!

49 comments

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alphabettsy
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
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
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
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.
serialjoy
Love this!! Does this actually replace the entire data stack for early teams? except Segment I suppose
arsalanb
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.

gkoberger
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
Appreciate it! I'm a huge fan of ReadMe!
Callusing
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
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!

Callusing
Thanks much. I'd love to roll something like this out across both my 9-to-5 and a couple of the consulting gigs I do. I see immediate applications in proposal/RFP management (where there are numerous existing solutions, all of which have some critical flaw), contracting (to ensure contract docs align with references and data sources), legal briefing management (which is, to me, the ultimate use case for any system intending to refine the integration between documents and other documents, or documents and data) and obviously academia. If you are looking for early product-market fit, designing to serve one of those markets extraordinarily well could get you some traction.
uncomputation
This is also being worked on in other areas with varying degrees of focus:

- https://coda.io/

- https://patera.io/

- https://grid.is/

Callusing
Thanks!

I've tried Coda a couple times, but have always ended up at the same roadblock encountered with Airtable / Smartsheet / etc. - any "power user" type integrations require learning entirely new workflows that don't translate to any other system. Put another way, these systems should obviate the need for dedicated "Rev Ops" headcount, but the narrow scope of applicability of Coda knowledge (traditional stack knowledge translates poorly into Coda; Coda knowledge translates poorly into any other system) has always meant it's felt like more work than upside, at least in my use cases.

The other two are new. Patera is gorgeous, and the very definition of elegant, based on what I can see. I could easily see myself running proposal documents through something like this to make them much more scalable.

Grid is even more interesting, though I'll have to dig in. A huge crop of dynamic forecasting tools (effectively masks over spreadsheet backends) seem to have sprung up in the past 18mo - I'm most familiar with Causal, but this goes a meaningful step further. Will be digging into it this week.

Appreciate the reccs.

InflexHQ
While this seems like a relevant thread, I’ll drop in our app too. Our approach is wide enough that “reactive rich text” like Patera is a subset of our functionality. See our Twitter feed for recent examples: https://twitter.com/InflexHQ

Our documentation and discoverability is currently zero, and the rich text feature is in development, but another space to watch if you’re into this kind of thing.

I also added a bibliography page, so you can see other apps in this space: https://inflex.io/blog/bibliography (“Vaguely similar market products”)

watersb
> I am utterly shocked it has taken this long for something like this to come around.

Agreed.

The default output of a spreadsheet these days should be an embedded web component. Live graphs, linked to data source, edit and customize.

mdolon
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
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 :)
ankit219
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
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.

brycelarkin
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
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
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
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
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)

arsalanb
Cool! That's my favorite part of this format of "live" documents — based on what integrations exist, the output might be an entirely different tool. What tools do you use for time and expense tracking?
u2077
A couple of small and simple iOS apps after being frustrated with more enterprise based solutions.

Thiro [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/thiro/id1555982483] a basic time tracker that does grouping and reports right. The only thing it lacks is billable hours.

Emerald [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/emerald-money-journal/id143705...] A super simple expense tracker that does most things right, but unfortunately has a few bugs. It’s the only one I could find available that is privacy friendly and doesn’t have bloat.

Both of those apps are made by indie devs and have no subscriptions.

In addition, I am trying out timeator[https://apps.apple.com/us/app/timemator-time-tracking/id1458...] which has the right idea for how I want revenue and time tracking to be integrated.

arsalanb
Ahh, these are interesting! None seem to have an API though :(
rdxm
you can do this today with Jupyter Notebooks. Can you provide a value prop vis-a-vis Jupyter Notebooks? (aside of course from the raging dumpster fire of lack of curation in JN re vulns...)
swyx
you really gonna be this thread’s “you can do that with rsync” guy?
arsalanb
Yes! I could probably do this with Jupyter Notebooks, but Livedocs is built for, say, a growth or sales role who want to track a simple metric from Twitter or Stripe, and might not have the time to learn Jupyter and it’s nuances.

Notebook styled tools were the inspiration for Livedocs, for sure.

cloudking
Great idea! Since you're already integrated with Google sign on, you should consider building a Workspace app and get into the marketplace: https://workspace.google.com/marketplace

You could integrate directly into Drive so customers can create LiveDocs from Drive, and get marketing exposure in the marketplace.

arsalanb
We’re already working on this! It’s our goal to reduce the barrier to entry to using Livedocs by taking the docs to where your work already happens :)
cloudking
Awesome, good luck! Consider Microsoft's ecosystem too, large market.
thedays
Looks great! Integration with Excel seems to be missing and is what I’d need to use it. Do you have any plans to integrate Excel soonish?

Beyond that, integrations with CRMs like Salesforce could also be really powerful for a too like this.

Also, have you considered integrating with a tool like Zapier rather than integrating directly with each app to accelerate the number of apps you’re integrated with?

arsalanb
Hi! I’m trying to nail the UX of excel. We already support Google sheets, but excel IIRC is a file-based format? Do you imagine re-uploading the latest version of the spreadsheet in order to update the document?

Re: CRMs, we currently work with smaller teams who use CRMs like Hubspot (we have a Hubspot integration), but salesforce could be interesting too.

Zapier I believe doesn’t give you data in a structured format, rather a series of “events” as and when they happen. This is workable, Ofcourse, and I will look into it today.

Thanks for the feedback!

Aeolun
One it’s in Office 365 you may be able to query Excel from elsewhere with an API (or load the whole sheet, not sure).
arsalanb
True! That's a great idea! We tried with Airtable for a proof of concept, but Airtable is not issuing metadata API tokens anymore..should try with Office 365
dmolot
Thought I could hop on here and plug my YC company, hotglue. We help people building products offer native integrations much more quickly, just thought it would be worth mentioning if you’re exploring building more integrations.
thedays
Hi, I wouldn’t want to have to upload the latest version every time. For it to be a livedoc, I would expect your system to be able to automatically update from an Excel file saved online in OneDrive for Business. This is what the apps integrated with Excel on Zapier seem to do as well - see https://zapier.com/apps/excel/integrations
ohashi
You chose to call them live documents and seem to veer away from dashboard idea. It's cool to export 'reports' to whatever channel I'm interested in communicating over, but I wonder if you plan to offer a more Dashboard type view as well? I could see building a custom dashboard with your tools and have it look less 'documenty' for lack of a better word.
arsalanb
We did consider that, and have something in the works although it’s not top priority right now. I’m curious what would the distinction be? What would differentiate it from a document with only graphs etc and no text?
ohashi
I haven't tested the product, but watching you work with it felt like a document editor in terms of layout. It felt like you were constrained to that view and it seemed designed around delivering documents in that view. A dashboard I feel has a different layout and I would be logged in to see/manipulate it to get what I want.

Prebuilt reports vs interactive custom data exploration

Does that make sense?

amerf1
Super cool tool! I noticed the Twitter template for example was only for your own account. Is there a plan in the future to create one for tracking lists or hashtags?