almanac is building a faster doc editor for the remote work era

The Pursuit of a Google Docs Successor

In recent years, Silicon Valley investors have shown considerable interest in identifying and funding the next generation of productivity suites, aiming to surpass Google Docs. The established Google Docs suite has undergone significant fragmentation and re-imagining, leading to the creation of numerous tech startups valued in the billions.

A Shift Accelerated by Remote Work

Entrepreneurs are consistently seeking to improve upon existing solutions, striving for greater speed, enhanced design, or increased user-friendliness. The transition to remote work, particularly accelerated by the recent pandemic, has provided a substantial boost to productivity startups attempting to challenge Google Docs and Microsoft Office.

“The pandemic underscored the necessity for adapting our work methodologies,” stated Adam Nathan, CEO of Almanac, in an interview with TechCrunch. “Traditional productivity tools like Microsoft Word and Google Docs were designed for a fundamentally different work environment.”

Almanac: A New Approach to Document Editing

Almanac is focused on modernizing the document editor experience, offering a solution that is both faster than platforms like Notion and more intuitive than traditional software packages, according to Nathan. The startup secured $9 million in seed funding led by Floodgate last year and has been expanding its user base through an early access beta program.

Through its open-source template library, Core, Almanac has gained traction in diverse sectors beyond the tech industry—including a Domino’s franchise and a veterinary practice. Core provides a repository of user-submitted guides covering topics ranging from conducting effective one-on-one meetings to establishing customer service salary structures.

Currently, Core hosts 5,000 documents accessible to all logged-in users, serving as a significant customer acquisition channel as organizations nationwide re-evaluate conventional practices. Nathan emphasizes that “a greater number of individuals utilize document editors outside of Silicon Valley than within it.”

Core Functionality and Features

At its foundation, Almanac’s document editor prioritizes organization, mirroring the way companies are actually structured.

A key feature is its advanced document change tracking, which presents a far clearer view than that offered by Google Docs. Users can effortlessly create document copies, merge them with the original, and swiftly approve modifications.

Furthermore, users can solicit approval from managers or colleagues and request feedback throughout the editing process. Tasks can be assigned directly within documents to other users’ to-do lists, eliminating the need for separate project management tools like Asana.

Updates regarding assigned tasks are delivered to each user’s inbox, ensuring seamless notification flow as documents evolve. The development team believes this integrated functionality will reduce reliance on communication platforms like Slack, allowing documents to serve as the primary source of truth.

Continuous Innovation

The company is actively expanding its capabilities, recently introducing features for handbook creation and updates. Additionally, they launched Snippets, enabling users to save frequently used text blocks for rapid document assembly.

Challenges and Strategy

In the competitive productivity software landscape, Almanac’s success hinges on encouraging users to fully adopt its platform. This has historically been a challenge since the post-Microsoft Office era, where users often accumulate numerous tools intended to streamline workflows.

Almanac aims to overcome this by concentrating on common document-based workflows, encouraging users to consolidate feedback within a single platform and avoid the distraction of constantly switching between applications.