A pretty good company in an awkward transition phase - Software Engineer Retool Employee Review

4.0
Nov 17, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Retool is a great place if you want to have a lot of ownership/autonomy and work on big, cool stuff. The product is rad and there's so much to do; pretty much anything you work on will be impactful. The office is great and well-managed; I love working there. I have a lot of confidence in the future of the company/product. Everyone at Retool is very high caliber, and people who are dragging down the team/company (including managers) are performance managed quickly but fairly. This includes people who are negatively affecting culture and team morale. Some people find this stressful, but it can also be great because people who are making your life miserable at work WILL get dealt with (fairly, including having a chance to adjust their behavior unless it's very egregious) much more quickly than at other companies. If you're intrinsically motivated, independent, and good at what you do [relative to your level of experience], Retool is a great place for you. If you're not, you should probably not even apply.

Cons

I do not agree with a lot of the recent 1/2 star reviews. Retool is a company with high expectations and so isn't for everyone; my guess is some people who were unfortunately bad fits for their roles or were part of the unfortunate layoffs are bitter about how it turned out. Retool is in the middle of a couple of awkward transitions: becoming a bigger/more mature company, the end of the ZIRP era, shuffling leadership, and refocusing its strategy. The company has made some big stumbles in these transitions. There's a lot of tech debt, the culture is not great (though the company is making some pretty valiant and consistent efforts to improve it over time), and the strategy is still in flux. That said, the company seems to be taking these things seriously and I have faith we'll figure it out in the long run. Retool is also a very very young and hacky company. People are high caliber relative to their level of experience, but there's a lack of overall experience in many parts of the org. That is also an opportunity for applicants, though: if you are highly experienced, you can probably come in and have a huge impact and mentor a lot of younger professionals to level up.

Explore other reviews about Retool

5.0
Jun 23, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Fast pace, with plenty of opportunity to work with modern tooling, supportive culture, and solid engineers

Cons

Retool’s in the middle of a transformation into the world of AI-driven app building and it’s caused its fair share of attrition. But, at least there’s strong buy-in across the company at this point

5.0
Jun 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It’s hard to find a company that seems to genuinely care about their employees. Leadership and frontline listens if you explain context and present solutions to challenges. Sales org is strong. Solid partner strategy. Product teams leaned in and listening. Flexible and supportive work life balance. And a really interesting and exciting direction in term of product market fit. Good benefits.

Cons

Calendars get busy fast during the day. Lots of competing priorities because we’re trying to compete with an ever changing market.

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