Is the single-line formula bar in spreadsheets the most "broken" UI in modern productivity?
Hey PH Community!
I’m the technical co-founder of Formula Foundry.
My business partners and I are spending the last year obsessed with one question: why are we still building mission-critical business logic in a tiny, one-line box designed in the 90s?
We’ve all been there - nested IF statements so long they require a scrollbar, and #REF! errors that feel like finding a needle in a haystack.
Our team is building FF to treat spreadsheet formulas like professional code (think: IDEs, Variables, and Visual Logic Builders), but without the steep learning curve. We wanted to build something we ourselves actually wanted to use.
I’d love to hear from the builders here:
What is the "Formula from Hell" you’ve had to debug recently?
If you could add one "Developer Feature" to Excel or Sheets, what would it be? (Variables? Syntax highlighting? A giant 'Fix Everything' button?)
We’re polishing the final roadmap before our official drop. Can’t wait to hear your horror stories!
Replies
Hey everyone, Will here, CEO of Formula Foundry!
To follow up on what Yurii said - my background is more on the business strategy side, and I’ve lived firsthand the challenges spreadsheets can bring to individual contributors and teams.
We didn't just want to build a tool; we wanted to create a way for all users and teams to elevate each other in the sheets, and in turn, get more from their data.
So, even though this started as away to make that tiny formula bar a more usable space, we ended up with 5 additional features that (aim to) take spreadsheet productivity to the next level.
I’m usually the one pushing Yurii to make our Variables and Visual Builder features more intuitive for people like me who aren't developers, but still need to build complex models.
Looking forward to hearing how folks trials go, and how they think FF can up their spreadsheet game!