Retool Raises $50M from Sequoia

Briefly — Retool is a visual programming language, built specifically for building internal front-ends. The idea is that we can let you use a visual programming interface to get you 70% of the way there very quickly, and then let you customize the rest with code. This lets you build apps much faster, but also retains the customizability and flexibility of code.

We support writing JS anywhere between {{ }} [1], importing custom React components [2] , hosting on-prem [3] (can be setup in 5 minutes: https://docs.retool.com/docs/running-retool-locally), etc. And then once your applications are built in Retool, we manage the authentication (via SSO if you want), authorization (syncing with your groups in Okta via SCIM), and audit logs (can be stored in your own database, so you can build apps on top of it.)

One interesting differentiator is that we don't store any data, and are happy to connect to any back-ends you already use (including both databases and rest / graphql / grpc endpoints).

Here’s a 4 minute demo video: https://d3399nw8s4ngfo.cloudfront.net/videos/intro-to-retool...

HN is what got us this far, so if anybody has any comments / suggestions, please feel free to let me know! We aim to be surprisingly responsive to HN feedback, since we’ve found it highly predictive of what developers in general want. Feel free to email me at david AT retool.com

edit: fixed video. Thanks!

1. https://docs.retool.com/docs/javascript-overview 2. https://docs.retool.com/docs/custom-react-components 3. https://docs.retool.com/docs/setup-instructions

I worked with Retool when they were in the YC W17 batch. They were previously working on a p2p finance app for the UK, and I remember sitting in the conference room when they told me they were pivoting to Retool.

The Retool idea made immediate sense to me because at my prior startup we used django-admin to crank out internal pages and it was amazing. So it seemed clear to me that having something along those lines that was available in every programming environment would be useful, but it was harder for me to wrap my head around competing with free. This sort of reminds me of Algolia competing with Apache Solr - as it turns out can be a great business if you build a great product and really understand your customers. Also I did not appreciate the power of having a drag-and-drop interface, all of the integrations etc.

David and the whole Retool team have done a truly brilliant job executing since then, excellent work.