For someone who already uses it

Send it to one person who needs it.

If Sortia settled an argument about a number for you this month, the useful thing you can do is hand it to the next person having that argument.

Below is a message written to be sent, not admired. Cut it to the two sentences that are true for the person you have in mind. Every claim left in it is one you can stand behind.

No referral code. No bounty. Nothing to sign up for.

Read the message Or send them one model

The email.

Long enough to explain itself, short enough that nobody skims past the point. The figures in it come from a template that ships in the product, so anyone can check them.

Click the text to select it, or use the button.

Subject: A spreadsheet tool I think you would use

I have been using something called Sortia and it is a spreadsheet add-on I actually want to pass on.

It works inside Google Sheets. You give it a model you already have, and instead of one answer it gives you the whole range of answers and the odds on each one. One of its own examples is a project plan that adds up to 96 days. Run it and that plan is beaten in fewer than one attempt in ten, half the runs finish by 104 days, and 109 is the date you can commit to and be right eight times out of ten. Same numbers, a completely different conversation with whoever asked for the date.

It writes that up in plain sentences on a new tab, so you can hand the file to someone who has never heard of any of this and they can still read the answer.

Two things made me trust it. It only reaches the spreadsheet you open it in, and your spreadsheet data never leaves your sheet. And the free side is not a countdown: the statistics, forecasting, optimization and what-if tools are free at any size of model, and you get five full runs of the paid engines on your own numbers before you decide anything.

There are 379 ready-made models in it, already filled in with real figures. Open the one closest to whatever you are arguing about this week and change the numbers to yours.

sortia.io

The 96, 104 and 109 are the shipped commit-date template's own figures, on its own numbers, at its own seed. If you would rather send something you ran yourself, run it and quote yours.

Shorter, for a chat window.

Two lines and an address.

Sortia, sortia.io. Google Sheets add-on that turns a single-number estimate into a range with the odds on it, and writes the answer out in plain sentences. The free tools cover the whole toolbox and nothing is metered. Worth ten minutes.

Send the bare address.

The link in both messages is sortia.io and nothing else. We do not put a tracking code on the address you send, and we would rather you did not either: a code in a message between two people is a small dishonest thing, and it makes the link uglier for no gain we need.

There is no referral programme, no credit, no bounty and no leaderboard, so nobody reading your message has to wonder what you are getting out of it. One person who has the problem is worth more to us than a hundred who do not, so please do not post it to a list or a group that did not ask for it.

Better still: send the model, not the product.

If you already know the question they are stuck on, skip the pitch. Every one of the 379 models has a page of its own, and the page shows the worked answer before it asks them for anything.

Schedule risk

They have been asked for a date.

The plan says 96 days. The same task network, simulated, says 109 is the date you can hold eight times out of ten.

Money

Renting or buying.

The argument nobody wins with one number.

Decision

A job offer on the table.

Accept it, or counter and see what happens.

All 379 models are searchable in plain words: rent, hiring, apartment, cash, order. 194 of the 379 run start to finish on the free tools.

What to say when they ask what it costs.

Free is the whole toolbox: every statistics, forecasting, machine-learning, optimization and what-if tool in Google Sheets, with no counter and no plan-tier size cap, plus five full-quality runs of the paid engines on their own numbers. Pro is $199 a year for one person, there is a $9 pass for seven days, and there is a price for students and teachers. Nothing expires while they make up their mind.

See the prices Send us a question