Show HN: Sendsheets.com – send personalized emails from Google Sheets

[coolastekatten]

hey y'all!

i'm a product leader and previous startup founder, so i send a ton of emails.

most businesses rely on google sheets as their backbone, but no tools make it easy to use sheets as a database for emails. most solutions either try to move you off sheets or are just clunky mail merge tools.

so sendsheets: - lets you send personalized emails using data from google sheets and your own email - tracks open rates and gives ai suggestions for improvements - no sending limits during beta, free to use

a few main use cases currently: - user correspondence/or your network for feedback or interviews - event invites or project updates - manage freelancers by sending status updates or project feedback

i use it all the time, specifically for the 20-50 recipients target

please give it a spin

[MattDaEskimo]

I have a big issue here: this is essentially bootstrapping spreadsheets to do only a singular task for what seems to be free, until it's not.

The competitor to this service would be Monday, which offers a plethora of automation techniques and a straightforward(ish) API to create your own.

There is a huge security concern in giving Gmail write and also Google Drive permissions as well.

Lastly, I would consider this to be something that Gemini can/will accomplish in due time

So what makes this competitive?

[coolastekatten]

What is the big issue? That we may be adding features in the future that creates more value that we may charge for?

There are literally hundreds of webapps helping w project management - Monday.com being one of them. Not everything you build have to compete. We have built a simple and delightful way for you to send personalised emails from your Spreadsheets.

You currently do not give Google Drive permissions. Which you would have known if you checked it out! Please give it a spin and let me know what you think.

[newshackr]

What do the privacy aspect of this? I would love to use it but can't see my company wanting the contents to be sent through an additional third party?

[coolastekatten]

Hey! Thanks! This is our Privacy Policy. https://sendsheets.com/privacy

We currently only read from "anyone w the link can read the sheet".

Would love to understand what the first use case that you imagine is! The email is sent from your Gmail, and the info is from your Sheets

Would also love feedback on how you'd prefer it - you can share either here or to my email [e-mail]

[voltaireodactyl]

How does this compare to Google Workspace built in Mail Merge function?

[coolastekatten]

there are a couple things that I wanted;

- variable recipient + fixed CC (example: to: [e-mail], cc: [e-mail]) - customized titles of the email - improved UX

are you a heavy user of mail merge? would love your feedback after you've taken sendsheets.com for a spin!

[krthr]

Really nice, specially for small business & indie hackers. Best of the lucks!

[coolastekatten]

Thank you @krthr! Appreciate you!

[brudgers]

Congratulations on launching. Brings back memories of WordPerfect 4's mail merge around 1991 and building an API using MS Office's mail merge in 2008. Good times.

Surprised that Google Office doesn't do mail merge, so I googled it and got this: https://developers.google.com/apps-script/samples/automation...

Good luck.

[coolastekatten]

Thanks @brudgers!! Appreciate that! Yes, we were inspired by the ease of tools like Notion (first version), and the fact that most companies literally run on spreadsheets. There are a couple mail merge tools out there - many focused on Sales/Drip comms. We have been focused on a more horizontal approach, and building for the more everyday multi-recipient comms. Would love any feedback!

[ecz]

the spreadsheet is not going anywhere

[coolastekatten]

it's the sheet