Angelina YangFounder and Host, TwoSetAI · AI builder for visibility and discoverability

We Almost Killed Our Business (It Was Just a Spreadsheet Error)

20 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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In this short video, the speaker recounts how their startup built a comprehensive master spreadsheet to track revenue, subscriber counts, and acquisition sources. The spreadsheet’s final figure suggested the business was unsustainable, leading to a bleak outlook. After a night of drinks, they revisited the sheet, discovered a formula error that had been misrepresenting the data, corrected it, and instantly saw the financials turn from red to green, experiencing a profound sense of euphoria. Two months later, buoyed by the corrected metrics, they entered acquisition discussions with HubSpot.

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We were building this spreadsheet with all of our revenue, all of our subscribers, all of our sources of new subscribers, just like the master brain of the business we were trying to build. And the number at the end was just telling us that basically the business was eating itself. It was just destined to die. It was really dark. You know, we just persuaded Mattiz to come and join us on this journey. We just bought his company. We just merged these things together. We just couldn't make it work. We went out, got some food, had a few too many drinks. Next day with a bit of a hangover, pulled the spreadsheet up again and we realized the formulas were wrong and we fixed the formulas and everything that was red went green. It was just like the biggest sense of euphoria I've ever felt. It was 2 months after that that we started talking to HubSpot about the acquisition.