I built last year an app (https://clusters.app) to allow excel modelers – I am one of them - to create web applications and monetize their skills (e.g. create easily a saas real estate mng app). I did some interviews, but people saw only custom made, freelance work as a potential revenue stream and I stopped working on it.

Now I see that Microsoft and Amazon are entering this space and I was thinking, what could I have done better or was it dead from the start. I understand marketing a new product is no easy task, but my initial results were disappointing. I couldn’t even make advanced excel users see the potential benefits for them.

Anyway, the stack is python and vuejs. I am using pandas extensively (every table is a dataframe). My thesis was that python could replace VBA and I also added data manipulation at table level (similar to a notebook) and connections to public APIs (e.g. for stock prices) through a graphic interface.

tl;dr -I thought nobody wanted it -I see large companies are building similar stuff -I know go to market is important, but still, I am puzzled