I built a spreadsheet tool for people who hate spreadsheets. Am I solving a real problem?
Hi everyone,
I'm a solo founder building SowReMai.
The idea came from watching people struggle with spreadsheet tasks that felt unnecessarily complicated.
Not because the tasks themselves were difficult, but because the solution often involved learning formulas, Power Query, pivot tables, lookups, and other spreadsheet features that many people never wanted to learn in the first place.
My assumption is that there are two types of spreadsheet users:
People who enjoy spreadsheets and want more power.
People who simply want the result and don't care how it's done.
I'm trying to build for the second group.
The goal isn't to replace Excel or Google Sheets. They're incredibly powerful tools.
The goal is to make common spreadsheet tasks easier for people who find traditional spreadsheet software overwhelming.
Before I spend the next few months building more features, I'd like to challenge my assumptions and get honest feedback from people who don't know me.
Do you think this is a real problem worth solving?
If not, what am I missing?
If yes, what spreadsheet task do you wish was dramatically easier?
You can check out what I'm building here:
https://sowremai.com/?ih
I'm looking for brutal honesty more than encouragement.
Thanks.
I think the problem is real, but it’s less about “spreadsheets being hard” and more about repetitive workflows like cleaning data, merging exports, and building recurring reports.
curious if your focus is simplifying spreadsheet usage, or automating those repeatable business processes?
That's a fair observation.
My view is that the two are closely related. Most people don't struggle with spreadsheets because they can't click around a spreadsheet, they struggle because repetitive tasks like cleaning data, merging exports, matching records, and preparing reports often require spreadsheet expertise.
What I'm trying to do with SowReMai is remove that expertise barrier. Instead of learning formulas, Power Query, or complex workflows, users can focus on the outcome they want.
So I'd say the focus is simplifying those repetitive data workflows, with spreadsheets being the environment where those problems usually show up.
Appreciate the perspective.
I'd be careful treating this as a spreadsheet problem too quickly.
The interesting question may not be whether people dislike spreadsheets.
It may be what they're actually trying to avoid when they say they dislike them.
Those sound similar, but they can lead to very different conclusions about the buyer, the product, and which features deserve to exist at all.
I wouldn't make that call casually from the current assumptions.
That's a good distinction.
One thing I've been trying to avoid is assuming that "I dislike spreadsheets" automatically means spreadsheets themselves are the problem.
My current view is that spreadsheets are often where the frustration shows up, but the underlying pain may be things like cleaning messy data, matching records, combining exports, formatting inconsistencies, or other repetitive tasks.
At this stage I'm still trying to separate the surface complaint from the actual job people are trying to get done. That's one of the reasons I posted here instead of jumping straight into feature development based on my own assumptions.
Appreciate the pushback.
Possibly.
The reason I'd still be careful is that some interpretations become much harder to revisit once features start getting built around them.
That's one of those decisions that can quietly shape what gets validated, what gets ignored, and what future feedback appears to confirm.
I wouldn't try to unpack that properly in a thread.
If you're curious, drop your email and I'll put together the tighter version.
That’s a heavy point about decisions quietly shaping what future feedback confirms. I definitely want to avoid that trap. Let’s take it to email: lntombela159@gmail.com . Hit me up, I'd love to see your breakdown.
Sent you a note by email.
I think the interpretation decision matters more than the spreadsheet discussion itself right now.