# Andrew Ofstad

> Andrew Ofstad is the Airtable co-founder whose career has repeatedly turned difficult systems into approachable tools. Raised in rural Montana, trained in electrical engineering and economics at Duke, and shaped by product work on Android and Google Maps, he helped build Airtable around a durable idea: ordinary people should be able to make useful software without first becoming programmers.

- **Role:** Co-founder at Airtable
- **Organizations:** Airtable, Google, Accenture, 8Flow
- **Education:** Studies in electrical engineering and economics, Duke University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Airtable and helped establish its original product and engineering teams., Helped redesign Google Maps from first principles around browser-based WebGL rendering., Worked on Facebook and Twitter applications for Android during Android's early growth period.

## Career timeline

- **2008** — Graduated from Duke University after studying electrical engineering and economics.
- **2008-2009** — Worked in Accenture's research and development group, building enterprise prototypes and demos.
- **2009-2012** — Joined Google's Associate Product Manager program; worked on Android social apps and helped lead a from-scratch redesign of Google Maps.
- **2012** — Co-founded Airtable with Duke friends Howie Liu and Emmett Nicholas.
- **2015** — Airtable publicly launched after an extended period of prototyping and private iteration.
- **2022** — Described Airtable's mission as giving nontechnical business users the ability to build software for their teams.
- **2025** — Joined a Founder Mode live conversation on product craft, founder leadership and AI during San Francisco Tech Week.
- **2026** — Airtable's acquisition by Bending Spoons closed on September 4; public materials continued to identify Ofstad as an Airtable co-founder.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Airtable and helped establish its original product and engineering teams.
- Helped redesign Google Maps from first principles around browser-based WebGL rendering.
- Worked on Facebook and Twitter applications for Android during Android's early growth period.
- Helped translate relational-database concepts into a spreadsheet-like product accessible to non-programmers.
- Serves as an advisor to enterprise workflow intelligence company 8Flow.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — Bending Spoons completed its acquisition of Airtable; Airtable said the new owner would invest in product, customer support and go-to-market capabilities.
- **2026-04** — Airtable-sourced executive material continued to describe Ofstad as co-founder responsible for long-term product bets and the customer voice in major product decisions.
- **2025-10** — Appeared at a Founder Mode live event during San Francisco Tech Week to discuss Airtable's early browser-only prototype, product tradeoffs, leadership and AI.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aofstad
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlM9oQMuXgU

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/andrew-ofstad
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-26
