Decipad, a no-code startup that is aiming to disrupt spreadsheets with accessible tools that empower people to play around with numbers, has secured $5 million in seed funding. It is building an interactive notebook to help non-technical people do data modelling.
We are building for people who don't have the technical skills to do cool things with data and numbers but have ideas and expertise that they want to bring to life and share with the world.
The product is described as an interactive notebook that can be used to build models easily and quickly for anything and share and reuse knowledge. The hard part is knowing what to build and what problems to solve.
McEttrick says that people can create a blank notebook and just start writing or reuse ideas from other creators, adding that the idea is to offer.
The sample use cases on the website put a little more meat on the bones, saying the product could be used for analyzing climate change, balancing cash flows, exploring cryptocurrencies and choosing the right mortgage.
The startup, which was founded in January 2021, is currently offering a limited version of the product.
The idea for Decipad was sparked when Nuno Job was running YLD, an engineering and design consultancy which worked with a range of businesses.
It was difficult for non-developers to meaningfully collaborate and contribute to modern businesses in a data-driven world. They either got stuck in excel or needed a developer.
As an open source developer, we create a lot of knowledge. Outside that, we are still trying to get the files to work, but we have to answer a lot of questions to understand what they mean.
There has been an explosion of no/low-code tools in recent years, and Decipad is firmly inside that trend. Jupyter Notebooks, which have been adopted by data scientists and open source communities to create powerful insights and collaborate more effectively with numbers, is one example of the emergence of notebook-based data programming tools.
She says that the team wanted to build something a lot more accessible because it takes years to learn and master programming languages like Python.
The startup is intentionally not targeting the tool for any specific use case, which sets it apart from the wave ofSaaS startup going after specific business needs or niches.
Decipad will offer a free and paid version of its product, so it sounds like it is planning a freemium business model to maximize access.
She confirms that they are taking a more general approach with today's access to data, the rise of no-code and a shifting culture toward creating in the open.
We intend to be the canvas for people's imagination with numbers and empowering people and teams to create content that will drive value for other. We aren't specialized in demand.
A sample notebook. The image is from Decipad.
She believes that the current way humans approach analyzing numbers has been fragmented across multiple types of spreadsheets and/or vertical apps built on top of spreadsheets. The focus is upside down. It isn't about use cases for specific customers. We see ourselves as a service that enables communities and businesses to create value through what they create on Decipad.
We are giving people a flexible canvas to shape and express their world views in a data-driven way that other people can understand, build upon and reuse.
McEttrick wants to empower the modern creator and enable the future of work with Decipad.
She hints at a platform or even marketplace component to the business model, although she declines to discuss specifics.
The next generation of software is about digital ownership and the rise of the consumer.
Decipad suggests it is competing in the work productivity space with tools such as Notion or Airtable, saying it wants to be thought of as a kind of productivity tool.
The seed round was co-led by Target Global, with participation from Flybridge Capital, Founder Collective, Shilling VC, and some unnamed angel investors.
In a statement, the managing partner at ENTr said he was excited about the role Decipad was playing in the future of work. It is important that more people and teams become data active.
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