![[S12-E02] Full Podcast Summary for 09-13-2022 – Lorenzo Lee, Transportation Automation, Interface Charts](https://builtonair.com/wp/../uploads/segment_image_1-76.png)
9/13/2022 – BuiltOnAir Live Podcast Full Show – S12-E02
Duration: 59 minutes
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FULL EPISODE VIDEO
Watch the full video of the show. See below for segment details.
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In This Episode
Welcome to the BuiltOnAir Podcast, the live show. The BuiltOnAir Podcast is a live weekly show highlighting everything happening in the Airtable world.
Check us out at BuiltOnAir.com. Join our community, join our Slack Channel, and meet your fellow Airtable fans.
Todays Hosts
Alli Alosa – Hi there! I’m Alli 🙂 I’m a fine artist turned “techie” with a passion for organization and automation. I’m also proud to be a Community Leader in the Airtable forum, and a co-host of the BuiltOnAir podcast. My favorite part about being an Airtable consultant and developer is that I get to talk with people from all sorts of industries, and each project is an opportunity to learn how a business works.
Kamille Parks – I am an Airtable Community Forums Leader and the developer behind the custom Airtable app “Scheduler”, one of the winning projects in the Airtable Custom Blocks Contest now widely available on the Marketplace. I focus on building simple scripts, automations, and custom apps for Airtable that streamline data entry and everyday workflows.
Dan Fellars – I am the Founder of Openside, On2Air, and BuiltOnAir. I love automation and software. When not coding the next feature of On2Air, I love spending time with my wife and kids and golfing.
Show Segments
Round The Bases – 00:03:12 –
Following Articles Used in this Segment:
[BuiltOnAir Community] Slack | general | BuiltOnAir | 2 new items
[Airtable Community] Introducing Document Automator – Announcements – Airtable Community Forum
[Airtable Community] New Beta: Record Templates – Announcements – Airtable Community Forum
[Facebook] (20+) Airtable Community | Anyone else wake up to Interface Designer errors | Facebook
[BuiltOnAir Community] Slack | general | BuiltOnAir | 1 new item
Meet the Experts – 00:25:32 –
Meet Lorenzo Lee from LoticDigital.
Lorenzo Lee is an Engineer by trade. After spending over 15 years in software as a developer, architect, director and CTO for various companies from Fortune 500 to startups he founded LoticDigital.Originally LoticDigital was focused on custom software solutions for startups and small businesses but organically pivoted to fast development with an array of emerging NoCode solutions.Today LoticDigital focuses primarily on Airtable and the advanced use-cases extending and enhancing Airtable experiences around a variety of applications across the web
Base Showcase – 00:34:04 –
We dive into a full working base that will Lorenzo Lee will showcase a full working platform to handle dispatching of drivers to assist with community needs for transporting people to different locations.
A Case for Interface – 00:52:58 –
Explore Interfaces with “Charts in Interfaces”.
How to hack charts inside interfaces.
Full Segment Details
Segment: Round The Bases
Start Time: 00:03:12
Roundup of what’s happening in the Airtable communities – Airtable, BuiltOnAir, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
Following Articles Used in this Segment:
[BuiltOnAir Community] Slack | general | BuiltOnAir | 2 new items
[Airtable Community] Introducing Document Automator – Announcements – Airtable Community Forum
[Airtable Community] New Beta: Record Templates – Announcements – Airtable Community Forum
[Facebook] (20+) Airtable Community | Anyone else wake up to Interface Designer errors | Facebook
[BuiltOnAir Community] Slack | general | BuiltOnAir | 1 new item
Segment: Meet the Experts
Start Time: 00:25:32
Lorenzo Lee –
Meet Lorenzo Lee from LoticDigital.
Lorenzo Lee is an Engineer by trade. After spending over 15 years in software as a developer, architect, director and CTO for various companies from Fortune 500 to startups he founded LoticDigital.Originally LoticDigital was focused on custom software solutions for startups and small businesses but organically pivoted to fast development with an array of emerging NoCode solutions.Today LoticDigital focuses primarily on Airtable and the advanced use-cases extending and enhancing Airtable experiences around a variety of applications across the web
Segment: Base Showcase
Start Time: 00:34:04
Transportation Dispatch Platform
We dive into a full working base that will Lorenzo Lee will showcase a full working platform to handle dispatching of drivers to assist with community needs for transporting people to different locations.
Segment: A Case for Interface
Start Time: 00:52:58
Charts in Interfaces
Explore Interfaces with “Charts in Interfaces”.
How to hack charts inside interfaces.
Full Transcription
The full transcription for the show can be found here:
[00:01:41] Welcome to the BuiltOnAir Podcast, [00:01:44] season 12 episode 2. [00:01:46] Good to be back with [00:01:47] you. Good to have everybody with us. [00:01:50] We always enjoy our time spent here [00:01:52] learning about Airtable. [00:01:54] We have myself Dan Fellars [00:01:56] and regular host [00:01:57] Alli Alosa with us. [00:01:59] And we have special guest Lorenzo Lee [00:02:02] with us, welcome Lorenzo. [00:02:04] Hello, thank you for having me. [00:02:07] Yeah, good to have you on. [00:02:09] We'll learn more about [00:02:10] Lorenzo's story later in the [00:02:12] episode. So stay tuned for that. [00:02:14] I will go through [00:02:15] what we're gonna talk about [00:02:17] the BuiltOnAir podcast is a [00:02:19] weekly one hour live show [00:02:21] and we go through [00:02:22] everything Airtable related. [00:02:24] We always start with our [00:02:25] Round the Bases segment, [00:02:26] talking about what's going on [00:02:27] in the Airtable community. [00:02:30] Then we'll do a spotlight [00:02:32] on On2Air, our primary sponsor. [00:02:35] Then we will do a segment where [00:02:37] we learn more about Lorenzo [00:02:39] and his experience [00:02:40] and background and how [00:02:43] he came to the Airtable universe. [00:02:46] And then Lorenzo will walk [00:02:49] through a base for transportation dispatch [00:02:53] platform that he built, [00:02:54] we'll showcase that. [00:02:56] Then we'll spotlight our community. [00:02:58] And then lastly, Alli will end with A Case [00:03:01] for Interface, talking about charts [00:03:04] and usage of charts in Interfaces. [00:03:06] So with that [00:03:08] we will get to our Round the Bases [00:03:10] and we go through different [00:03:12] communities, highlight everything. [00:03:14] So we keep you up [00:03:15] to date on all things Airtable. [00:03:17] So you know what the latest is. [00:03:19] First I wanted to showcase, [00:03:22] I saw this in the Airtable community. [00:03:24] Last week we had Scott on [00:03:26] who's also with us in the comments. [00:03:28] Welcome back Scott. [00:03:30] And I thought this was interesting. [00:03:32] There's a thread that [00:03:32] started what, four years ago? 2018? [00:03:36] And talking about in progress [00:03:38] bar in cell progress bars. [00:03:41] So we did this Scott [00:03:43] showed how to do this and [00:03:44] I thought there was just kind of [00:03:46] coincidence that this [00:03:47] came back up. [00:03:48] People commented on it again. [00:03:50] So it's always cool. [00:03:52] I always love seeing, [00:03:53] like, threads that have been [00:03:55] around for years. [00:03:56] You kind of see like the [00:03:58] evolution of Airtable [00:04:00] within these threads. [00:04:03] And so anyways, there's more examples [00:04:05] and there's even some code examples of how [00:04:07] to do things to generate those charts. [00:04:10] So, if you want follow up this thread [00:04:13] is relevant, or check out last [00:04:15] last week's segment [00:04:17] from Scott showcasing how to [00:04:19] how to build cool mini charts [00:04:22] within your cells like this. Right. [00:04:25] I love how creative people get. So [00:04:28] that is I [00:04:29] At the end of last episode [00:04:30] I talked about adding the gray bars on the [00:04:33] end and the example above that [00:04:35] was exactly that. [00:04:36] But I love how they added the [00:04:38] colors, how they change, [00:04:39] depending on how far up it is. That. [00:04:40] I just love that. [00:04:41] And that's what you're [00:04:43] showing right now. Yeah. [00:04:44] This one's pretty cool [00:04:46] with the checkbox for done. [00:04:48] And just kind of the partial [00:04:49] and then the information underneath. [00:04:53] We really do need to do a [00:04:56] progress bar competition. Huh? [00:04:59] Some cool stuff in here. [00:05:01] So anyways just follow up from, [00:05:03] oh yeah Scott just said [00:05:05] that. We need a progress bar contest. [00:05:08] Yeah. Yeah. All right. [00:05:10] So that's the last follow up. [00:05:13] A couple of new items. [00:05:16] So this came out the day of [00:05:18] I think our show last week [00:05:20] or shortly after on [00:05:21] Tuesday [00:05:24] people started seeing this [00:05:26] pop up on your forms, [00:05:28] on your Airtable forms. [00:05:30] A little check box that said [00:05:32] email me a copy of my responses. [00:05:36] Did any of you get this? [00:05:39] I actually didn't [00:05:40] but I did not talking about [00:05:43] yeah, I don't know if I did, [00:05:45] I don't think I did [00:05:46] but it was interesting to see. [00:05:47] So this popped up. [00:05:49] No this just was there [00:05:51] like it wasn't an opt in thing [00:05:54] that you could [00:05:55] that you could choose [00:05:56] if you wanted it there. [00:05:57] It just started showing up [00:05:59] and when you clicked [00:06:01] on that check box then it had [00:06:03] input box to enter your email [00:06:06] and [00:06:07] for obvious reasons, [00:06:09] this was not well received [00:06:12] by the community and those [00:06:14] that those that started [00:06:17] seeing this and so I'm not [00:06:19] sure what the thinking was. [00:06:21] To push this out or they were probably a b [00:06:23] testing it. [00:06:25] But they did then retract it [00:06:28] and pulled it back from all their [00:06:30] forms. So I think within [00:06:32] the day they pulled it [00:06:34] back maybe the next day. [00:06:36] Yeah. [00:06:38] Yeah there was people were not, [00:06:42] it's interesting they can [00:06:44] just push something [00:06:46] globally like that on accident. [00:06:48] Yeah, there was a couple, [00:06:51] there's a couple of threads, [00:06:53] it looks like there is, [00:06:55] there is another one [00:06:58] Oh yeah and Scott says it, [00:07:00] it redirected people [00:07:01] the Airtable's website after [00:07:03] submitting the form [00:07:04] and asked them to sign up [00:07:05] for an Airtable account. [00:07:06] So it's kind of a growth hack. [00:07:09] Right. [00:07:12] I wonder if it's meant to be internal, [00:07:15] like when you're filling out? [00:07:17] Well because you I guess [00:07:19] you already get a you get [00:07:20] a copy, [00:07:22] you get notified when someone submits [00:07:24] a form response. [00:07:26] Yeah you can, yeah, that's optional, [00:07:29] but I don't know if you get the details. [00:07:34] Yeah, so yeah, so they must [00:07:36] they must be maybe [00:07:38] maybe it was like only on free [00:07:40] bases, maybe it's kind of [00:07:42] part of like you know for free forms, [00:07:45] they might do something like that, [00:07:47] but I think it was showing up for even for [00:07:49] on paid plans which [00:07:52] definitely was not cool, so [00:07:56] so good, [00:07:57] good they at least retracted that [00:07:59] and hopefully that doesn't happen [00:08:01] again. Yeah, I mean [00:08:02] I think a lot of people [00:08:03] have their own processes set up, [00:08:05] you know, where as soon as [00:08:06] when somebody submits [00:08:07] the form they have their own [00:08:08] email that goes out. [00:08:09] I mean that's just one reason why [00:08:11] people would be upset [00:08:11] because like there's so many different, [00:08:14] you know reasons why people wouldn't [00:08:16] like that at least without the option to [00:08:19] turn it on and off. [00:08:23] Yeah, so there was [00:08:24] there was a couple of threads there, [00:08:26] this may not even be the [00:08:27] one, there was another one [00:08:28] that I'm pretty sure [00:08:30] they responded to officially to [00:08:31] say that it wasn't there. [00:08:33] But yeah, there was multiple people that [00:08:35] brought this to their attention, [00:08:39] so that's if you saw that, [00:08:41] that is there. This one, I think, [00:08:45] I don't think we mentioned it last week, [00:08:47] so this one came out in August when we [00:08:49] were off [00:08:50] and I just wanted to highlight it. [00:08:52] So they updated the action within [00:08:55] automations for the Google doc, [00:08:57] the ability to update an [00:08:59] existing Google doc with [00:09:00] new data, so kind of like a [00:09:03] running document. [00:09:06] And now that I say that [00:09:07] maybe we did talk about this last week, [00:09:08] do you remember Alli? [00:09:09] I don't think we did. [00:09:10] Not this specific update, no. [00:09:13] So, yeah, I just wanted to [00:09:15] highlight this. So if you're using [00:09:17] Google docs and [00:09:19] you're using their automation [00:09:20] to create a new Google doc, [00:09:21] now you can actually [00:09:22] update an existing one [00:09:24] with more information, [00:09:26] so maybe like a meeting log [00:09:29] history or some kind of running history [00:09:32] that continually updates from [00:09:34] records. You can [00:09:36] do that use case now, [00:09:37] so that's cool [00:09:38] little new thing that you can do [00:09:40] within the automations. [00:09:42] Yeah, I like that [00:09:44] it says at the bottom of that post [00:09:46] that you can choose, [00:09:48] it can be inserted at the top [00:09:50] or the bottom. That's [00:09:51] that I think is really really powerful. [00:09:54] I'm still bothered that they [00:09:56] chose to call it document [00:09:57] automater because it [00:09:58] just doesn't fit. [00:10:00] Yeah and that's not [00:10:02] what it's called in the app. [00:10:04] Like they created like this new product [00:10:07] but it's really just this one little [00:10:09] integration. [00:10:11] Yeah it's kind of funny [00:10:14] I think that was a marketing [00:10:16] ploy there so yeah so [00:10:18] that's kind of cool. [00:10:20] I just want to highlight that. [00:10:21] Check that out. [00:10:23] And before we go on [00:10:24] Scott says the key drawback here [00:10:27] is that the document needs [00:10:28] to be hard coded [00:10:29] into the automation [00:10:31] so you can't like dynamically associate it [00:10:33] with the record. [00:10:35] It is a feature you can do [00:10:38] in On2Air's Google doc [00:10:40] integration [00:10:41] so give a plug for that [00:10:43] if you need more [00:10:44] advanced functionality than [00:10:45] what Airtable has, check out On2Air's [00:10:47] Google doc. [00:10:49] Okay. [00:10:51] All right now the big one. [00:10:54] This is kind of cool. [00:10:55] So there's a new beta out there. [00:10:58] Record templates. [00:10:59] Well it's kind of cool. [00:11:01] I don't know what it is but it sounds [00:11:03] cool. [00:11:05] It does sound cool. [00:11:06] I'm excited. [00:11:07] It was quite a different sign up [00:11:10] process then they typically do for betas. [00:11:14] It was very I mean I really loved [00:11:17] Kuovonne, if you're out there listening [00:11:19] your comment on this thread was like you [00:11:21] stole all the thoughts out of my head [00:11:23] and wrote it down so thank you so much. [00:11:25] But yeah you have to give [00:11:27] you a specific base ID [00:11:29] That you want to enable [00:11:31] it for our list of base IDs. [00:11:34] Which I found interesting [00:11:35] instead of just at [00:11:36] at an account level you have to [00:11:37] tell them which bases [00:11:38] you wanted to turn it on for. [00:11:40] I did sign up. [00:11:40] Haven't heard back yet. [00:11:43] Yeah. Yeah. So yeah [00:11:45] so deadline's tomorrow so if you're [00:11:48] watching [00:11:48] and you want to get into the beta, [00:11:51] fill out this link right here by [00:11:53] tomorrow. [00:11:56] So yeah it'll be interesting [00:11:58] to see how this evolves. [00:11:59] I'm really excited to [00:12:01] take a look [00:12:01] because this is something that [00:12:03] you know it's it's kind of standard [00:12:05] practice in the consulting world [00:12:07] to set up automations [00:12:09] that kind of do this so [00:12:10] this will make things easier if done well. [00:12:14] Yeah I'm excited to see [00:12:16] what it looks like. Yeah. [00:12:17] Yeah. Cool stuff. [00:12:20] Alright moving on. [00:12:22] In the BuiltOnAir community, [00:12:25] I thought this was [00:12:27] worth highlighting. [00:12:30] So Jonathan asks if there [00:12:32] is a way to designate which email [00:12:35] and automation error goes to. [00:12:38] And I think we've [00:12:39] addressed this in the past but [00:12:41] definitely worth bringing up [00:12:43] because it's not super obvious [00:12:45] but I think we confirmed [00:12:47] I mentioned and then Scott [00:12:49] confirmed that it's actually [00:12:50] in their support article [00:12:52] at some point they updated it [00:12:55] but basically [00:12:56] if you're getting errors with your [00:12:58] automation whoever last toggles [00:13:02] it to be enabled, [00:13:03] whatever user that was that [00:13:06] enables the automation is the one [00:13:08] that will get the error messages. [00:13:10] So if you're setting it up [00:13:12] on behalf of somebody else, [00:13:14] then you might want to [00:13:15] tell them to toggle it to turn it on [00:13:18] so that they get the emails. [00:13:22] I've got a use case [00:13:23] where I need to do that [00:13:24] because I get all these emails and [00:13:26] and they're not relevant to me, [00:13:28] I need to hand that [00:13:29] over to my client so that [00:13:31] they get all the emails. [00:13:33] Yeah, I got a lot of them. Yeah. Yeah. [00:13:36] Yeah. So yeah, [00:13:37] definitely worth being aware of that. [00:13:41] So that you're in the know [00:13:43] there and get and it's going to the right [00:13:46] person [00:13:48] and it's only going to one person. [00:13:50] That's the other thing [00:13:51] is sometimes you think [00:13:52] other people might be seeing it, [00:13:54] but it really only goes to that one email [00:13:56] address, [00:13:57] which I hope we get more [00:13:59] control over that in the future. Yeah, [00:14:02] it'd be nice to be able to yeah, [00:14:05] specify multiple people. [00:14:08] So All right, next one up. [00:14:11] So Chris Dancy [00:14:13] friend of the show posted in the [00:14:16] Facebook community [00:14:19] that I guess last week, [00:14:23] there was update to Interfaces [00:14:25] and it caused a bunch of error warnings. [00:14:28] I'm not a heavy interface user [00:14:30] so I don't think I had this issue. [00:14:33] Alli, I assume you saw it. [00:14:36] I didn't see the specific thing [00:14:38] that he's talking about [00:14:39] but I have experienced some [00:14:41] weird issues [00:14:43] and I've seen some errors within the [00:14:45] edited [00:14:47] Well this has happened to me [00:14:49] if like somebody adds [00:14:50] a new single select option or [00:14:51] removes one [00:14:52] sometimes that can break it, [00:14:54] but I have seen them actually push out [00:14:57] some updates recently, [00:14:59] like if you drag in a field element [00:15:03] then you can, [00:15:04] if you make it the like card layout [00:15:07] then I've seen in some cases [00:15:09] where you're able to [00:15:10] pick the fields that it displays [00:15:12] but I don't always see it [00:15:16] and it's been very glitchy, [00:15:18] I don't know if anyone else [00:15:20] has noticed this as well [00:15:21] but I'm excited for that day [00:15:23] because I want to be able to [00:15:24] pick the fields that [00:15:25] are displayed on that card. [00:15:28] I have seen like you know [00:15:29] the red text you're seeing there [00:15:31] in that little pop up, [00:15:33] I've been getting a lot of that [00:15:35] with that element interesting [00:15:38] was changed and no longer be selected [00:15:43] so yeah, so I guess [00:15:44] and other people have mentioned that [00:15:46] that they got it as [00:15:46] well, I think this was on Thursday. [00:15:50] So yeah worth knowing if [00:15:53] you might need to go into [00:15:55] your interface builder to [00:15:57] I think you just have to like [00:16:00] reconnect the field to get it to go away [00:16:04] so kind of annoying. [00:16:06] I don't know as though [00:16:08] if you saw any issues there. [00:16:11] No I didn't. [00:16:15] Alright let's go back to [00:16:18] the BuiltOnAir community. Never mind. [00:16:22] This is the same one, [00:16:23] I had it on there twice [00:16:24] okay. Going to twitter. [00:16:26] This was somebody [00:16:28] I just thought it was [00:16:30] kind of cool pointing out. [00:16:31] So this was [00:16:33] a early investor in Airtable [00:16:36] and talking about his [00:16:38] experience with Airtable. [00:16:41] So if you click on his article [00:16:44] goes to his blog, so just kind of an [00:16:47] interesting article, [00:16:48] his perspective as an early [00:16:49] investor and what he loved [00:16:51] about Airtable and and how he's [00:16:53] used it [00:16:54] and so he was a user first and knew the [00:16:57] founder Howie and so [00:16:59] got into their Series B investment [00:17:02] and talks a little bit about his [00:17:04] experience and why he [00:17:06] is a fan of Airtable and [00:17:07] chose to invest in it. [00:17:09] So interesting article worth pointing out. [00:17:13] Yeah, he even called it rad. It looks like [00:17:17] it's been a while since I heard that. [00:17:20] Yeah, he's an unapologetic homer [00:17:24] in the worst way [00:17:26] are any any other tidbits? [00:17:29] Anything interesting pop out [00:17:31] in this week in Airtable? [00:17:35] I'm excited for them to [00:17:37] they got an email saying [00:17:40] that I did not place in the [00:17:43] Interface Designer contest, [00:17:45] which is but in that email [00:17:46] they did say that they [00:17:47] were going to be putting [00:17:49] some stuff up on the community [00:17:50] on Monday but I don't [00:17:51] see anything get posted yesterday. [00:17:55] But I'm excited to see [00:17:57] I think they were gonna highlight [00:17:59] some of the universe [00:18:01] entries and I'm excited [00:18:02] to see that. [00:18:03] Hey, we have a friend joining us. Kamille [00:18:11] hide [00:18:12] overlay. [00:18:14] All right, welcome Kamille. [00:18:15] Good to see you. Glad to have you join us. [00:18:18] Yay. Traffic. [00:18:20] Hey, Alli for your [00:18:23] Airtable [00:18:25] interface contest. [00:18:27] What domain was your interface in? [00:18:29] Oh, I did the, I did two. [00:18:32] I entered the two different ones. [00:18:34] One was just a transaction tracker [00:18:36] and the other was an inquiry response [00:18:38] generator basically [00:18:40] like a way to create custom [00:18:43] responses to like leads. [00:18:47] We'll have to have a day where [00:18:48] we all just show Interfaces. I think that [00:18:50] show that will show the losers. [00:18:54] So by, by building, [00:18:57] by building the interface, did you [00:19:00] did you see like how [00:19:02] you might use it in the future? I mean, [00:19:04] I think that's maybe part [00:19:05] of their goal or you kind of like, [00:19:06] oh, I can see myself using this. [00:19:08] Well, it's funny. [00:19:09] I love that you asked that [00:19:10] because I actually created [00:19:12] that the inquiry tracker [00:19:13] is something that I use [00:19:14] myself and I submitted it. [00:19:16] Okay. I use it so often [00:19:18] and it's been so helpful for [00:19:20] me. It's funny. [00:19:21] It's kind of the other way around. [00:19:24] Like Yes, [00:19:24] absolutely. I love it. [00:19:26] I mean there's so many use cases, [00:19:28] so I'm excited to see [00:19:29] like [00:19:29] a big list of them all [00:19:30] because there's so many things [00:19:31] you can't even think of, [00:19:32] you know? Yeah, right. [00:19:34] That means the bar [00:19:35] is pretty high for the winners. [00:19:37] I'll have high expectations [00:19:39] from what I've seen on. [00:19:41] There's some really cool stuff [00:19:43] I was about to say. [00:19:44] I saw some screenshots on [00:19:45] linkedin and it didn't even [00:19:46] look like Interfaces. I was like, [00:19:48] what, what am I looking at? [00:19:51] It was really cool. [00:19:52] There was a lot of like [00:19:54] some stiff competition out there for [00:19:56] sure. So exciting. [00:19:58] Kamille, I can't remember. [00:20:00] Did you submit something? [00:20:02] No. So what happened was [00:20:04] I saw the competition [00:20:06] and I was considering, do I want to go, [00:20:10] you know, and do all of like [00:20:11] the polish and you know, [00:20:13] documentation and stuff, [00:20:14] you know? And then the day [00:20:16] that the competition was over, [00:20:19] I just made like five [00:20:20] Interfaces and I was like, [00:20:22] let's just see what I could do [00:20:24] if I decided to do it. [00:20:25] And like I was like, you know, [00:20:28] once you get past [00:20:30] the weird dragging, [00:20:31] the very determined dragging system that [00:20:35] they have, you could, [00:20:36] you could put some stuff together [00:20:38] and I think the new [00:20:39] buttons were, [00:20:42] you know, very, very useful. [00:20:44] It's like it's on its way. [00:20:47] It's still not where, [00:20:50] you know, I think I want it [00:20:51] to be necessarily, but I think it's [00:20:54] it's better than when it started. [00:20:56] I think that's for sure. [00:20:58] And I'm curious to see [00:21:00] what other people [00:21:01] did in terms of full builds [00:21:03] and exciting news [00:21:06] last week I wasn't here because [00:21:08] I was on a flight [00:21:09] after visiting my brother [00:21:10] while I was visiting, [00:21:12] we made an Airtable together guys, [00:21:15] I did it, [00:21:15] I infiltrated the system. [00:21:19] I love that. Alright, [00:21:21] so we'll have to get him on the show [00:21:24] to showcase it. [00:21:25] So [00:21:28] Kamille I was visiting my brother [00:21:30] last week [00:21:31] and we also built an Airtable base. [00:21:33] Yeah, couple. I love that [00:21:36] everyone's doing it. [00:21:38] Yeah, I was kind of bummed out, [00:21:41] I was gonna build a couple [00:21:43] Interfaces for the [00:21:44] contest but they didn't really [00:21:47] have the features [00:21:48] that I wanted until it started. [00:21:50] So they kept releasing features [00:21:52] for the interface, [00:21:53] like buttons and stuff after [00:21:54] it started and so then it's like, [00:21:56] oh I would have done it [00:21:57] if you would have had [00:21:57] this button system [00:21:59] and this menu thing or whatever. But [00:22:01] so it's nice to know that [00:22:03] they're still releasing features at a, [00:22:05] at a startup pace for Airtable. [00:22:07] I think that's one of the [00:22:09] main draws that I [00:22:10] like about it is, [00:22:11] I mean even though it can be [00:22:12] annoying when you just have [00:22:13] random features [00:22:15] or if you've ever had a base [00:22:17] where one base has new stuff and [00:22:19] another base doesn't [00:22:20] and you're trying to like [00:22:21] do something for a client and [00:22:22] their base doesn't have the features, [00:22:23] I don't know if you've ever experienced [00:22:24] that before, but that's [00:22:26] that's weird sometimes. [00:22:28] So, but otherwise I like it. [00:22:30] Yeah, [00:22:31] some quick comments [00:22:33] from the community Scott, [00:22:35] lost all his money betting on Alli [00:22:38] no comment [00:22:39] and then Justin [00:22:40] look forward to seeing the entries. [00:22:43] There are moments where [00:22:44] Interface Designer inspires me [00:22:46] but it's still not [00:22:46] something that I get to a lot. [00:22:51] So yeah, definitely excited. [00:22:53] We're hoping Yeah, [00:22:54] this week that we could go [00:22:56] through that, but maybe next week [00:22:58] they'll have that out. [00:22:59] Sounds like they are [00:23:00] moving forward [00:23:04] All right, let's move on. [00:23:07] So our primary sponsor On2Air [00:23:09] is a all in one toolkit [00:23:10] to run your business on [00:23:12] Airtable. It's a suite of apps [00:23:14] that allow any business [00:23:15] to take their Airtable [00:23:17] to the next level. [00:23:18] And as you have heard [00:23:20] in previous episodes, [00:23:21] we're getting close to a launch [00:23:23] of a brand new, [00:23:24] built from scratch form builder [00:23:26] on top of Airtable. [00:23:28] We are getting very close to that. [00:23:31] Hopefully either this weekend or next [00:23:34] weekend that will be available [00:23:37] on an invitation only [00:23:38] basis to start while we [00:23:40] work through bugs [00:23:42] and final iterations of features. [00:23:45] So if you want to get [00:23:47] early access to that, [00:23:49] reach out to us [00:23:50] I've showcased the builder quite a bit [00:23:53] of how you build your forms [00:23:56] and we were dog fuding our products [00:24:00] so we built a bug submission. [00:24:03] So any bugs that we're finding [00:24:05] while we're queuing it, [00:24:06] we have a form that we [00:24:07] built to submit our bugs. [00:24:09] So I thought I'd just [00:24:11] showcase that. Some cool [00:24:12] features that we have, [00:24:14] so this is actually a [00:24:16] a single select field and you have [00:24:17] the ability to display it [00:24:19] in different ways. [00:24:21] So this is kind of a button select [00:24:23] option where you can select [00:24:25] your single select as buttons. [00:24:26] You can also select [00:24:27] them as radio buttons [00:24:29] or single select dropdown. [00:24:30] So there's different ways that [00:24:32] you can display the different [00:24:34] field types within Airtable. [00:24:36] Which is kind of cool. [00:24:37] And then this gets saved back [00:24:39] into Airtable as the [00:24:40] single select option. [00:24:42] You have attachments and [00:24:44] you also support for markdown [00:24:47] for our description of [00:24:49] our bug, [00:24:49] we have a markdown editor [00:24:51] and then you submit it. [00:24:53] So just kind of sneak peek. [00:24:54] This is just a few of the field types. [00:24:56] We support almost all of the field types. [00:25:00] Not all of them yet. [00:25:01] Barcode we don't support. [00:25:03] And some of the other ones [00:25:06] like roll ups and [00:25:07] lookups are a little bit tricky [00:25:09] just because of how they work. [00:25:11] So there's some workarounds for those. So [00:25:14] anyways check us out at [00:25:16] on2air.com [00:25:17] sign up and reach out [00:25:19] if you want to get access to the new forms [00:25:23] that are coming out very soon [00:25:27] with that, we're gonna move on [00:25:29] and we're going to learn more [00:25:32] about Lorenzo and [00:25:33] your background, Lorenzo. [00:25:35] Why don't you give us kind [00:25:36] of your story where what's [00:25:38] your background [00:25:39] tell us a little bit about yourself [00:25:40] and then how you found Airtable. [00:25:43] Okay [00:25:44] Or origin story. [00:25:46] Well I [00:25:49] you know I guess my background is [00:25:52] is development. So I've been a developer [00:25:54] building writing code probably since [00:25:58] I was 14 or 15. Um I actually went to [00:26:01] school for art first. [00:26:03] And then I went back to school [00:26:06] for development. Only [00:26:08] because I lived in Minneapolis [00:26:10] and you know my dream [00:26:12] was to work for like Pixar [00:26:13] when I was like a kid or something, [00:26:15] so it's like just a [00:26:17] traditional like artist [00:26:17] and went to school for that, [00:26:20] went back to school for development [00:26:22] and then moved to California and started [00:26:24] working in Silicon Valley. [00:26:26] So long history [00:26:28] in just traditional software [00:26:30] development and then [00:26:33] I branched off and started [00:26:36] a company [00:26:38] just doing general development for [00:26:42] startups and small businesses, [00:26:44] like just building solutions, [00:26:46] whether it's like a mobile app, [00:26:48] desktop app or whatever. [00:26:50] And then over time, [00:26:51] you know, dealing with a lot of [00:26:53] startups, they always need like [00:26:55] faster ways to implement and build things. [00:26:58] So that's kind of how I stumbled upon [00:27:02] Airtable as a means for building [00:27:05] solutions quickly. [00:27:07] So that's kind of like the [00:27:09] origin story of me working with [00:27:11] Airtable [00:27:14] and usually I guess [00:27:15] in the domains I work in, [00:27:17] there's kind of like three, [00:27:19] I would say there's like three [00:27:21] different segments [00:27:22] of a business that we kind of [00:27:23] focus on. And you have like [00:27:26] your acquisition, [00:27:27] you have your operations and [00:27:30] then you kind of product [00:27:31] like those are kind of like [00:27:32] the three delineations. [00:27:33] So Airtable is kind of a unique [00:27:36] product because it fits nicely [00:27:38] in all three [00:27:39] of those [00:27:39] where you know, if you're trying to like [00:27:42] do operations, kind of like [00:27:44] using Airtable as a crm, it's perfect. [00:27:46] But if you're also trying to [00:27:48] use Airtable for like acquisition, [00:27:50] like managing marketing stuff, [00:27:52] it's really good for that too. [00:27:54] Where I kind of started [00:27:56] was using Airtable [00:27:58] from a product perspective, [00:27:59] which is [00:28:01] different, but [00:28:03] it's one of those things [00:28:05] where I would build solutions, [00:28:06] whether it's like [00:28:06] someone who's like, [00:28:08] hey I want to build a custom like [00:28:10] telegram subscription platform [00:28:13] and we'd use Airtable [00:28:15] for the database or I [00:28:17] want to build a game [00:28:19] using Unity 3D. But the product people, [00:28:22] I want to build all the Interfaces [00:28:25] and kind of like the game logic would be [00:28:27] built like in Airtable [00:28:28] and you might like sync that [00:28:29] to like a real database [00:28:30] that your game would connect to. [00:28:33] So using it like in that perspective or [00:28:36] maybe like a [00:28:37] chat app, lots of apps in Airtable [00:28:40] where maybe the product is like a [00:28:43] like a fitness, [00:28:44] maybe there's like a custom like [00:28:46] recipe generator thing where [00:28:48] people fill in a bunch of information [00:28:51] and then every week they get like a custom [00:28:54] recipe suggestion list [00:28:55] or something like that. [00:28:57] So like that product itself would [00:28:59] be built in Airtable [00:29:00] even if Airtable wasn't [00:29:02] the interface that the customers [00:29:03] would use. So that's kind of where [00:29:06] I spent a lot of time where, [00:29:08] where a company would [00:29:09] come to me and they would [00:29:10] have an idea or a concept [00:29:12] and they would come to us and they'd say, [00:29:14] well what is the best way [00:29:16] for us to like get there the fastest? [00:29:19] Right. And so then you'd ask questions [00:29:21] about scale, how much data there is. [00:29:23] How fast do they need it, [00:29:25] you know? And so Airtable [00:29:27] really fits nicely in that [00:29:28] domain. So those are kind of like, [00:29:31] I'm mostly products and operations. [00:29:33] So a lot of stuff is just product based [00:29:36] and then there's some stuff as [00:29:38] well that's [00:29:39] that's a lot of operations. [00:29:41] So a lot of like Crms or people who [00:29:44] come limping from like hubspot [00:29:45] or something or like asana [00:29:47] and they're like, [00:29:47] oh I just, [00:29:48] I need a bunch of stuff, [00:29:50] I need to be able to manage customers, [00:29:52] but I need to be able to click [00:29:54] a button and generate [00:29:56] an invoice or know exactly [00:29:57] when the contract's been signed [00:29:59] so that I can send the task to the, [00:30:01] you know, so stuff like that. [00:30:03] So a lot to Crm stuff as well, [00:30:04] so that's kind of what [00:30:06] what my focus is [00:30:08] and what I like the product stuff [00:30:10] better, but the operation stuff comes [00:30:13] comes a lot more [00:30:14] and more standardized. [00:30:16] So like at this point we have like a, [00:30:19] like a Crm like template. [00:30:21] So if someone comes, [00:30:22] you know, like a standard company, [00:30:24] there's a standard template we have [00:30:27] that already has all the bells and [00:30:29] whistles of like quickbooks integration, [00:30:32] docusign, pandadoc, [00:30:34] Google drive, you know, [00:30:36] slack, all that stuff [00:30:37] with all the columns that you [00:30:39] would see like in a hubspot [00:30:41] or salesforce Crm. [00:30:42] And there's some other [00:30:43] integrations like data enrichment. [00:30:46] So hubspot got cool features [00:30:49] where you can [00:30:51] anytime someone comes into [00:30:52] your system as a contact, [00:30:54] hubspot just knows their [00:30:55] business, you can just add that data. [00:30:58] So we have features like that or features [00:31:00] like you click a button [00:31:02] on a specific contact [00:31:03] and which it will open up on the [00:31:05] side and like [00:31:06] bring in all the mail messages [00:31:07] from that person and allow you to [00:31:09] respond to them [00:31:10] kind of similar to like hubspot [00:31:12] where you have your email [00:31:13] integrated right within the experience. [00:31:17] So we do a lot of, [00:31:19] a lot of stuff like that. [00:31:21] Very cool. [00:31:21] Yeah, that's a cool background. [00:31:23] I really like how you broke out those [00:31:25] three different segments. [00:31:27] I think that that's very true. [00:31:30] And and it's interesting because yeah, [00:31:32] I don't do a lot of the product stuff [00:31:33] like you're talking about more [00:31:35] of on our consulting, [00:31:36] it's definitely more of the [00:31:37] acquisition and operation side. [00:31:40] But yeah, there's probably some [00:31:43] pretty cool use cases [00:31:44] on the product side as well. [00:31:46] Yeah, definitely. [00:31:49] And so you're now back in [00:31:51] Minneapolis, is that correct? [00:31:54] Unfortunately, that's all right. [00:31:57] You can, you can be proud of that. [00:32:03] I don't know, [00:32:05] I was there last week, [00:32:07] were you? [00:32:08] I mean it's nice for a [00:32:11] couple of months a year [00:32:13] until winter comes for six months. [00:32:15] But you know, [00:32:18] once you see the ocean [00:32:19] and the mountains every day, [00:32:21] it's, it's hard to [00:32:21] transition back to the snow, [00:32:27] Definitely. I don't know about LA [00:32:32] we have the ocean [00:32:34] and also mountains [00:32:35] and also smog. Yeah, yeah. [00:32:38] Yeah. Remember how I was [00:32:40] 15 minutes late [00:32:41] to this very podcast episode because of [00:32:44] the traffic. [00:32:47] Yeah. Oh, traffic too. That traffic is [00:32:51] is that's crazy. [00:32:53] When, so when I lived in California, [00:32:56] one of my first jobs in [00:32:58] Silicon Valley was working [00:33:00] at yahoo.com. [00:33:01] But I lived in Berkeley and I [00:33:03] had to [00:33:05] walk [00:33:07] to a bus [00:33:09] to an Amtrak train [00:33:10] to a trolley [00:33:11] just to get to work every day [00:33:13] in santa clair. [00:33:14] It was like an hour and a half [00:33:16] commute each way [00:33:18] and it was the fastest way [00:33:19] to get there was I mean [00:33:20] only faster it would be if [00:33:21] you had like a motorcycle [00:33:22] because motorcycles just [00:33:23] drive right through traffic. [00:33:24] But other than that, [00:33:26] that was, that was pretty brutal commute [00:33:28] price you pay [00:33:29] for the ocean and the mountains. [00:33:36] Very cool. Well we're glad [00:33:37] to have you on Lorenzo, [00:33:39] Glad to have you in the [00:33:40] community at BuiltOnAir and [00:33:44] the name of your agency? [00:33:48] LoticDigital [00:33:49] LoticDigital [00:33:49] LoticDigital. Cool. [00:33:51] So yeah, feel free [00:33:53] to reach out to him. We'll, [00:33:54] put, we'll put his website [00:33:57] in the notes [00:33:59] and cool, so you're gonna [00:34:01] show with us [00:34:01] if you want to get your screen ready, [00:34:03] I'll transition real quick. [00:34:05] Oh yeah, let me just show. [00:34:08] Yeah, make that visible. [00:34:10] So Lorenzo is going to [00:34:13] walk through a base that he's [00:34:15] built and this is actually [00:34:16] kind of more in that product side. [00:34:18] So that's kind of cool. [00:34:20] Most of the demos we see [00:34:22] are kind of the operational [00:34:23] side. So this will be cool [00:34:25] to see a full product [00:34:27] built inside of Airtable [00:34:29] and [00:34:30] get your screen ready [00:34:34] and I'll add it. [00:34:38] There we go. [00:34:39] It's showing. [00:34:41] Okay, so this base is [00:34:45] a transportation [00:34:47] in the transportation space. [00:34:49] So transportation company just to [00:34:52] kind of explain the concept. [00:34:56] people who need rides [00:34:57] to like a doctor's appointment [00:35:00] or a clinic appointment or [00:35:02] whatnot. The insurance company [00:35:04] will pay for that trip. [00:35:06] And so there's a lot [00:35:08] of companies [00:35:09] they're called n e m t companies [00:35:11] and n e m t [00:35:12] t. Companies [00:35:13] what they do is they [00:35:15] basically a facilitator of those trips. [00:35:18] So the insurance company [00:35:20] will reach out to an n e m t company, [00:35:23] they will call them or the n e m t company [00:35:26] will like download like a CSB [00:35:27] of all the trips they have to do [00:35:29] for the day. So a company [00:35:31] anyone can have a company [00:35:32] if you go to the government [00:35:34] or whatever and you get a license. [00:35:36] But anyways [00:35:36] you get that CSB and then you're [00:35:38] like all right I gotta pick up [00:35:40] these seven people [00:35:41] and I have to bring them to [00:35:43] and from the trip [00:35:44] I have to get a signature and then [00:35:47] that's it. [00:35:47] Then I submit that claim [00:35:49] to the insurance companies and I get paid [00:35:50] for it. Well there's no [00:35:52] real software [00:35:53] that focuses specifically on that sub [00:35:56] industry. [00:35:57] There's some that are [00:35:59] that are popping up but most mostly [00:36:02] there's not a ton of [00:36:04] interest in that space. [00:36:06] So anyways, what I [00:36:08] built was a basically like a [00:36:10] dispatch platform that's pretty basic but [00:36:13] it kind of like fills that void. [00:36:16] And so an n e m t company [00:36:18] might come and they [00:36:19] will see trips here. [00:36:21] These trips will automatically [00:36:24] populate via make. [00:36:25] So what happens is [00:36:27] a trip will come in [00:36:29] from like a transportation [00:36:33] company [00:36:34] through like a web hook through. [00:36:36] There's a little bit more to it. [00:36:38] There's like some AWS and some other [00:36:39] architecture that was built out. [00:36:41] But anyways verified trip [00:36:42] will come in through [00:36:43] a web hook [00:36:44] and then this will basically [00:36:46] find the company the trips [00:36:48] belongs to. [00:36:49] It can automatically assign [00:36:51] a driver if a driver is available and [00:36:53] a vehicle. [00:36:55] It'll also go [00:36:56] and update the trip with like amazon, [00:37:01] it'll update the trip with like [00:37:04] mapping. [00:37:04] So like when you go back to this base [00:37:07] you can see like a specific map [00:37:09] for instance [00:37:10] of exactly where this pickup is for [00:37:12] instance. So [00:37:15] basically all the insurance companies [00:37:17] submit data [00:37:19] through [00:37:21] motive like motive care [00:37:23] if you see this is just one [00:37:25] of these like brokers and so [00:37:27] they get trips from insurance companies, [00:37:29] they send them over to this platform. [00:37:31] This platform figures out [00:37:33] all the details about the trip [00:37:35] what company the trip [00:37:36] belongs to, [00:37:37] and then it automatically [00:37:39] assigns the trip the driver, [00:37:41] the pictures, everything [00:37:43] so that this company now [00:37:45] can just sit here in Airtable [00:37:46] and figure out these trips [00:37:48] they can schedule the trip, [00:37:49] they can unscheduled if [00:37:51] if they need to, [00:37:53] they can say they're on the way, [00:37:55] basically they can assign [00:37:56] drivers to the trip. [00:37:58] This was built a while ago [00:38:00] before Interfaces [00:38:01] but Interfaces would be like the [00:38:02] perfect dispatch platform [00:38:05] for this but previous [00:38:07] to Interfaces this is you [00:38:09] know you would just click this button [00:38:11] to like for instance assign a driver and [00:38:13] then once you assign a driver, [00:38:15] I don't have any drivers [00:38:16] assigned right now. [00:38:17] But once you assign a driver [00:38:20] they have this glide mobile app [00:38:22] is also connected to the base. [00:38:24] So the glide mobile app user [00:38:26] would get the trip right here [00:38:27] and then they could [00:38:28] sign off when the trip is done [00:38:30] they could like do a signature [00:38:32] and then that [00:38:32] signature would automatically [00:38:35] come back in the Airtable [00:38:37] in like a signature field here. [00:38:39] So there's like a signature field [00:38:41] and they would [00:38:42] they would come back [00:38:43] and they would just be a signature [00:38:45] and after the trip is [00:38:46] done and completed [00:38:48] there's other scenarios here [00:38:51] for like sending the trip to [00:38:53] motive care. [00:38:54] So you'd actually send the trip. [00:38:56] So previously before this solution [00:38:58] existed [00:39:00] you know you'd come [00:39:01] to a company and a company [00:39:02] would literally run this off of [00:39:03] like an Excel spreadsheet or something. [00:39:05] They'd have an Excel spreadsheet, [00:39:06] they call the driver [00:39:07] and they say hey here's the trip. [00:39:09] The driver would like [00:39:10] do a signature on a piece of paper, [00:39:13] they would scan it in and then one by one [00:39:15] they would go to like [00:39:16] the insurance company's [00:39:18] website or like motive care and [00:39:19] they would like fill out a form [00:39:21] for every trip. [00:39:22] So a company might have like [00:39:23] like 300 trips a day [00:39:24] or like a like a week [00:39:26] and they would just have people that [00:39:28] would literally sit and just one by one [00:39:31] fill out these trip forms. [00:39:32] So this solution completely like [00:39:35] does that for them [00:39:36] and all the trips [00:39:37] after the trips get completed that [00:39:39] automatically just goes right [00:39:41] to the insurance company, [00:39:42] the signature gets sent [00:39:43] to them and then they get paid [00:39:45] it is multi tenant. [00:39:47] So it does have the ability [00:39:50] where you can like [00:39:52] basically like copy the base [00:39:54] and have like a base [00:39:56] per transportation company. [00:39:57] And then [00:39:58] that solution will figure out [00:40:00] which this scenario [00:40:02] will figure out like which [00:40:04] company and which trip [00:40:05] that that belongs to [00:40:07] and then assign it appropriately. [00:40:09] So it's kind of like a multi tenant [00:40:11] solution but this was one solution kind [00:40:14] of similar like that product space [00:40:16] where it's like all right, [00:40:17] we need a solution to do to do this thing. [00:40:20] Do you just build it from scratch? [00:40:22] Do you use [00:40:24] Airtable or some other solution? [00:40:26] And there's [00:40:27] there are some drawbacks to using [00:40:28] Airtable. You know, [00:40:29] it's quick build, [00:40:30] you can build stuff really fast but you [00:40:32] know in some cases [00:40:33] before Interfaces, [00:40:35] the experiences were a little bit hard for [00:40:38] for some users. [00:40:39] But that's been rectified. [00:40:42] The other thing is a lot of [00:40:44] companies want like financial data [00:40:46] and other stuff in there. [00:40:47] Like how much money did I make [00:40:49] on user but [00:40:50] because you can't really properly [00:40:52] hide columns and fields, [00:40:54] it's hard sometimes [00:40:55] if you don't want your dispatch to [00:40:57] like see your book of business [00:40:59] or how much you're making [00:41:00] per trip or something [00:41:01] like that. [00:41:02] For user. [00:41:03] So those are some things that at sometimes [00:41:07] we will build an interface [00:41:09] on top of Airtable [00:41:10] using like jet admin or like [00:41:12] you know one of those other [00:41:14] apps that can kind of like [00:41:16] give even more segmented [00:41:17] data to users, [00:41:18] but this would be like a typical thing [00:41:21] that you might use as like [00:41:22] a product to solve [00:41:24] to solve a problem quick [00:41:26] and dirty that a company can use. [00:41:30] That's awesome [00:41:32] on the business side, I am curious is this [00:41:37] is this something you built [00:41:39] on behalf of another company? [00:41:42] I did. Well I partnered [00:41:44] with the company [00:41:46] and we built out a solution. [00:41:49] It's funny because [00:41:50] previous to this there was like, you know, [00:41:52] I used to [00:41:54] built this piece of software [00:41:55] for an interpreting company [00:41:57] that's kind of like the [00:41:58] same kind of domain, [00:41:59] but it's interpreting instead [00:42:00] of transport but same deal, [00:42:02] right, you get licensing, [00:42:03] you have to interpret for the appointment. [00:42:05] And that was custom. [00:42:07] So we built that out literally with code, [00:42:10] it took forever [00:42:11] and then Airtable comes along [00:42:13] and it's like, man, [00:42:14] I pretty much built Airtable [00:42:15] but it took like a year [00:42:17] and it wasn't even as cool [00:42:19] and then Airtable comes [00:42:20] along so [00:42:21] partnered up and [00:42:23] then built out a solution and, [00:42:26] and you know, [00:42:27] have companies right now [00:42:29] that are basically using it in their [00:42:30] own segmented bases to [00:42:32] to run their transportation companies. [00:42:35] Gotcha. So you partnered [00:42:37] with this company [00:42:38] and then they're taking it to other [00:42:40] similar companies. [00:42:42] Yeah, so I'm kind of more like the [00:42:45] on the technical and and usability end of [00:42:48] it and the more features [00:42:50] Airtable adds the cooler [00:42:53] it becomes to to do [00:42:54] things like this [00:42:56] with the more features and stuff [00:42:58] I guess the only challenges [00:42:59] it's multi tenant [00:43:00] so there's a base per company. [00:43:03] So then it's like when if you [00:43:04] have to update a base, [00:43:05] like for instance interface, [00:43:06] there's no way for me to [00:43:07] like [00:43:08] migrate an interface if we build [00:43:10] some cool Interfaces [00:43:12] from company A to company B [00:43:13] to company C. [00:43:14] You know, it's a very manual [00:43:16] manual manual effort. [00:43:18] Would you would you also have to [00:43:22] duplicate all of your make [00:43:24] scenarios too? [00:43:25] Because if you're firing off of [00:43:27] web hooks and then using that to control [00:43:31] you know, put this information [00:43:34] in this Airtable field. [00:43:35] Well it's looking at [00:43:37] a particular base. [00:43:39] So do you need like a very complex [00:43:42] or multiple? [00:43:44] Yeah, complex make scenario. [00:43:46] So that web hook [00:43:48] that I showed you brings in trips [00:43:50] from everybody. [00:43:51] So this is like [00:43:53] this vendor will send us trips for all the [00:43:57] companies. [00:43:58] And so then there's a system in place [00:44:01] that will determine what base [00:44:02] belongs to that company. [00:44:04] You know how like [00:44:05] in a scenario you can like add a [00:44:09] base for in your [00:44:13] can like delineate [00:44:15] delineate just that [00:44:16] so you can say, hey this company belongs [00:44:19] to this base [00:44:20] and so add the trip there. [00:44:21] So but yeah at the beginning it was just [00:44:23] like one [00:44:24] and then as we expanded, [00:44:26] we did have to like build [00:44:27] out and kind of like [00:44:28] scale that. So for sure. [00:44:33] That's pretty cool to think. [00:44:35] So today there's people [00:44:36] getting rides that's all [00:44:37] being tracked [00:44:39] and monitored in Airtable. [00:44:41] Yeah. Airtable and glide. [00:44:43] They don't, they don't even know it, [00:44:45] but yeah, and Airtable [00:44:47] is also really cool during the [00:44:50] testing phase because [00:44:51] like some of these buttons, for instance, [00:44:53] these buttons trigger [00:44:55] web hook. So for instance, [00:44:57] if someone rejects a ride [00:44:59] or there's a ride change [00:45:00] event, right? [00:45:01] Or like a canceled trip, [00:45:03] those buttons actually exist in the glide [00:45:05] mobile app because the driver [00:45:07] is going to see a trip [00:45:08] and they can accept it or [00:45:08] cancel it. So [00:45:10] after you assign a trip, [00:45:12] there's a web hook that, [00:45:13] well, it's not even a web hook [00:45:15] anymore because now glides [00:45:17] connected to Airtable [00:45:18] before we had Excel between [00:45:19] them or Google sheets. [00:45:21] But now glide connects [00:45:23] directly with Airtable. [00:45:25] So anyways, [00:45:26] when you assign a trip, [00:45:28] they see it. But during testing or if [00:45:29] there's something wrong [00:45:31] with an app, [00:45:32] a dispatch person [00:45:33] can come in here and like [00:45:33] click a button to cancel a trip [00:45:36] for instance. And then this, [00:45:38] this these modules basically [00:45:41] trigger these events [00:45:42] from the glide app [00:45:44] or from Airtable. So we wanted to make [00:45:46] it flexible. So like if someday [00:45:48] in the future, [00:45:49] Airtable doesn't scale or we [00:45:51] have to put like, [00:45:52] like whatever softr or like jet admin [00:45:55] or some other interface [00:45:57] on top of Airtable for like [00:45:58] from an experience perspective, [00:46:00] we don't have to modify [00:46:01] some of these modules, [00:46:03] some of them have to change [00:46:04] because they're still relying [00:46:07] on Airtable database, but some of them [00:46:10] don't have to rely on [00:46:11] Airtable and we can start to [00:46:13] scale those out [00:46:14] and make them more flexible. [00:46:16] So that was kind of [00:46:17] the goal of the project. [00:46:20] But definitely we started with [00:46:22] Airtable because [00:46:23] it's just so flexible and you [00:46:25] can, because I can see the database. [00:46:27] I don't have to like build it on top of [00:46:29] like, you know, any other, [00:46:32] like my sequel or Mongo DB or something. [00:46:34] And then I have to [00:46:36] build an interface on top of that [00:46:37] just for people to interact [00:46:39] with the data. [00:46:40] So Airtable was like the perfect solution [00:46:42] for a quick build [00:46:43] out. [00:46:44] Yeah, that is so cool. [00:46:46] So your a longtime glide apps user, [00:46:49] even before they had [00:46:51] Airtable support, [00:46:52] what's your impression of glide apps? [00:46:57] It's, it has its limits. [00:46:59] It's pretty cool. I have some crazy, [00:47:02] you should see some [00:47:03] of the scenarios I've had [00:47:05] before where I had to go from Airtable [00:47:06] to like Google sheets to glide [00:47:08] because I was trying to sync those. [00:47:10] So Airtable. That was awesome [00:47:12] when they made that change. But [00:47:15] glide apps is pretty cool. [00:47:17] You know, there's really good features [00:47:19] that they have [00:47:21] some for the mobile perspective, [00:47:23] some things can be like very [00:47:24] tedious or annoying [00:47:26] if you're building like a really big app [00:47:28] because of like how [00:47:29] the menu systems work [00:47:30] when you're like creating things. [00:47:33] I'm not a super fan. [00:47:34] Like I wish I could like [00:47:36] for instance, like [00:47:37] up at JSON for instance [00:47:39] to like make a change or something [00:47:41] to like, you know, [00:47:42] if you have like a form [00:47:44] in a glide app with like 30 options or [00:47:45] something with like web hook triggers [00:47:48] and stuff. Like it can be very tedious to [00:47:50] go in and like change things [00:47:52] one by one by one. [00:47:54] But it's a lot nicer than [00:47:56] some of the other [00:47:58] mobile app experiences [00:48:00] that I've played with [00:48:02] in the no code space. [00:48:03] So [00:48:06] awesome. [00:48:08] Well, thank you for sharing that. [00:48:10] I love seeing real life demos and, [00:48:12] and that's a pretty, [00:48:13] pretty cool application. [00:48:14] That sounds like you're scaling it. [00:48:16] How many different locations [00:48:18] is it supporting now? [00:48:20] I have about 15 [00:48:22] that it's supporting. So [00:48:26] there's opportunity, [00:48:28] there's, there's a lot more that, [00:48:31] that we could do. [00:48:32] That's like no marketing [00:48:34] kind of like word of mouth in [00:48:35] network thing. Trying to work out [00:48:37] some kinks [00:48:38] trying to slow the scale [00:48:40] because all the base changes [00:48:42] are one by one. [00:48:43] You know, it's really challenging [00:48:45] when you get started [00:48:46] and you get like initial [00:48:47] feedback from users that are like, [00:48:49] hey, we want building or can we add an [00:48:51] integration to like sync this [00:48:52] to quickbooks because [00:48:53] that's where we do our [00:48:54] payouts for our drivers [00:48:56] or something like that. [00:48:57] You know, that type of stuff. [00:48:58] It's like every change [00:48:59] you have to replicate [00:49:01] to all these bases and it's like [00:49:02] until [00:49:03] it'll be nice when Airtable releases [00:49:05] if they ever do the ability to like add [00:49:08] fields and stuff like that [00:49:09] with the API [00:49:10] would love that because then I could [00:49:12] just [00:49:13] completely code out [00:49:14] the whole thing, but until then it's very [00:49:16] very manual. So so I do have [00:49:19] trepidation about [00:49:20] growing too fast and then, [00:49:22] you know, or you're on base one point, [00:49:26] I don't even know but you can, [00:49:29] but there's only there's [00:49:31] still limitations there. Yeah, [00:49:34] exactly. And then there's like [00:49:37] you know, I know there's like [00:49:39] some stuff out [00:49:40] in the wild where like [00:49:41] you can update fields [00:49:43] or whatever add add new columns, [00:49:45] but you know, I don't know [00:49:49] about spending putting [00:49:50] infrastructure time [00:49:51] into like unsanctioned stuff [00:49:53] and Airtable can just like, [00:49:55] you know, Airtable [00:49:56] can be a dream killer. [00:49:59] A lot of people building ecosystems [00:50:01] around Airtable and I'm like, [00:50:03] man, they, they're moving so fast. [00:50:05] It's like, you really gotta be [00:50:07] real networked in with them or like have a [00:50:09] completely [00:50:10] different unique way [00:50:11] that you're doing something [00:50:13] to like value at and just like [00:50:15] stay competitive without worrying [00:50:17] about being cannibalized. You know, [00:50:18] it's something I've seen in, [00:50:20] I was in the healthcare space [00:50:22] for a long time and [00:50:23] in any time you'd have, you know, [00:50:25] some thr that opens up [00:50:27] like the platform where [00:50:28] people are making modules [00:50:29] or making a book of business [00:50:31] and then they're like, [00:50:32] oh, that's a great idea [00:50:33] and they just bring it in in house, [00:50:34] you know? So, [00:50:37] But yeah, so anyways, [00:50:38] I won't be doing any unsanctioned stuff, [00:50:40] I'll just wait for Airtable to like [00:50:43] allow me to [00:50:44] write scripts for stuff like that, [00:50:46] then it would be cool, [00:50:47] especially if I could [00:50:47] do like base copy and like replication, [00:50:51] That'd be awesome. [00:50:53] Yeah, that's why that's honestly like, [00:50:56] I've, you know, had ideas similar to [00:50:58] yours, but that's been [00:50:59] the hold back where I haven't [00:51:01] gone forward with them or [00:51:03] permissions you like, [00:51:04] if I could have like multi tenant, [00:51:07] like a super base [00:51:08] depending on obviously [00:51:09] how many records are being generated. [00:51:11] But if I could segmented to [00:51:12] that segment it that way, [00:51:14] that'd be sweet too, [00:51:15] you know, or maybe even [00:51:16] build Interfaces [00:51:17] and then people don't even see the [00:51:19] underlying database, [00:51:20] they just see the nice Interfaces I built, [00:51:22] you know, with buttons [00:51:24] that would be another way [00:51:25] if I could just share [00:51:26] those Interfaces [00:51:27] and they don't have access to the base. [00:51:29] So I think there's [00:51:30] gonna be some things coming [00:51:32] that might completely change [00:51:34] how I architect this [00:51:35] particular business thing, [00:51:37] so that's another reason why [00:51:38] I'm just scared of [00:51:39] growth because I just, [00:51:41] I'm a fan of building things [00:51:44] that can scale fast, [00:51:46] but I don't need like [00:51:49] every 100 clients, [00:51:50] I have to add like 10 team [00:51:52] members to the business. [00:51:53] So I try to find ways where [00:51:55] I can do stuff that's, [00:51:57] I mean if I automater and [00:51:58] integrator, it's dumb to not be [00:52:00] able to automate integrate my business. [00:52:02] So it's kind of subsidy. [00:52:05] Exactly, awesome. Very cool. [00:52:08] Thank you so much [00:52:09] for showing that and we will [00:52:11] definitely send people your way [00:52:13] especially if you're in the transportation [00:52:16] world, you definitely need [00:52:18] to reach out to them. [00:52:20] Yeah, right to the doctor [00:52:22] Got you covered, [00:52:24] that's right, awesome. [00:52:26] Thank you. Lorenzo [00:52:27] real quick quick shout out [00:52:29] to our BuiltOnAir community. [00:52:31] People like Lorenzo [00:52:32] and many other [00:52:33] we have thousands [00:52:34] of people in our Airtable [00:52:35] community [00:52:36] our BuiltOnAir community. [00:52:38] So please join us. If you're not already [00:52:40] builtonair.com/join, [00:52:42] we'll get you in [00:52:43] to both our newsletter [00:52:45] and our slack community [00:52:46] where people are interacting [00:52:48] every day and helping each other out [00:52:50] to be better Airtable users. [00:52:52] So please join us at builtonair.com [00:52:55] finally, Alli is going to walk us [00:52:58] through charts in Interfaces. [00:53:02] All right, can you [00:53:03] see my screen? Awesome. [00:53:06] So this is just a really random hack [00:53:09] that I thought up the other day. [00:53:11] And I'm just gonna demo [00:53:13] this really quickly. [00:53:14] I believe this, [00:53:16] there are some limitations. [00:53:18] I think you have to have a pro plan [00:53:20] for this to work. [00:53:22] But we will get there [00:53:24] in a moment. [00:53:25] So basically I have a very pretty simple [00:53:27] setup here just between [00:53:29] two tables opportunities and months. [00:53:31] I like to set up a month's table [00:53:33] or like you know weeks, months, [00:53:35] years however granule [00:53:37] you want to get [00:53:38] to like bucket data and summarize it. [00:53:41] And here I've got [00:53:42] just a count field of my [00:53:44] opportunities and then I have a [00:53:46] number field [00:53:47] that's just an entry [00:53:48] where I can enter in [00:53:49] a target or a goal that I [00:53:51] have for that month. [00:53:52] And something that [00:53:54] is really difficult to do [00:53:55] is to like actually get a chart [00:53:57] in Airtable that will compare [00:53:59] those numbers [00:54:00] because you need to have one column [00:54:02] for a chart to [00:54:03] pull off of [00:54:04] and then you can group by [00:54:06] another thing but all of [00:54:07] your data has to be in one field. [00:54:11] So this is the way [00:54:13] this is my hack [00:54:14] to get around that in an easy way. [00:54:17] In the past I would have [00:54:18] maybe created like [00:54:20] another table linked to months [00:54:21] and had [00:54:22] two rows per month. [00:54:24] One for target one for actual [00:54:27] if that makes sense. [00:54:29] But instead what I'm gonna do is [00:54:32] I'm gonna create a view here [00:54:34] and call this, [00:54:37] I'm just gonna hide everything [00:54:40] except um my target numbers. [00:54:42] And how about the [00:54:43] date [00:54:45] and then I'm gonna make this [00:54:47] synced to a new base. [00:54:56] Create a new base. [00:55:07] Alright, so now I have [00:55:09] this here. Everything is called Target. [00:55:11] I'm just gonna rename this like months, [00:55:15] we'll call this crm reporting. [00:55:20] And now over here [00:55:21] I wanna just duplicate this view [00:55:25] because what I'm gonna do is [00:55:27] I'm gonna sync in a second [00:55:30] source into that same table. [00:55:33] But instead of my target column here, [00:55:36] I actually want my count. [00:55:38] So my number of opportunities [00:55:40] that I actually have [00:55:41] and I've named this actual [00:55:43] versus target because [00:55:45] once I get this other view in there, [00:55:48] I'm gonna just toggle this on [00:55:50] and then I'm not gonna [00:55:52] actually click the sync [00:55:54] this view to another base [00:55:56] because this wouldn't, I believe so far [00:55:58] it only gives you the option to [00:55:59] just create a new table in that base. [00:56:01] But I want to add it [00:56:02] as a second data source [00:56:04] to this table already. [00:56:06] So I'm gonna go here [00:56:07] and then you can either do this [00:56:09] directly from add records [00:56:11] from this option here [00:56:12] or if you're in your sync configuration, [00:56:15] you'll have that option [00:56:16] as well right there. [00:56:18] And I'm gonna choose Airtable base [00:56:21] that's called sales, [00:56:23] crm demo [00:56:26] table is months [00:56:28] and the view is actual [00:56:32] or I could have just [00:56:33] paste it in my share link there [00:56:35] Now this is the part [00:56:36] that makes it really cool. So [00:56:38] this by default is saying alright [00:56:40] sync this to a new number field [00:56:42] but I don't [00:56:42] want to do that. [00:56:44] I want to sync it to my [00:56:45] actual existing field that I already [00:56:47] have. [00:56:48] So you can actually point different [00:56:51] data sources into the same field here, [00:56:53] like funnel it all into the same column [00:56:56] and when I do this [00:56:58] now I have two sources, [00:57:00] give it a second to sync up [00:57:03] but it automatically has [00:57:04] given me this select field here [00:57:06] that I'm gonna change [00:57:07] my colors up quickly. [00:57:09] So the charts will look nice and pretty [00:57:12] actually I'm gonna rename [00:57:14] this just like a number [00:57:17] and that's all I need to do [00:57:18] for the syncing. [00:57:20] So now I can actually go into my [00:57:21] Interfaces, [00:57:25] I'm just gonna create a blank one. [00:57:29] Just a demo. Now I can grab the chart [00:57:33] and if I change my X axis to the date, [00:57:39] the bucket it by month [00:57:40] or whatever I'd want a bucket by [00:57:42] and I want to [00:57:45] do my field summary [00:57:46] of that number column. [00:57:49] Just sum it up. [00:57:50] But really I don't want a [00:57:52] bar chart, I want a line chart [00:57:56] And when I group it [00:57:58] by that sync source field [00:58:01] now I have [00:58:03] a comparison of my target versus my actual [00:58:07] numbers [00:58:09] in what I find to be a [00:58:11] pretty simple way [00:58:12] that's going to just keep up with all [00:58:14] my opportunities as I add them [00:58:18] and I don't have to go through [00:58:20] any automations of doubling up this table. [00:58:22] I can just keep everything here [00:58:24] and then I have the ability to like, [00:58:25] you know, do more with those numbers. [00:58:28] Like how far off my goal. [00:58:29] I am [00:58:32] solid. [00:58:33] That's great stuff. [00:58:35] Getting getting very good [00:58:38] reaction from the viewers [00:58:40] saying it's awesome, [00:58:42] brilliant use and Russell [00:58:44] saying he want he had a similar [00:58:46] idea as well. So cool stuff. [00:58:48] Thank you. [00:58:49] I'm excited. I literally like kind of [00:58:52] dreamed this up [00:58:53] the other night [00:58:54] while I was thinking [00:58:55] about it and I got really [00:58:55] excited. I was like [00:58:56] I have to go try it [00:58:58] so I'm excited to see what else you [00:58:59] could do. [00:59:00] I think there's a lot of different [00:59:01] use cases you can do for this. [00:59:03] Yeah, [00:59:05] yeah, because you could have [00:59:06] well what's the limit [00:59:07] on the number of different [00:59:08] sources? [00:59:11] You can do more than three now. [00:59:14] It's six is the number I had [00:59:17] if I think it's something like that [00:59:19] and it also depends whether you have a [00:59:20] legacy account or not and I think [00:59:25] but [00:59:27] if I went back into the base [00:59:30] yeah, because I can just keep adding [00:59:34] more [00:59:35] I think. [00:59:37] Yeah, I'm not sure what the number is. [00:59:39] White [00:59:41] off the top of my head, [00:59:42] but I know it's more than [00:59:44] two now. It used to be two or [00:59:45] three and then they upped it [00:59:50] both Kuovonne and Russell [00:59:52] mentioned that you could [00:59:54] then even sync this data [00:59:55] back to the original [00:59:57] to get it back in. Yeah, absolutely. [01:00:02] As Lorenzo pointed out [01:00:04] a little earlier [01:00:05] you know, permissions are kind of [01:00:08] still very limited [01:00:09] for what you can show, [01:00:11] you could say, don't show this [01:00:13] information at all to this group of users. [01:00:16] So you know, in some cases you might [01:00:18] just want to keep this base [01:00:21] literally just this table so that [01:00:23] you know, if you're in an interface [01:00:25] and you're looking at [01:00:26] these starts and then [01:00:27] they, you know, [01:00:28] click that go back to base but [01:00:29] they still only see just this. [01:00:31] Right. But yeah, [01:00:32] syncing back to the original [01:00:34] base, if you don't care about, [01:00:36] you know, [01:00:37] the permissions or the visibility [01:00:39] aspect of it means that you [01:00:42] don't have to flip back [01:00:44] and forth between this [01:00:45] interface and then the other interface [01:00:48] if you know you were building out a [01:00:50] larger system. Exactly [01:00:53] Yeah, Justin Mentions [01:00:54] that the source limit [01:00:56] is three for pro and 20 for [01:00:58] enterprise. [01:01:00] Yeah, awesome. [01:01:02] That is like a real useful work around [01:01:08] and hopefully people get [01:01:11] value out of this [01:01:12] and can go through that demo [01:01:14] and use it in their scenarios. [01:01:17] Awesome. [01:01:18] Thank you everyone for joining [01:01:21] that wraps up our show for today. [01:01:24] Right at the hour mark, [01:01:26] we're always glad [01:01:27] to have new faces join us. [01:01:29] Lorenzo, thank you so much [01:01:31] for joining. [01:01:32] Excited to see where you take your [01:01:34] business. [01:01:35] I could see that business taking off [01:01:37] to where that could be a full time [01:01:39] endeavor for you so pretty, [01:01:41] pretty exciting. [01:01:43] Thank you. Thank you [01:01:45] for having me on, [01:01:46] appreciate it, yep. And Kamille and Alli, [01:01:50] always great to have you on. [01:01:52] And we will see everybody [01:01:53] next week on our next [01:01:54] live episode of our [01:01:56] BuiltOnAir podcast. Take care.
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