For the past year, we have been working on reimagining how we present Retool to the world. Today we are sharing a new chapter of a work forever in progress. Our ode to good software. Our dedication to you.
Software should be good. Too often, it isn’t.
What if we stopped treating it like just a tool and started understanding software as vision, strategy, execution, technology, and design—conceived, compiled, and delivered for and by people? What if we acknowledged it as a choose-your-own-adventure story that yields deterministic outputs in pliable, fallible, tangible human environments?
Maybe we can—maybe we should.
That brings us to today.
Retool aims to provide developers the building blocks to more quickly, easily, and intuitively build good software. We believe that a future with more software, and, importantly, better software, leads to progress on myriad scales and stands to benefit everyone.
Good software, though, is not yet a default. It comes downstream of builders having time and space to pursue aspirations and explore nuanced ideas. It emerges when developers are freed from the busywork of boilerplate code and the same old, same old, same old.
It becomes possible when we obsess over the user experience, embrace design, tell new stories, care about the details.
In a world of excess, competition, and a whole lot of the same old, same old, same old, truly good software is a powerful differentiator. One might argue it is as powerful as a good brand.
Just like when we think of “software,” as only its compositional elements—e.g., libraries, files, logs, frameworks, data—or as its interface, we might be inclined to misperceive brand.
Maybe we confuse “brand(s)” with companies. Misconstrue them as happy accidents of catchy copywriting and cool vibes. Reduce them to the visual system that represents a given business or entity, or a subset of those visual elements—things like color, typography, illustrations, and photography.
Visual elements project an opinion to the rest of the world and might elicit others’ opinions about you. But a brand is not just a company or the visuals that it wears, just like software is not just the code you write. A brand is the extension of your ethos and your product. It is a self-serving thing or maybe a generous thing. (Our preference is the latter.) Like software, it is part of a vision and a carrier of mission, however successful or unsuccessful.
Brand at its most meaningful is an ever-evolving dedication to what you stand for, the pursuit of a relatable narrative that resonates with—and means something to—people. Software, at its most meaningful, is an ever-evolving dedication to the people that use it.
What is your dedication?
Retool was founded in 2017. A lot of things have changed since then—generative AI is everywhere (including toothbrushes), the kids fell in love with cottagecore, you’ve surely forgotten about Flappy Bird, we all have perpetual Zoom fatigue, you can hail a driverless rideshare to work.
But as much as things change (or evolve), some things stay the same. Retool is still for builders. And Retool, as it were, still starts with an R.
An R made of building blocks, pieces of a story not yet all told, pieces of whatever you will build. An evolution of what was that leaves room for further reimagining. Like, if you will, well-built software.
When you’re building software, the input needed for a certain output is often pragmatic. The ambition of those inputs and outputs can be limited by time, resourcing, and room for creativity. The impact of that software—limited or limitless—can be evaluated through standard equations: code in, software out, efficiency gained.
That can be a helpful way to measure the immeasurable. But—
What if: an AI-powered application is so useful it feels like science fiction + can be developed in minutes = is real life?
1const AI_Powered = (feelsLike) => {
2
3 if (feelsLike === 'science fiction' && developedIn('minutes')) {
4
5 return 'real life';
6
7 } else {
8
9 return 'still a dream';
10
11 }
12};
13
14console.log(AI_Powered('science fiction'));
15// Output: "real life"What if: Workflows + automation = a deeply responsive, intuitive ecosystem that transforms the way you think about operations?
1const workflows = 'Workflows';
2const automation = 'Automation';
3
4const responsiveEcosystem = (workflows, automation) => {
5
6 if (workflows === 'Workflows' && automation === 'Automation') {
7
8 return 'a game changer';
9
10 } else {
11
12 return 'just a little help';
13 }
14};
15
16console.log(responsiveEcosystem(workflows, automation));
17// Output: "a game changer"What if: (software = everywhere)(software development = human) = true?
1const software = 'omnipresent';
2const softwareDevelopment = 'tangible';
3
4
5const isTrue = (software === 'omnipresent' && softwareDevelopment === 'tangible');
6
7
8console.log(isTrue ? 'true' : 'false');
9// Output: "true"
The choices made in an illustration, the effect of a visual language, can change our perceptions.
When you think about software, do these change yours?
We are standing on a bridge between product and imagination. We are discussing explorations versus realities // expectations versus dualities.
Meet us there? We tend to think that things are more (magical)(possible)(tangible) than they seem.
Experience the output of all of this yourself at retool.com.
—Justin Pervorse (Head of Brand Design) and Sid Orlando (Head of Content & Comms) o/b/o Retool
Thank you: Cam Sackett, Chris Sandlin, David Robbins, Etienne Ma, Gabie Matte, Giles Lavelle, Hannah Meng, JD Reeves, John Choura, Jordon Chueng, Josh Eck, Julie Schneider, Keanan Koppenhaver, Kiersten Davis, Kim Fellman, Nate Medina, Ryan Lucas, Sidharth Suri, Thom Allen, Willa Gross. To Banh Joy, Jaedoo Lee, Lili des Bellons, Shane Fu. To OK Motion and RightHand Films. And to many, many others for their imagination, ambition, exploration, and input.
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