Feedback on a new tool for managing multiple Airtable client bases

Hey ​@BaseFoundry,

This is interesting. However it seems to be great specifically for agencies/consultants who actually sell/implement templates. Right? 

Am I missing smth?

Please keep us posted!

Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation

Hey ​@Mike_AutomaticN ,

You’re spot-on, it’s definitely perfect for agencies/consultants that sell standardised templates.

Another big use case we’re focusing on is for any agency that starts new client projects from their own ‘boilerplate’. Currently when you update or improve an internal process e.g., adding a field to that boilerplate you have to update all past client bases manually. 

BaseFoundry’s aim is to automate all of that!

Really about solving all the maintenance management ‘nightmare’ of keeping a fleet of unique client projects in sync with your latest and greatest workflows.

Really appreciate the feedback Mike, the waitlist on the landing page is the best way to keep posted.

Cheers,

Luke

Got it! That is not something I do for my clients, as each Client has a very unique base. But it is interesting for sure! I’ll keep this in mind.

Thanks for sharing!

Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation

Thanks for the insight, Mike! That makes perfect sense.

You're right, the value is definitely clearest for template based work. The other angle we're exploring is managing that ‘common core’ of fields and logic that even unique bases share, saving you from having to make the same small tweak 10+ times.

Really appreciate you taking the time to reply!

Luke,

Hi ​@BaseFoundry,

Thanks for sharing your project. Besides the very specific scenario that Mike shared, about managing template bases, I dont really see other use cases. Maybe in the past before we had interface permissions, we had to keep duplicated bases so that we can only share certain data to certain teams. Sometimes managing 20 identical bases and yes configuring those bases with updates was quite a nightmare. Now with interface permissions it is rare that we have duplicated bases.

I think a lot of consultants will architect solutions specific to their clients needs and using a boilerplate just doesn’t work very well. 

One idea that I do have, is that perhaps this could be a dashboard where consultants can have access to clients bases and make updates without having the client make them a creator in their base and incurring a fee for the user seat. I imagine you are accomplishing this by using the Airtable API and the access token of each base and/or client account. I do see a value in having a quick way for consultants to make easy changes to clients bases, but again its only for small tweaks. And most times these small tweaks come with updates to interfaces or automations. 

That being said, maybe I’m way off base and there is a larger user group that could benefit from this for managing their templates. In any case, this is still an exciting tool you are working on and wish you the best with it! Happy to test it out once you get to that point.

Hi @airvues,

This is an incredibly helpful and insightful piece of feedback. Thank you so much for taking the time to write it out.

You've hit on something we've been trying to articulate. The point about Interface permissions’ changing the need for duplicated bases is spot on and helps us understand the landscape better.

Your idea about a dashboard for consultants to make updates without taking up a paid creator seat is an absolute lightbulb moment! That's a huge, tangible value proposition, and honestly, a much more compelling use case than just managing templates.

We're going to explore this ‘user seat’ angle seriously as we continue development. Thanks again for this, it's exactly the kind of expert feedback we were hoping for.

We will absolutely take you up on your offer to test it out and will be in touch!

Cheers,

Luke

Hi ​@BaseFoundry,

definitely an interesting idea! I can only agree with the above answers that I specifically have not setup duplicate bases and had to manage those. But I had a colleague who sold templates, I’ll ask if that was an issue!

How did you come up with the idea? Did you face this challenge personally?

Best,
Richard

Hey Richard,

Thanks for the reply, and I'd be really interested to hear what your colleague says about their experience with templates!

As to the origin, to be honest, the idea started as a personal project. I had been fascinated and intrigued by how real people build real businesses on platforms like Airtable. I was digging through community forums looking for interesting problems to solve.

Initially the spark came from seeing people discussing the headache of managing duplicated bases. However, the feedback in this thread has been the most valuable part of the entire process. The idea that clients have to pay for an expensive ‘creator seat’  just for a consultant to have access seems like a bigger, universal frustration. 

So the vision for BaseFoundry is evolving to solve that directly: allowing consultants to manage client bases via the API without needing an extra paid seat? 

Would be curious if that’s a challenge you’ve ever run into as well, Thanks again for engaging!

Cheers,

Luke

I see! Great research! ;)

Yeah it’s definitely something that has come up but it’s only a $24/m Problem (or ~50 on the business plan) and even if you solve it, no one will be able to edit the interfaces or automations in the Airtable bases :/ Not sure if adding a few columns is big value proposition to be honest :/

Hey ​@BaseFoundry,

Completely unrelated, but actual need of mine -which might spark something on your side.
Big headache every now and then (currently the case):

Client reaches out to me.
Client has 1 to 20  DIFFERENT Airtable BASES -terrible schemas on each base.
We build a new nice and scalable master base to handle all use cases.
ISSUE: It is now time of migrating all previous bases to new base. Thousands of records. Each record could be one or multiple records on multiple tables on the new base schema.

I could manually handle this, process data on each base or CSV, and do CSV imports, but I’d rather not (and it is always clunky). Last night I thought about the following:

Create master base with the following tables:

Bases (base name, id, type -source or target-, linked tables)
Tables (table name, id, linked base)
Fields (field name, id, field type, linked table)
Mapping (Link to source field, link to target field)
Migration Jobs (to set an order and trigger cautiously)

Mapping and Migration Jobs table should be handled manually by me. All the rest should be automatically fetched and created.

Additionally, I would create in bulk a Last Migrated Date Time field on each table of all source bases and stamp these as they get migrated. If at any time Last Modified is > Las Migrated, then that record should probably be updated on the new base. This is nice to have, not must have.

Just brain dumping hours of lack of sleep. This can be prototyped using n8n and Airtable -I might move forward.

Thoughts? This would save me hours (every now and then). Still thinking if it is an overkill or not.

Hope this helps!
Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation

Hey ​@richard.ahrend,

That is a fantastic and crucial piece of feedback, Thank you.

And you’ve hit the nail right on the head. The inability to edit interfaces and automations via the API is a major limitation to the consultant seat idea, and you're right that it makes the value proposition much smaller than I initially thought.

This is exactly the kind of critical insight I was looking for. Based on this, I'm already re-evaluating and pivoting the core concept.

Really appreciate you taking the time to share your expertise!

Cheers,

Luke

​@Mike_AutomaticN 

I think you're hitting Airtableception haha. Making a base all about managing bases, with tables full of tables and records about records 🙃 I’m tempted to dig up that I put a table inside yo table meme 

I keep banging this drum, but I wish the Airtable Universe was still a functional thing as it helped in some of this base duplication management (and perhaps it could have been expanded to be a marketplace)

LOL ​@DisraeliGears01 

 

Hey ​@Mike_AutomaticN,

Thank you for taking the time to brain dump this!

The process you outlined (auto fetching schemas, manual mapping, and running migration jobs) is essentially the product I should be building. The core tech I've already developed for reading base schemas is the perfect foundation for it.

This is more than just helpful; it's given me a whole new, much stronger direction for the project. I'm going to seriously pursue this ‘data migration engine’ concept.

Thank you again for this. It's invaluable.

Cheers,

Luke

​

Sounds great ​@BaseFoundry!

Looking forward for some updates. Feel free to grab a slot using this link if you think we should connect. I’d be happy to talk.

Best,
Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation