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

by arsalanb on 3/19/22, 4:25 PM with 49 comments

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!

  • by Callusing on 3/19/22, 6:53 PM

    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.

  • by ankit219 on 3/19/22, 8:31 PM

    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.

  • by gkoberger on 3/19/22, 6:42 PM

    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 :)

  • by lewisjoe on 3/19/22, 4:57 PM

    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?

  • by cloudking on 3/19/22, 11:53 PM

    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.

  • by ohashi on 3/20/22, 1:34 AM

    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.

  • by thedays on 3/20/22, 12:36 AM

    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?

  • by u2077 on 3/19/22, 8:55 PM

    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.

  • by mdolon on 3/19/22, 7:34 PM

    Congrats on the launch, this looks great! I've been looking for something like this for sharing metrics internally. Will give it a try.

  • by alphabettsy on 3/19/22, 4:56 PM

    Looks great but being able to use data from an API or SQL query is essential for any use-case I have right now.

  • by serialjoy on 3/19/22, 6:36 PM

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

  • by amerf1 on 3/20/22, 12:24 PM

    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?

  • by brycelarkin on 3/19/22, 8:53 PM

    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.

  • by pattu777 on 3/20/22, 2:45 PM

    Congrats on the launch. This looks super cool.

  • by soederpop on 3/20/22, 3:44 AM

    This is one of the goals I have for https://active-mdx.soederpop.com https://github.com/soederpop/active-mdx. With this you can turn a collection of markdown into a graphql database and more.

    let me know if you need help!

  • by rdxm on 3/19/22, 10:36 PM

    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...)