Hi, I'm Emma. I'm the coworker you never had.

I started a new job out of college as an actuarial analyst right as COVID hit. My start date got pushed back two weeks — first because everyone assumed we'd still go into the office, then because the plan changed entirely and the role went fully remote. So there I was: new to the industry, new to the company, new to working from home, and new to actual adult life after college. I didn't know a single person at the company besides my boss.

Almost immediately, I started getting handed complex Excel tasks. And here's the thing — I didn't know Excel. Not really. Not the way the job needed me to. Normally you lean on the people around you — you ask the person at the next desk, you catch someone in the break room. But there was no next desk. There was no break room. So I sat in my room, alone, staring at spreadsheets I didn't understand, with genuinely nowhere to turn. I dreaded work. Some days I'd spend hours just trying to figure out one function.

"I remember feeling so alone in my room, trying to figure out how to work Excel — and I dreaded work because of it."

At some point, something in me just shifted. I started teaching myself everything I could about Excel — YouTube videos, blog posts, piecing it together late at night and between tasks. It took about a year. But by the end of it, working on complex actuarial models every day, I had genuinely mastered Excel. My whole outlook on work changed. Learning Excel didn't just make my job easier — it changed how I felt about myself at work.

Fast forward to May 2021. I was still working remotely, and I started asking myself a real question: what could I actually do to help people? The answer was obvious the moment I thought of it. I could teach people Excel — on social media! Because I knew, without a doubt, I wasn't the only one. There had to be thousands of people starting remote jobs with no one to ask when they got stuck, just like I had been. That's how Excel Dictionary was born.

"I wanted to be the coworker I never had — the person you could turn to when you were stuck, embarrassed to ask, or just didn't know where else to go."

I started posting short-form TikToks and Reels in May 2021. Within the first week, one video went viral — a million views on a single video. Three months later, I hit a million followers on TikTok. Nine months in, a million on Instagram. Today, Excel Dictionary has grown to over 9 million people across the globe — TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, X, and Facebook — with long-form tutorials, full courses, a weekly newsletter, and free guides.

When I was teaching myself Excel, I remember exactly how frustrating the process was — watching a 20-minute video or reading a long blog post just to extract the one thing I actually needed. I never wanted anyone else to go through that. So I built Excel Dictionary around getting people the answer as fast as humanly possible: 30-second tips, no fluff, no filler — just what you need, fast. That's the same principle behind every course, guide, and video we make today.