TextExpander raises $41.4M, its first-ever funding

[Ulli]

@webwalrus

If it’s monitoring to suggest snippets, it’s going to need more than 20 characters in its buffer.

Snippet Suggestions .

Here are some informations, regarding that topic

How TextExpander Handles Your Keystrokes, Keylogging, and Snippet Security :...

[nationalinterest]

@95omega

I think the enterprise market has moved beyond canned response use case as a standalone product. Most of those types of responses are being automated with chat bots and built into CRM’s as mentioned above.

Exactly. I can see the valuable use for TE in a small firm or as an individual, but that doesn’t (to me) justify this level of investment. Enterprises will already have (or will soon have if they’re looking to upgrade) systems that automatically generate prepopulated emails/contracts/invoices/standard responses.

[webwalrus]

@nationalinterest

Enterprises will already have (or will soon have if they’re looking to upgrade) systems that automatically generate prepopulated emails/contracts/invoices/standard responses.

The thing I’ve found is that a lot of those chatbots and automated systems are incredibly poor. Even ones at big companies like Amazon, which makes a huge deal about how they’re “Earth’s most customer-centric company”.

I could definitely see a market for human-driven customer service tools that provide some of the automation offered by chatbots, but with a more human spin. Depends on the company, of course. And on the pricing.

[Kraftwerk]

agreed, much better to pay keyboard maestro, a pay-once app, which does this and 100x more stuff

[TudorEynon]

I think you are right to be baffled: see my remark about Keyboard Maestro’s creator Peter Lewis. Really I think this is an example of how unmoored some things are from their real or even ‘marginal utility’ value.
There is a real utility here, as @webwalrus points out, however to my mind that does not remove my bafflement which is similar to yours and, frankly, I don’t think the issue is a ‘tech’ one at all as such but is some function of investor projection or something like that.

Any more than say inflated house prices are explained by thinking about or talking to carpenters or roofers. Much ink is wasted, and was in my old country on changing construction methods, zoning, cramming housing units together etc. etc. and none of it did anything beyond move the inflated prices onto smaller and smaller units.

Or that the prototype financial bubble in Dutch Tulips would be understood by talking to horticulturalists, though tulips do have some interesting and unusual properties. I have to say it worries me in some undirected and vague sense though.

[stevemarkovick]

It is really interesting to see TextExpander securing such a large funding round after so many years of organic growth. While I can understand some skepticism about the valuation versus utility, especially compared to alternatives like Keyboard Maestro or Alfred, I think there is definitely room for advanced, team-oriented snippet management. If they can leverage the funding to improve collaboration tools and make intelligent snippet suggestions at scale, it could make TextExpander a much stronger offering for businesses. Curious to see where they go from here.

[LisaSpangenberg]

I just downloaded Keyboard Maestro. I’ve been using TextExpander since it was in beta, but I no longer am part of a team using TextExpander so I’m looking at the additional features offered by Keyboard Maestro.

[macsorcery]

@Lars

100.000 users paying $40 per year

not all of us. $20/year for those that kept the faith and did not bail on them when they went to subscriptions. It’s one of my Top 5 Apps. 1Password and TextExpander are the first two apps I install on any new machine.