Coda's vision for the future of documents

"Coda ... Notion, Quip and others... are building tools that can do multiple things in a single space, that are designed both for creating and for sharing... documents are headed toward a future that looks more like an operating system than a Word file... the world runs on docs, not apps".

In this podcast, Coda's founder makes the very good point that the document paradigm hasn't really changed in 50 years: "if Austin Powers popped out of his freezing chamber, he wouldn't know what clothes to wear, or what music to listen to, but he could work a document, a spreadsheet or a presentation."

Things started to change with Google Docs, which ended the tyranny of the file format, even if they did mimic existing apps because they launched the transition towards a world where "when I send you a link to a spreadsheet, you don't have to ... have the right application and the right operating system...".

And then: "we no longer have to be beholden to file formats at all... anyone can make a doc as powerful as an app... this world of all-in-one documents... has to have a fairly low floor ... useful right away for all modest needs... and a very high ceiling."

Coda is aiming to "become something like the operating system on which people can build and sell their own apps" - a platform and ecosystem for app creators, not a pipeline business. And the high ceiling is to be high indeed: "you can build in Coda full-on applications, that can really run whole companies".