I have to use old software databases at my engineering job. The only way to get the data out of the system is to show it on the screen 1 at a time or to print it out. I would love for this new spreadsheet to pretend to be a printer and have the data piped directly to my spreadsheet instead of my pdf printer.
Every engineering company I have worked at had these legacy databases. They all allow you to enter information (not very well), see the information on your screen, or send a report to the printer.
Piping data to a spreadsheet is something almost everyone in the companies I work with (I am a consultant) could do. These aren't sophisticated users. Even the ones with recent EE degrees aren't programming in their spreadsheets. The Mechanical Engineers don't even know that you can.
What they do need is tools to analyze the data existing in these large databases. Switching to another database/interface is not an option.
To extend my original idea: Excel has a way to import data from a text file. It works ok. Select your field delimiter, etc. What would be awesome is if I could draw my own macro on the screen. Make it more powerful. Excel shows me how my input data will work in the spreadsheet. Do that, but give me more editing tools.
Here is why: the data coming out of these databases to the printer is structured. Every record looks the same. If I can draw what one case looks like all of my data will be entered to the spreadsheet correctly.
I know I am not explaining this well, but if anyone (including the YC group) wants me to elaborate further I will.
I would pay for a spreadsheet that has these 2 features. A large part of my job is analyzing data in my customer's database. I can provide my customer with more value if the data input to spreadsheet is trivial as opposed to me billing for several hours performing the task by hand.
