The Evolution of Airtable from Alpha to Beta to Public Launch

4min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Airtable went through different stages of development before its public launch. Early users struggled to understand the product's functionality, which led the team to create templates and tailor use cases for better user adoption. Early adopters who grasped the database structure found value in the product. The transition from prototypes to the first launch involved gathering feedback from a small group of users in private alpha, then expanding to beta to unlock new use cases with added features. The decision to move from beta to public launch was driven by the readiness to handle increased traffic and ensure data security. The alpha phase was invite-only, while beta was also invite-only initially but later transitioned to a public launch on Product Hunt. The gradual progression allowed for continuous learning and refinement based on user feedback before each milestone.

Todd Jackson’s filling in as host again this week. (As a reminder, he’s hosting a few product-focused episodes this season — all about finding product-market fit.)

Today, Todd chats with Andrew Ofstad, co-founder of Airtable. In our conversation, we go deep into Airtable’s early days, and how they navigated the journey of finding traction and scaling.

Here’s a preview of what Todd and Andrew cover:

How the founders came together, their vision for the product, and what the initial prototypes looked like.

Airtable’s alpha, beta, and launch timelines, as well as their early traction.

The challenges of creating a horizontal product that can do many things, including identifying initial use cases and figuring out how to describe what they were building.

How to approach pricing and competition, as well as their early go-to-market strategy.

What the next 3 years will look like for Airtable, and how they’ve navigated scaling while staying true to their vision.

Whether you’re a founder validating your own idea, or a product leader looking for growth advice, there are tons of tactics here that go much deeper than the typical founding stories you hear.

You can follow Andrew on Twitter at @aofstad. You can email us questions directly at review@firstround.com or follow us on Twitter @firstround and @tjack.