Smartsheet launched in 2006 in Bellevue, Washington, and it took a simple bet: people already know how to use spreadsheets, so why not build project management on top of that? The idea worked. Today, Smartsheet serves more than 80% of Fortune 500 companies and has over 10 million users.
The platform looks like a spreadsheet at first glance, but it packs in Gantt charts, card views, calendars, automations, and dashboards. Teams use it for everything from construction tracking to marketing campaign planning. Smartsheet’s automations let users set up approval chains, send alerts, and move rows between sheets without writing a single line of code.
One of its strongest areas is portfolio-level visibility. Managers can roll up data from dozens of sheets into control centers and executive dashboards. The platform also supports resource management, digital asset management through Brandfolder (which Smartsheet acquired in 2020), and content collaboration.
Smartsheet went public on the NYSE in 2018 and was later taken private by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners in a $8.4 billion deal in 2024. The company’s ability to bridge the gap between spreadsheet-comfortable users and enterprise project management needs has been its biggest advantage.
