Hi,<p>I've saved up 6 months worth of money and am taking time off to try and start a software company.<p>I have just released a new version of my app QueryCell and would love any feedback people have.<p>QueryCell is an add-in for Microsoft Excel that allows you to query Excel data using SQL, Generate SQL Insert statements, generate test data and mark rows.<p>http://www.querycell.com/
http://www.querycell.com/welcome.html
(welcome is going to be the landing page for ads)<p>Thanks
Nice,
However, a question raised in my mind.
Are you targeting Excel's power users, such as analysts and accountants or software developers?<p>Since "standard" users are not going to learn SQL your market is narrowed to developers only.<p>You may add a GUI based Query-Builder such as can be found in MS Acess and MSSqlServer and other DB systems and by these you can gain more market share.<p>Build an easy to use wizard and let the end user choose between SQL mode and GUI mode.
Brilliant idea. There have been so many times where I've been in Excel thinking "if only I could run SQL on this."<p>Only thing to concern yourself with now is how long before Microsoft implements this in Excel?<p>P.S. Great to hear an Aussie accent in a demo video!
I don't use windows or excel but if i did, i would be getting interested in QueryCell. I am going to pass the url along to people I know who do.<p>Does QueryCell work when excel is being run on a non-windows OS via wine? ( I assume not, but if it does, I know more people who might be interested ).<p>--<p>Also, the video cut off for me in mid-sentence. I think you are missing the end. For me, it ended at with "if you would like to try query cell for free, feel free to download".
You have a million dollar idea in your hands. If you get the promotion and customer care right, you'll be very successful. Especially if you incorporate tzury's idea. There are countless departmental "applications" that use Excel, and being able to query data directly solves a problem that many encounter at some point or another. It's usually frustrating enough, to get people to pony up money for it.
Thanks for the feedback all.<p>@smicallef<p>Yes the idea of Microsoft proving a similar functionality is scary, but I feel a little bit like "if they were going to do it they would have done it", also they have access to protect. But maybe I am in for an unpleasant suprise, certainly a risk.<p>@tzury<p>Yes there is an interesting marketing proposition here in my opinion. I can either market to heavy Excel users who don't use SQL yet or market to SQL users who occasionally find themselves using Excel. It's an interesting one. At the moment I am leaning more towards SQL users, they can immediately see the possibilities. hmmm.
Feature Idea: Compile to "Vlookup" or compile to VBA.<p>In other words: I build a spreadsheet with QueryCell, but I want people who don't have QueryCell to be able to use it.<p>So I hit "Compile", and the program generates standard formulas using hlookup/vlookup and/or VBA so that the spreadsheet works for those who don't have the Plugin. (Of course it adds a link to "Built with QueryCell" :)
Seconded - this is a million dollar idea! Well defined niche, great product, very useful, very catchy name and branding (totally straight forward) - can't get any better than this.<p>Not sure how hard it is to create a Mac OS X version as well, but that would probably not be the initial target audience.
"87 rows in 3 seconds" - performance could be a problem. Last time i used Excel I thought that you can already run sql on the data and if you need to really do that sort of thing you'd just export to sqlserver and do it there. I think this idea is the wrong market. Those that know sql will use sql against sqlserver as I just described, and those that don't spend countless hours in excel trying to use formulas.<p>sorry, I prefer to like start up ideas but this one just doesn't seem to have any legs in my mind.
This is awesome! Love the idea and the implementation looks really slick too. I had to work on a huge excel file before (like 400,000 rows) and I so wished to have an add-on to run a simple SELECT query.<p>Congrats on the bold move. I am in the same boat -- just quit my job last Friday and will be working on my startup. I wish you the best of luck!<p>Alex
This looks really cool, I would definitely be one of your target market if I still worked at my job (which I quit half a year ago to focus on my own startup). I now use Apple iWork 09 almost exclusively, so as soon as you come out with a Numbers version, please let us know!
It looks like a really great product, I might personally find some use for it.<p>When you're generating the table names, I think naming the table after the sheet it's on might be more intuitive than a single letter, especially when there's only one data range per sheet.
Great product. Hard to find doing Google search though. Need to get it to show up when typing "Excel sql", "Excel query", "sql in excel", etc. etc. I think if you do your sales will rocket. Good luck and thanks for a great product
Looks like a good idea to me.<p>I don't work with Excel often enough to purchase but will keep in the back of my mind in case I have a future need.<p>Marketing advice: invest in a copy writer and voice actor and reproduce your video.
Good idea.<p>You might want to get a professional PSD designer to sharpen the overall look. It has a template like look for design, though for this concept design might not be as important as selling it's functionality.<p>Good luck!
I'm going to try it at work on Monday. If I like it, I'll buy it. You don't know how many times I've had to export a csv to do some sql on it, then import it back into excel.