Oh, look, here we go again. A startup with lofty dreams of taking on Salesforce—the Goliath of the CRM world. This time, the hero is *Twenty*, a budding open-source CRM platform that has spent the last couple of years in the trenches of GitHub, trying to convince a few hundred contributors and a growing community that it's the open-source alternative we've all been waiting for.

It’s cute, really.

The story goes like this: Three co-founders, fresh off the heels of their Airbnb acquisition (because who doesn’t want to leverage a *past win* for credibility?), have decided that they’re going to replicate the most successful and feature-packed CRM system on the planet with—wait for it—open-source magic. You know, because there just *hasn’t* been an open-source CRM that’s even *come close* to matching Salesforce’s market dominance. But now, *Twenty* is here. And according to CEO Félix Malfait, "CRM is the biggest software market overall" because, of course, CRM isn’t just about managing sales anymore. It’s marketing, customer support, and operations, and—oh right—it’s basically *everything*. Nothing to see here, folks.

We’ve heard this story before. SugarCRM tried it (unsuccessfully). But Malfait, with his confident tone, insists that it’s a *new era*—one where open-source thrives in categories with "network effects" and "ecosystems." Yes, *ecosystems*. A term that’s used so often in startup circles, it’s practically become a buzzword. If "ecosystem" was a stock, it would have crashed by now.

Still, it’s admirable that Twenty is trying. I mean, who *wouldn't* want to take on Salesforce, right? After all, Salesforce isn’t just a CRM; it’s a *flexible data model*, a *programming language* (Apex, for those who care), and a *customization framework*. It’s everything. But Twenty is here to show that you don’t need all that. Nope, all you need is an open-source platform with customizable objects and fields that can be tweaked to your heart's desire. How original.

You want to track conference attendees? Cool, make a “conference” object. Running a chain of restaurants? Just create a “restaurant” object. Customize the fields, add tasks and notes, and voila, you’ve got yourself a CRM—an open-source CRM, no less! It’s so flexible that in theory, you could adapt it for *anything*. You know, just like Salesforce does, except without all that pesky enterprise-level functionality and support.

And when you’re done playing around with objects and fields, you can export your data via GraphQL and REST APIs. Because why wouldn’t you want to rebuild a major enterprise tool by starting with an API integration first? Surely, that’s the winning formula. One day, they dream of a robust ecosystem of plugins and extensions. Maybe. It’s not clear when, or if, that’ll happen, but hey, it’s an idea.

In case you were wondering, the company’s founders didn’t rush into this with naïve optimism—oh no. They’ve got *big dreams* and a reasonable $5 million in seed funding to back it up. That money has come from a wide array of investors, including people you’ve heard of, like Dharmesh Shah (the HubSpot guy) and Pierre Burgy (from Strapi). But sure, let’s focus on *really* building something that competes with Salesforce. Because, if there’s one thing you need when competing with an entrenched giant, it’s a few million bucks and some optimistic founders.

But here’s the thing: building a CRM is *hard*. Especially when you’re not taking shortcuts. And Twenty is—by all accounts—trying not to take shortcuts. That’s probably why it’s still lacking things like automation, workflows, and some other *minor* features that Salesforce has had for years.

"People don’t get why Salesforce is so powerful," Malfait muses, as though it’s some great mystery. Salesforce, he says, is built around a *flexible platform* with backend logic, frontend customizations, and extensible features. "And that’s what we want to enable long-term." Which is adorable. But can we really get behind a project that’s still struggling with basic workflows and automation?

Twenty might be the open-source CRM of the future, or it might just end up like every other well-meaning project that never quite cracked it. Time will tell. But right now, the *only* thing more ambitious than Twenty’s vision is the hype surrounding it. Maybe one day, we’ll all be laughing about how Salesforce got dethroned by an open-source CRM. But for now, let’s all keep our expectations in check.

**TL;DR**: Twenty is trying really hard to be the open-source CRM that challenges Salesforce. They’ve got a flexible platform, some customization features, and the backing of investors. But, spoiler alert, it’s not even close yet. Stay tuned... maybe?
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Sindujaa D N

18/11/2024 10:06 PM