Airtable Just Can’t Excel

Airtable, despite its impressive journey of over a decade, $1.4 billion in funding, and a staggering $11 billion valuation, has faced significant challenges. The company has had to make the tough decision to lay off over 50% of its workforce since December 2022. This situation is particularly perplexing given Airtable’s functionality and appeal.

Airtable is not just another tool that looks great but falls short on performance. It excels in facilitating collaboration, sharing, tracking, reporting, and it boasts a visually appealing interface that is also mobile-friendly.

Additionally, the issue is not a misalignment in market focus, as Airtable is not struggling with a transition from B2C to B2B. The platform already collaborates with service partners to assist enterprises in building workflows, connecting teams and data, and optimizing automations.

However, Airtable faces two major challenges:

1. Lack of Awareness and Core Functionality: Many potential users are simply unaware that they need Airtable. This is because Airtable lacks a core functionality that defines its purpose.
   
   For project management, tools like Notion, Asana, Jira Work Management, and Miro dominate the market.
   Excel and Sheets are the go-to for spreadsheets, while Salesforce, Zoho, and Freshworks lead in CRM.

2. Scalability and Management Issues: Airtable is not sticky enough for enterprises. It struggles to scale and becomes cumbersome to manage, especially with countless API integrations.
   This is evident from the fact that while Airtable serves 300,000 companies, its Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) stands at $150 million.

Recognizing these issues, Airtable is now refocusing its efforts on its core clientele, aiming to address these challenges head-on. The hope is that by honing in on its target audience and refining its offerings, Airtable will be able to overcome its current hurdles and fully realize its potential in the competitive SaaS landscape.