Databricks Just Bought a Spreadsheet Startup
And honestly, this might tell us more about where AI is going than another model launch.
One of the more interesting tech stories this week wasn’t a new AI model.
Databricks just bought Row Zero, a spreadsheet company.
At first, I thought: a spreadsheet startup? Really?
But the more I looked at it, the more it made sense.
Row Zero is basically a spreadsheet built for working with very large datasets. It connects directly to data warehouses, handles huge datasets and also has AI features that can analyze the data and help create things like formulas, pivots and charts. Databricks says it plans to bring that experience into Genie, its AI coworker for business teams.
And that’s what I find interesting.
Databricks isn’t saying, “Forget spreadsheets, here’s the future.”
It’s basically saying, “People already love spreadsheets. Let’s make them much more powerful.”
That might actually be one of the biggest AI product lessons right now.
AI doesn’t always need a new interface
A lot of AI products are built around the chatbot.
You type something.
The AI gives you an answer.
Then you copy that answer into whatever tool you’re actually using.
But imagine the AI being inside the tool itself.
You’re working in a spreadsheet, you ask it to find the biggest changes in your sales data, it does the analysis and puts everything right there for you.
No jumping between five different tools.
That’s a much more natural way to use AI.
We’ve seen the same thing happening with coding tools. People don’t necessarily want another website where they can “chat about code.” They want AI inside the editor where they’re already working.
That’s a subtle shift, but I think it’s an important one.
The winning AI products may not feel like AI products at all.
They’ll just feel like really good software.
The boring stuff is getting interesting
And this isn’t only happening with spreadsheets.
Snorkel AI just raised $350 million at a $3.5 billion valuation, with the company saying its newer data-as-a-service business has grown more than 18x since launch.
Akamai also announced an $11.6 billion, seven-year agreement with Anthropic to support Anthropic’s growing infrastructure needs.
None of these stories are as flashy as “new AI model beats benchmark.” But they tell us something important: there’s now a huge business forming around AI itself.
Models. Data. Compute. Developer tools. Security. Interfaces. Workflows. You don’t have to build the model to build a business around AI.
You can build the thing that makes it useful.
This is also what we’re trying with HolidayExplore
This thinking is part of why I’ve been building HolidayExplore. It’s not some huge AI startup. It’s a simple product built around questions people already ask: Is today a public holiday? Is the bank open? How many working days are left?
We’re trying to take something boring and make it genuinely useful. And I think there are a lot of opportunities like that right now.
You don’t always need a crazy new idea. Sometimes you just need to look at something people already use, find what’s annoying about it and make it better. Take a look at HolidayExplore →
That’s what Databricks is doing with spreadsheets. And that’s probably the part of the AI boom I find most interesting.
Not the flashy demo. The boring software underneath it.
Stay sharp. See you soon.